Becoming Smarter

"One forgets words as one forgets names. One’s vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die.” Evelyn Waugh

My final exams for education are this week.  For the test, my students have to tell me everything they learned in the Intro to Education class.  The have to include all the 10 INTASC standards (National standards for teachers) at least 7 names of people in education, and a minimum of 40 vocabulary words they learned this semester and they have to show how they all connect together. They have four options as to how they show me what they learned: an outline, an essay, a mind map, or orally. The students asked if they could use their notes…I said no. “The only notes you should bring are those that are in your brain." I heard a big sigh across the classroom.  "Don’t forget that learning those vocabulary words made you more intelligent than when you arrived to this class in January, so I expect great things from my super smart students!”  They smiled and then sighed some more….

Did you know that one of the few things you can do to raise your Intelligence quotient (IQ) is to learn more vocabulary?  And unless you are a voracious reader or watch Bill OReilly’s bodacious bloviating, prolix opining and pithy objurgating, then you are probably not learning many new vocabulary words.

We don’t need to be students to be trying to deposit more in our bank of words do we?  Let me ask, how many new vocabulary words have you learned in the last week, month, year?  What do you do when you hear a word that you don’t know, read a sentence that you don’t understand, listen to a news report and aren’t quite sure where that place is located?  Do you take action and look it up, locate it and then use it? 

I think most of us have gotten pretty lazy since our days of studying for finals.   Many of our brains are like overgrown gardens that haven’t been tended.  How about we do a little pruning and fertilizing, and make ourselves smarter this summer.

And speaking of this summer, I'd like to find a book that we could all read and learn from...get smarter...  Any ideas?

In the meantime let's start this week by paying more attention to new vocabulary words, new ideas and unfamiliar places. 

I’d love to hear what you learned..

Post your thoughts on the blog or email me at: Smallsteps4bigresults@yahoo.com