The final post from teachers comes from Donald Feist Principal Teacher Mosspark Primary School. I asked him why he was keen to be involved in the jams this year and what the benefits were for children and staff taking part. Looking forward to seeing this cluster lead the way with their jam
This year, I am involved in the Game Jam to not only bring it to my own learning community, but also to try and put an emphasis on staff development and CPD. Currently, developing our learner’s digital skills is something that many colleagues are not confident in. I hope that by getting involved and participating in fully resourced initiatives, such as the GameJam, staff will feel more confident to use the skills that they are developing to deliver high quality learning experiences in coding to develop digital literacy in their pedagogy.
The children will not only get to work with children from other schools that they are likely to be going to high school with, but they will have a comprehensive and progressive introduction to computer programming – learning skills and concepts that will enable them to more independently design and create their own games and programs.
Staff will receive CPD and be part of a team of educators that are all working to the same goal and who can support each other. They will also have access to myself and Amanda who can offer advice and possibly even model teaching in some cases. As I mentioned earlier, the lessons will be fully resourced and will hopefully aide not only the children, but the staff also.
I have contacted the schools in my local cluster, and will be leading a CPD session for Glasgow south. I have also developed the resources for the event along with Amanda and will be leading the Bellahouston GameJam. Whilst I have been working on coding with P7 – and indeed all classes in my school – I have not yet done the lessons for the GameJam, as I feel that it is important that it is our P7 class teachers that do these as part of their CLPL and experience of the GameJam.
Mini Game Jam 