I didn’t know “dillydally” was in the dictionary!!

When the school year began we were in the dark ages. Without computers to call their own, students were left wondering: where does knowledge come from? The lack of technology – while a setback for many teachers who utilize technology in the classroom in some way or another – pushed students out of their comfort zone and into those giant tomes called “Dictionaries” and that mysterious region referred to as “the library.”




One of the great experiences about flipping through a dictionary (the heavy, printed kind) is the accidental word discovery. One sophomore, while looking up a word from an Edgar Allen Poe story, stopped when she saw the word “dillydally” and exclaimed excitedly: “I didn’t know ‘dillydally’ was in the dictionary!” Another student was tickled when she found the word “sassy” in the dictionary. What are the odds that I would know of the fantastic word “idiotism” (yes, it means exactly what you think) without having stumbled upon it whilst looking up another word? I highly recommend the experience, at least every once in a while.

In Holocaust Literature, we visited the library for some good old-fashioned research in – get this – books! Pardon my facetious tone, but it seems this activity is rarely done these days. I must say – the students really got into it. A few students even checked their books out, without it being a requirement for the assignment.

Does this mean the technology is no longer a viable resource in education? Absolutely not! Just last week the freshmen were using visual word webs generated at visuwords.com to enrich their vocabularies, and this week the Holocaust Literature students are coming up with their own catalogue of Holocaust research websites in something called a “webliography.” The point is this: exploring new avenues of knowledge acquisition just might include a stroll down some old streets.