Through the authoring of a vocab blog I have benefited greatly as both an educator and as a student. I truly believe that the blog made my learning interesting and encouraged me to take an in-depth word at words. Throughout the course of the semester, I would search for words to add to my blog. The blog fostered a deeper love and understanding of word learning. Through the use of the vocabulary blog I benefited as a word learner. I became enthusiastic and excited to learn new words. I was excited to post my findings on my blog. Posting on my blog provided me with a way to share my word knowledge with my peers.
I can honestly say that this blog was very beneficial. The public aspect of the blog, forced me to dig deeper because I wanted to make sure that the definitions and analysis of each word that I provided were truly accurate. I did not want to steer my classmates in the wrong direction. As an educator, I can see the benefits of incorporating vocabulary blogs into the classroom. Learning vocabulary would become interesting and engaging because of the technology aspects of the assignment. Also, the accountability that one feels when authoring a blog, requires students to take the assignment seriously. I personally loved the blog and would definitely incorporate a vocabulary blog in my future classroom.
When I look back over my blog entries, it looks like I am attracted to “uncommon” words; words that are not usually brought up in conversation. Many of the words that I posted on the blog were words that I was unfamiliar with. In order to find these words, I would turn to the course texts or online. I became a detective, searching for words that would solve the puzzle to my understanding of course texts or daily conversations. I thoroughly enjoyed dictionary.com’s word of the day page. This website provided me with many of the words that I posted on my blog. Other words that posted on the blog were from some of the course texts, professional words that would be important for me to know as a literacy specialist. I think that the majority of the words that I posted were mostly “uncommon” or “unusual” words were because I knew that I had to find words for my blog.
The blog also forced me to search for words that I would want to post. I turned to the internet and also course texts. I began reading-to-learn. I read to find words that I did not know so that I could look them up and post them on the blog. Posting on my blog then became my way of writing-to-learn. Writing allowed the words to “stick.” Through the blog and all the reading and writing I was doing, I became more knowledgeable about words. I became cognizant of my word learning and my vocabulary has expanded through the use of the blog.
Word learning also continued through the weekly viewing of my classmates’ blogs. Not only did I have to maintain my own blog, I also had to make it a habit to post and view others’ blogs. I enjoyed looking to see what words my classmates would post. The vocabulary tests helped to ensure that my classmates and I viewed one another blogs. At first, I was not thrilled with the idea of vocabulary tests. As an English teacher and literacy specialist, I have a deep love of words. However, my love of words did not transpire into a love of vocabulary tests. Even as an adult and educator, I did not see the benefits in testing students on words. I knew first hand that these students would just study the words for the purpose of the text, and then forget them in a few days when the test was done. The VSS tests allowed my classmates and I to choose words that were important and meaningful. Two times over the course of semester, my classmates and I would nominate words from our own blogs for a vocabulary test. Dr. Jones would post the nominated word list on Moodle, and then we had to look on each other’s blogs to find the definitions of the words that we would be tested on. I liked this set-up and I think my future students would also enjoy it.
What happens now? Will my “word searches” continue? Before keeping this blog, I looked up unfamiliar words, so I am sure that I will continue that habit even with the blog posted coming to a close. However, creating a blog has given me a better understanding and knowledge of the process of word learning. It has also provided me with an example of a way to make word learning interesting and fun for my future students. Before the blog, word study was looking up unfamiliar words that I found while reading and writing the definition in the margins of the text. However, once the books that I wrote in closed, I never looked back at the words that I “learned.” The blog forced me to continue using the words that I learned. I wasn’t merely providing a definition. I had to think about why the word was important. I loved this. As a result of the blog, I believe that word searches became more interesting. I also believe that I will be more aware of the word learning process. The blog encouraged me to become a better word learner through the use of technology. Who knows maybe I will post a word every now and then to this blog. Be on the lookout! 