Georgia Charter Schools Association salutes Mr. Ben Atkins, a Kindergarten Teacher at Georgia School for Innovation and the Classics. He was nominated by GCSA GaTAPP Program Specialist Kelly Christopher. How is Mr. Ben Atkins making a difference in his public charter school?
Ben has one of the most welcoming, comfortable classes I have ever visited. He has spent a lot of his own money to make it so. Each day he starts class with a Morning Meditation, and students learn deep-breathing exercises. In January, he and the class begin creating a character. They spend the rest of the semester creating, writing, and illustrating stories about it. At the end of the year, each child gets a binder with all the stories and a t-shirt with a picture of the character. One of my last observations this year was in Ben’s class, and he made actual green eggs and ham to go along with the story and the classwork.
How has Mr. Ben Atkins been innovative, supportive or adapted to distance learning during the COVID-19 crisis?
Ben has worked very hard to streamline his distance assignments and not include “busy work.” They are skills-focused and consist of reading CVC words, writing sentences, and practicing math facts. He is available at all times, and parents message him through Dojo. Ben has scheduled individual Zoom sessions for each student for final sight-word assessment. He has even offered evening Zoom sessions for parents. (He had four during a recent night after 6 PM!)
