Direct Instruction: Exemplar videos in #KhanAcademy style string figure lessons

The String Games Association mailing list has become quite active lately, after some years of dormancy, and I've been finding delightful tidbits on it. Here's a short video with step-by-step and good visuals on making three quite complex figures. Used in Khan Academy style, with lots of pauses and repetitions, it should work very well for that kind of learning.

I've begun to incorporate my string game lessons as examples in my "Telling the Computer What to
Do" presentation, as a way to point out that implementing a student-centered real-world-relevant curriculum does not rule out direct instruction per se. It simply means that the direct instruction is created by the teacher in response to student engagement and requests, not prescribed beforehand.

Feckless no more!

Serendipitously discovered the etymology of feckless, on receiving the OED Online Word of the Day: fech -- from the German for an occupation or trade.


Etymology: <  German Fach compartment, subject, field, trade (see fec n.).


  A line of work or business; an area of activity or expertise; (a person's) métier.