Wesmere ES teacher uses charts to create remote connection

Wesmere Elementary School full-day kindergarten teacher Joyce Ansel saw a student fidgeting and disappearing from the tiny Zoom box on her computer screen during the second week of remote learning in early September.

It is not unusual for a kindergartner like Ben Christman to get distracted in the classroom, Ansel said. External distractions can become more difficult to ignore when the classroom moves online at home during remote learning.

“Any little thing can get them off task,” Ansel said.

As a solution, Ansel offered to create some charts for Ben to use at home to keep him on task.

Ben’s mom, Melissa Christman said she appreciated Ansel’s offer.

The next week Ansel not only dropped off several laminated tally, goal, break and reward charts but spent some time getting to know Ben and his parents.

The charts help Ben focus on his classwork and give him ideas for movement breaks so he can burn off energy during breaks.

She tailored the charts to Ben’s interests including soccer, Ansel said.

“It’s nothing that I wouldn’t normally do, I don’t feel like it’s going above and beyond,” Ansel said. “What I do is what any teacher would do.”

Both Christman and Ansel noticed that Ben has been more focused, and Christman credits Ansel’s charts for that.

“She’s definitely good at her job and going above and beyond,” Christman said about Ansel.