Final Reflection: Blogger This is Not Goodbye!

            As I was creating my vocabulary blog entries throughout the semester, I noticed that many of the word I selected were based upon what was going on in my own life. For example, several words that I choose to learn more about were related to the home purchasing process that I was going through. I wanted to gain a better grasp on the home buying experience and thought that I should know the words well and could incorporate them into my own learning experience using our blogs. Several other of the words that I selected came from watching TV or movies, when I could pause and rewind words that I was unsure of and make note of them for my journal. What I found very interesting was that very few of the words I included in my vocabulary journal came for a dialogue conversation with others. I am not sure if this is because I could not remember the words long enough after a conversation or if new words just seem to jump out at me more when I am just docile and listening to others speak. I also noticed that I selected words that I could use again rather than just selecting big, funny sounding words that did not relate to my own life.

            I benefited from keeping a vocabulary journal in several ways. First, I became more conscience of the words that people were using around me. For example, when I was sitting in a professional development on the first Thanksgiving, I heard the term fowl used for the first time. Others seemed to know the word, but I had to use context clues to help me decipher the meaning. Later that evening I went home to look up the meaning of the word to see what the lecturer was actually talking about. In some respects, I forced myself to better understand unknown words, were in the past I would often not care or seem interested in looking up the meaning of unknown or new words. Second, I was able to learn a lot more about important events that were happening in my life such as purchasing a house. Most of the words that I did select had significant meaning to my life and I benefited from learning more about these words.

Prior to taking this course, I had not had a formal vocabulary or spelling test assignment since my high school days.  In high school, I found vocabulary and spelling exams to be the easiest types of exams because I had a stellar memory and could memorize almost anything.  I would study the night before or even ten minutes before the exam and store the information into my short-term memory, take the exam and then let all of the newly gained knowledge drip out of my brain.   As a secondary educator who frequently gives vocabulary exams, it was very interesting taking a step back into the role of the student. The quizzes made me think deeply on how my own students learn how to study and prepare for exams.  I do not want my own students to just quickly memorize the terms and forget them the next day. Taking vocabulary tests added to my own word learning by allowing me to change the way that I studied. Instead of studying the hour before, I started studying several days before the exam, giving myself more time to become familiar with the term and meaning. I found that studying days in advanced help me to store the definitions in my long term memory and that I remember several of the words meanings from the beginning of the semester.

Now that our semester is coming to an end, I have been thinking more about how I will encounter and remember new vocabulary words. During the course, I downloaded the Dictionary.com application on my smart phone so that I could look up definitions to unknown words I heard at anytime. I probably would have never downloaded this application if it were not for our vocabulary journal assignment. I will still use my dictionary application to look up unknown words. I am not sure that I will keep making blog entries; however, I will probably make notes of vocabulary words in my daily planner to keep track of new words. It was fun finding corky, new, and interesting words throughout the semester. I will need to find a new audience to share my new words with. I am sure my boyfriend and mom will make a great new audience along with my students.

            What I really liked about the vocabulary journal is that it was easy to keep up to date.  I could log into any computer at anytime I heard a new word and log into the Blogger website and write a journal entry.  I think that many of my students would absolutely have a great interest in using a website such as Blogger to keep track of vocabulary words.  If I had more free time, I would have loved to have viewed my peer’s blogs to see the exciting words that they were learning each week. It was awesome being in control of your own learning and this blog motivated to look up words that I probably would have never taken the tine to do before this assignment.