Area teachers, including an alumna, honored for outstanding service

Teachers in the Ripon Area School District and the Fond du Lac School District have been honored as outstanding educators by Ripon College and the Wisconsin Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. They are Miranda Schmidt, a special education teacher at Barlow Park School in Ripon, and Adalyn McCauley Tangredi ’16, an eighth-grade English/language arts teacher at Sabish Middle School in Fond du Lac.

Because of the COVID-19 health emergency, celebrations to honor these individuals have been postponed.

Schmidt received the Pre-Service Educator Mentor Award, presented for a sustained pattern of mentoring pre-service educators for at least five years. Recipients are selected based on abilities like modeling professional responsibility and effective classroom management. Schmidt has served as a mentor for numerous clinical students from Ripon College. She was nominated by the Educational Studies Department at Ripon College.

During her 14 years with the Ripon Area School District, she has hosted several pre-service students in her classroom. She is an early elementary special educator who models best practices in inclusion to pre-service students as they complete their differentiated instruction foundations coursework. The pre-service students comment how welcoming and supportive her classroom is for her students and how she encourages pre-service students to get involved as well.

Tangredi received the Early Career Educator Award, presented to educators within the first three years of their careers. It is based on their positive effect on schools or communities, their innovation in designing learning experiences and their advocacy for students.

Stacey Buchholz, principal of Sabish Middle School, said Tangredi “is a leader in the area of technology. She also leads both the English team and the eighth-grade Professional Learning Community. Addie is the building lead when it comes to our CLR (Culturally and Linguistically Responsive) training and implementation. As for kids, Addie is welcoming to all! She helps students when it comes to problem-solving as a proactive approach to helping students develop their skills to, in turn, avoid behavior mishaps. She is also the advisor to the archery club. It is amazing what she has already accomplished within three years of teaching!”

This is the seventh year the awards have been sponsored. Ripon College is a member of this professional organization of Wisconsin institutions that prepare individuals for teacher licensure.
(Photo: Miranda Schmidt, left, and Adalyn McCauley Tangredi ’16)