Reply To: Michael Rubin – How I Spiraled For the First Time

[Michael Rubin]

Hi Katrien!

I’m really curious to see what you create. During my mentoring moment, Kyle and Jon re-iterated how important it is for students to have explicit conceptual understanding of what they are doing. I think having an overarching context like “zombies taking over the world” and  “ADA requirements” could help students with that. 

<span style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>I don’t think there is a right process, but if I had to start again, I’d give myself the following advice:</span>

• After planning big ideas, plan progressions first. I had to spend a lot of time re-organizing because I went right to task finding.
• Set a timer for reviewing tasks: I got side-tracked by doing some for 20-30 minutes.
• Use task search engines to find tasks related to certain concepts instead of looking at all tasks in a database (which can be done later).
• Look for structures that are flexible.

I think it’s awesome that you are doing this with a colleague. I have a feeling it will make things much easier for you. I for one drove my (english teacher) wife bonkers as I tried to talk out math ideas and structures with her. Lol.

Thanks,

Mike

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