Dan Cohen

School
Newton Middle School, Littleton, CO

Computer Science; Yearbook Adviser; No Place for Hate Facilitator, GT Facilitator

How will I introduce Scalable Game Design in my school?
Connections! Middle schoolers are self-centric balls of pent-up energy; if you can make it about them (and the tiny world that they know) and do it in a kinisthetic manner, you can create connections between two seemingly unlike concepts.

Project Journal
Day 1, Monday: I am loving the meld of computational thinking, 21st century learning skills, a variety of pedagogical tools, differentiated learning possibilities, and cross-curricular opportunities. My biggest challenge, be it when teaching Language Arts, math, journalism, or computer science, is getting students to increase their tolerance for ambiguity and working with open-ended problems. My students, no matter the subject, want the easiest and quickest answer. According to Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development, we learn when we are uncomfortable; my students are not accustomed to being uncomfortable. This will change :-)

Day 2, Tuesday: Having my son, who is entering 6th grade in August, sitting next to me during today's session gave me a great opportunity in being able to see how a student would react to certain issues in computational thinking and hiccups in the design of a game. He was able to quickly pick up much of what was discussed on Monday (as far as processes) and came up with great questions on his own. The question I have is in regard to assessment. Yes, I can grade the product in a quantitative manner (has x amount y and x amount of z), but what about assessing their progress towards gathering certain computational skills and 21st century learnings?

Day 3, Wednesday:

Day 4, Thursday:

Day 5, Friday:

Day 6, Saturday:

Day 7, Sunday:

Contact Information

 * [mailto:dcohen@lps.k12.co.us Email]