It looks like I got into the course - received an e-mail this afternoon with the form to complete and send back to order the software! Drtygrl - the discussion forum on the LD1 course was quite active, although clearly some people were more comfortable using it than others. The prof. told me (not on the forum where others could see) that there were a number of students who were not very computer-literate and a bit intimidated by it all. The discussion did tend to be more mundane than I had hoped, given the title of the course. But, for the CAD course, mundane how-to-do-whatever... is what I would expect most of the discussion to be about. I was wondering about the plant ID course too but concluded that wasn't really what interests me now. I figure I know enough about the plants I use or want to, or can find any information I'm missing easily enough that it's not worth taking a course in it. I'd likely get bored - and that's not what I want to pay good money for! :-) The things that interest me these days is shaping the space and creating and editing the 'pictures' in the garden. The CAD course should give me a useful and fun toy to play with for awhile :-) My other winter project is writing a 'maintenance manual' for our garden. Now that DH is retired and doing more work in the garden, he could use something like that! Also, at some point in the future as we age, we may want/need to hire a landscape service of some sort, so it could be useful for them too. And at some (hopefully distant) point, we could leave it behind for a subsequent owner. I fully expect though, that a future owner would likely be a bit freaked by this garden and rip a lot of it out! They might keep some of the showier trees and shrubs perhaps. I'm now trying to finish the manual before the course starts in January. At this point the manual is 28 pages and about 11,000 words! There are many of pictures though so that accounts for a lot of the space. The discussion includes information on the 'why' of each area as well as the 'what' and 'how to maintain it'. Also, I'm trying to make it possible for someone to just read the section that they want to work on, so there's quite a bit of repetition since the same plants occur in several places. There's also a point-form seasonal chore list that can be read quickly. It's turned into a good review of the garden for me too - I now have a growing list of things to add and change for next year!

An emphasis on students finding information for themselves, and focusing on topics that they are interested in, is important throughout school, and I would argue, grows more important as students grow older and are able to make better choices. Here is an article that studied how children retrieve information from a library online catalogue. Without intending to, the author found that students being taught with a more student-centered curriculum (he doesn't use that term) were far better at finding information creatively - the way we all do in life, with no multiple-choice options. It is kind of a long article, but here is an excerpt: "Important contributors to children's information retrieval behavior are their motivation, purpose, and interest in their topics. During the course of this study, it became clear that some students were more involved in the information retrieval process than others. For some, it was an adventure and challenge that carried them to new understanding of the material they were studying. Their products went beyond copying facts from their readings to point out discrepancies and unanswered questions and, thus, to display their critical thinking skills. These children's experiences also led them to develop more advanced information skills, which they needed in order to pursue their interests in depth. For instance, the group of first graders studying planets soon began to share information about their planets and to propose theories that related the characteristics of the planets to their size and distance from the sun. Their written reports contained ideas and questions about such matters as what it would take to allow people to live on presently uninhabited planets. "For others, that spark of interest was missing. These children found the minimal information they needed to satisfy the assignment but contributed little of their own thinking and did not advance their information skills. Their products were simple lists of facts without interpretation or comparison. For instance, when fifth graders were asked to write reports about the states, their assignment sheet contained a list of pieces of information to be included in each report (e.g., population, area, major cities). Not surprisingly, their actual reports provided 'just the facts.'" Here is a link that might be useful: Children and an OPAC

As reading goes, so goes writing. I have seen it over and over-good, enthusiastic readers who pick up books that challenge them are often the ones who then can write well. My theory: they absorb, by osmosis if you will, varying sentence and paragraph structures, expanded word choices, correct grammar and punctuation (they develop an inner eye that tells them a mistake "just isn't right" without neccessarily being able to tell you WHY it's wrong-it just IS), rhythms, descriptions....as I teach writing, I'd much rather come across a student that is copying a writer's style than one who is still stuck in simple sentences with basic "article, adjective, noun, verb, adverb" structure over and over. The one who is copying a style will go on to try on other styles, other structures, as they read more-the simple sentece non-reader may add another descriptor when asked by the teacher, but then it will be the "big, fat dog ran fast and barked" instead of just "The big fat dog ran fast." They can't write what they haven't seen. As teachers, we can use examples, we can read aloud, we can even require them to read...but still, the students who read for themselves will always come out on top. They have an internal knowledge of why it is important that I believe has to be set there very young, or, as others have said, there's a huge amount of ground to try to make up. As a parent, I have one who reads as she breathes-she was a National Merit Finalist and is now Phi Beta Kappa, a double honors major at a well-respected uni. As a first-semester freshman she was approached by English professors asking if she would tutor other students in writing. Her favorite thing to do as a very young child was be read to, look at picture books and listen to books on tape as she followed along. My son had hearing issues and speech issues as a child. For a long while I could not read to him-he didn't hear what I said-it was garbled as it passed through his ears. No speech at all until well after the age of 2. His passive vocabulary was small-when Mommy said "cookie" and you heard "kmnkggg" it's hard to put it together. We could cuddle and look at the pictures, and we did, for brief intervals-again, I could say "look at the dog" but that's not what he heard-but his fascination was sorting and manipulating objects-no speech required because it wasn't there. The problems were sorted out, by age 6 he was almost caught up in language, but went to speech therapy all through his elementary years, and even was part of a high school pilot program for bright kids with reading issues. He tests high average on standard intelligence tests, so should be able to read literature on his grade level. He has been a reluctant reader all his life, and now, in 11th grade, struggles through his English lit classes. Math, Chem, History, Accounting- he's fine, because content reading is simpler and more to the point-but reading early American lit, sorting through the wordiness and the...

I'll share my experiences in those same places, it may shed light for you. In reverse order: Parisians talk fast. Faster typically than encountered in most (but not all) other regions. It's as if a result of too much caffeine. But as with our own counterpart, NY, not everyone in Paris is a Parisian. Ask a fast talker politely to speak more slowly and most of the time they will. Just like in NY, some people are harried and harassed by the huge city experiences and not always as friendly as others. But far more nice people than not, ESPECIALLY when you speak to them in French, it's a recognized and appreciated compliment you've made an effort to converse in THEIR language. French speaking Swiss tend to speak more slowly, so too do French speaking Belgians. An interesting thing to see - look on Youtube for speeches or interviews with French politicians. Not so much Macron, but find a speech by De Gaulle or older politicians. They speak VERY slowly. Same is true to an extent with local newscasts. I've been to Quebec a number of times and have enjoyed it, both in the cities and in the country. They have words and expressions that differ from standard modern French. There is a local accent that to my ear makes people sound like Gomer Pyle imitators, very back-woodsy and unworldly. Sometimes hard to follow. Many Quebecois speak standard French too, especially the better educated ones and in Montreal. They like Americans, better than they like anglophile Canadians, and most should always be friendly when you let them know you're not Canadian. Tahiti - beautiful place. Sunshine attitudes and vibe, things are slowed down. People speak more slowly there than elsewhere. Bonne chance!