Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Books

A Wednesday post so topics are books and information searching . . .I've been on a non-fiction reading splurge for the past month.  First there was The Case for Books: Past, Present and Future; then Oliver Sacks' newest, The Mind's Eye.  And now I'm 100 pages into Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things.  The last one is a book I've started a couple of times before but now I'm really into it and think I'll finish this weekend.  I would recommend all three.
           At the moment, at work, I see a need to read something (a book?) about learning styles.  I was thinking learning styles and multiple intelligences (Howard Gardner) were the same thing -- maybe learning styles as the application means of the more theoretical multiple intelligence ideas.  But when helping a student with research, I saw that I was leading her astray . . . actually learning styles predate the idea of multiple intelligences.  It was harder than it should have been to find information in my library's catalog and databases about learning styles since the actual subject term was "cognitive style" and none of my library's many print and online reference books seem to have a good quick definition of the term.  Finally turned to google and was disturbed (but not completely surprised) to realize that wikipedia had that good general description of the term that I was looking for. 
          And here in middle Georgia, finally it looks a bit like November.  Most of the trees, including the gorgeous gold ginkgoes, have turned colors and more and more of the leaves are falling.  Husband's replanted outdoor chrysanthemums are in full bloom and fine looking.  Winter is not my favorite season so I'm holding onto the enjoyment of fall as long as possible . . .
            

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Mountain Trips

                                                                          November 7, 2010
Life is too busy.  Is that an acceptable excuse?  I don't have a camera yet to take my own pictures of the things I want to talk about.  Whatever the reason, weeks have slipped by since my last entry.
         Husband and I spent several days in Cohutta Springs mid-October, making a day trip to Lake Conasauga in the Cohutta Wilderness Area and then another trip to Fort Mountain State Park.  We hiked up Grassy Mountain to its lookout tower and walked several nice short trails at Fort Mountain.  And what a treat to get to stay at the beautiful Cohutta Springs Conference Center, thanks to a friend.
         We camped 30+ years ago at Lake Conasauga.  I was a lot tougher back then.  It is the highest elevation Georgia campground.  Very beautiful and quiet there and quite a bone rattling drive in, about 45 minutes on a mountain dirt road. 
         Last weekend we were on Lookout Mountain at Cloudland Canyon State Park.  This weekend, gratefully, we were home when the first real cold air of the season blew in, complete with frost and freezing temperatures.  I'm still waiting for the gingko trees around home to turn to gold; so far they are all green. 
         I'll work on the pictures part of the blog but for now just want to get back to posting.