January 2017

On January 20th, the second grade had a fun presentation from "The Rainforest Van".  They came from Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. Second grade students learned about the different continents and also learned what life, weather, and culture is like on different continents. They had a fun time seeing real life animals from continents that have rainforests. 

Angie Paynter, a fifth-grade teacher at Maple Ridge Elementary,  has been chosen by the Nebo School District as the Daily Herald's Utah Valley Educator of the Week. 

Paynter loves learning and education. She received a bachelor's degree in travel and tourism from Brigham Young University, and her elementary education bachelor's degree from Utah Valley University. She earned an additional English-as-a-second-language endorsement from Southern Utah University. She is currently working on a gifted and talented endorsement through BYU.

Paynter is in her second year at Maple Ridge, and has served on the Maple Ridge School Community Council since joining the faculty. This is first year teaching an advanced math class for fifth graders at Maple Ridge. Previously she taught fifth grade at Westside Elementary for six years. There she had many opportunities to have university practicum students and student teachers work in her classroom.

Paynter said she is a proud mother of five children, and they keep her busy.

"Much of my free time is spent supporting their extracurricular activities (sports, plays, musicals) and educational pursuits. The rest of my time is spent finding ways to improve my efforts as a teacher, traveling, and serving in my church," she said.

Paynter has lived in Utah now for more than 25 years, but didn't grow up here. As a young girl, she lived in Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia and Washington. She also has traveled to Mexico, Swaziland, South Arica, Kenya, and most recently Istanbul, Turkey.

"Living and traveling to many different states and countries has developed a great sense of love and patriotism for our country and the freedoms that we enjoy," she said. "Needless to say, teaching United States history in fifth grade has been a priviledged opportunity!"

Those who work with Ms. Paynter love her because of her devotion to her job, and her kindness and respect toward EVERYONE!  She is always looking for solutions to problems, and how best to help students progress.  Here it the link to the Daily Herald story:

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/community/education/utah-valley-educator...

Ballet West recently came to Maple Ridge and performed for the students.  Many students were chosen to come up and learn how to do various ballet moves, and found it more difficult than it looks!