- We are here with an audience
of teachers and the First Lady of the United States
Dr. Jill Biden!
(audience applause)
- It's World Teacher's Day!
Among the big moments
of grade school for most of us
were show and tells, science fair projects
and of course spelling bees. Love them.
In honor of that, we thought today would be a good time
for the second almost annual Kelly's Spellys.
(upbeat music)
♪ Kelly's Spellys ♪
(laughing)
- As first, as First Teacher of the United States
Dr. Biden has graciously agreed
to host our bee as pronouncer.
So that means I need a competitor
and I have a good one.
I am very excited about this.
For 23 years he hosted Reading Rainbow
and this year he hosted the Scripps National
Spelling Bee. You can catch his podcast
LeVar Burton Reads wherever you get your podcast.
Please everybody.
I'm very excited.
Welcome LeVar Burton!
(groovy music)
(audience applauds)
- And y'all, y'all have met before obviously?
- Yes.
- Yes we have.
- Yes. Did this spelling bee Yes.
Okay. So LeVar, who was your favorite teacher as a kid?
- Third grade.
Hanau American Elementary School in Germany.
Hanau, Germany, Mrs. Twiz. She was the first person
outside of anyone in my family who realized
and acknowledged that I had a talent.
Whenever she wanted to go to the teacher's lounge
to make herself a cup of tea she
would give me a book, put me in front
of the class and I would read cause I was the best reader
in the third grade.
- Wow.
- I love that!
(applause)
- Also clever play.
She gets to go get some tea and you're holding
down the classroom.
That's a smart woman.
- I think she was having martinis.
(boisterous laughter)
- That's my kind of teacher.
LeVar and I need team mates.
So we have two competitors from this year's
Scripps National Spelling Bee Championship.
I'm very excited.
First up is Kirsten.
She's a seventh grader from Richmond, Texas.
(applause)
She won a Houston Public Media Spelling Bee to qualify.
Yeah!
She'll be on Team LeVar.
Oh, I'm getting a hug too.
You're too cute.
Hi. You are mustard cool.
Look how cute you look.
All right, we also have Justin.
He's an eighth grader from Diamond Bar California.
He won LA Spelling Bee Collaborative to qualify.
Come on up, come on up!
What's up Justin?
He's on Team Kelly.
Oh, I have this.
Oh yes.
He was like all business y'all.
He was like, put it on.
(laughter)
He's like, we're gonna win.
All right, well meet the First Lady that's not every day.
- Hello
- And LeVar Burton.
So Kirsten, is this true that you're a spelling
wait, you're a spelling champion in two languages?
- Yep! I was the National Spanish Spelling Bee Champion
in 2019 and this year I participated
in the Scripps National spelling Bee
where I achieved Fifth Place!
- Wow. Okay.
- Also I speak four languages, English
Spanish, Mandarin and Tagalog.
And I love to spell even though my future profession
is a neurosurgeon.
Also, guys I really, really, really love to sing.
♪ What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! ♪
- Wait, wait.
Hold on, hold on button.
Boom!
You made my team.
You gotta be on The Voice.
So Justin you've been competing
in spelling bees for a while right?
- Mhhm. I've been competing in spelling bees
since first grade where I got out
on the word physicists.
I didn't remember it had had four Ss or 15 Ss.
So I just added a couple extra to be safe.
- I love that you still remember it.
You're like, I bet you know how to spell it now.
- I'm never gonna forget it.
- I love that.
I love it.
Okay so the rules are, we'll go one at a time.
Kirsten and Justin will spell usual spelling bee words.
But LeVar and I will have to spell the names
of famous people because I will be humiliated
if we do real things.
The winning team will receive $5,000
in scholarship money for the student.
- [First Lady Of The United States Dr. Jill Biden] Yes.
- So Dr. Biden who's, who's got the first word
or celebrity name.
- Okay, so the first word goes to Justin.
Ready? Okay.
- You can do it.
- So the first word is Labradoodle.
- Ooh, that's a hard one.
Labradoodle, may I have the definition?
- Sure. It's a dog that is a cross
between a Labrador and a poodle.
- May I have the language of origin?
- The word is a blend
of Canadian geographical name and a German word.
- Can you repeat the word one more time?
- Sure. Labradoodle.
- Labradoodle.
L A B R
A D O O
D L E.
Labradoodle.
(Bell chime)
- Yay!
- (cheer noise) Yes that's right, Justin.
- Okay, so the next word goes
to Kirsten and the word is shenanigans.
- Shenanigans. Wooh, what's that mean?
- Shenanigans means high spirited
much like you, high spirited
spirited or mischievous acts.
- Oh yeah.
I don't think I've gotten that mischievous
but other than that I think I got a lot of shenanigans.
(laughter)
- I love you.
- Shenanigans.
S H E N
A N I
G A N S.
Shenanigans.
(bell chimes)
- Yes!
- What's what's even better Dr. Biden
is that I totally knew how to spell that too.
Totally, I was like, I have no idea.
Okay Dr. Biden, who gets, who gets the
next the next word or
- You do Kelly.
- Okay Sorry, I'm sorry in advance.
- You ready?
- Okay.
Here's your word.
- Okay.
- Streisand.
- Oh my God.
I love Barbara.
Can I spell her first name?
Can you use it in a sentence?
No, I'm just kidding.
S I'm thinking if there's two Ss I'm stalling.
Ooh. Okay.
S t, did that help you drawing?
I'm gonna try it.
Okay. Okay. S I watched both of you.
- Yeah.
S T R
I E S
Streisand.
I E I Streisand.
S T R I E S A N D
(Buzz)
I don't know.
How did I fail that?
- We won't tell Barbara.
- Yeah.
- It's E I?
I don't I know I even did the I
before E in weird situations.
- Okay.
- Dang it.
- So we were looking for S T R E I S A N D.
(bell chimes)
- Yeah, but that's not what you got.
(laughter)
I love you Barbara.
I can, I can sing your song. I can't spell your name. Okay.
- Okay
- Who's next? Okay
- LeVar are you ready for your word?
- I am Dr. Biden.
- Okay, so it's Johansson
- As in Scarlet?
- Yes.
- No pressure.
- J O H A N N S O N.
(buzz)``
- Yeah!
I mean sorry, sorry, sorry.
I was too excited.
- J O H A N S S O N.
- You know, happens to all of us.
Happens to the best of us.
- Wow.
- You just made me feel good about myself.
I was gonna be the only loser over here.
I was like, wait, okay, so o the score is, it's one to one.
- One to one
- Because we are the weakest link.
So it looks like we have a tie and there are no losers
on the Kelly Clarkson Show and
in Kelly Spellys anyway.
So Kirsten and Justin, you're both getting $5,000
in scholarships.
(cheers)
- Congratulations!
You did it buddy!
You did it!
And that's not all, that's not all.
I know y'all have heard
of Adobe Express.
It's a free design app that helps students
and teachers create anything from posters
to flashcards with ease.
Well, our friends at Adobe know
that you dig into your own pockets.
I know my mama did for school supplies and all of that.
So to help, they're giving every teacher
in our audience a $1,000 Visa Gift Card.
(cheers)
- And also get this, you're also getting a free one year
Adobe Express Premium Subscription to use
at home to start creating today
to give that for free as well.
(cheers)
- Thank you so much Adobe!
Thank you so much everybody for playing!
Great job!
And a big thank you to Dr. Jill Biden for hosting
and joining us.
She is a true champion of education
and teachers everywhere.
So give it up for her one time y'all.
We've got What I Like coming up next.
I love you Barbara.