Sally Ipson – Reading Elementary School

Mrs. Ipson has been an incredible positive influence in our daughter’s life this year.

At the beginning of the school year our daughter was diagnosed with a Personality Disorder. The medicine she was prescribed made her agitated and caused migraine headaches and vomiting in the classroom on multiple occasions. Mrs. Ipson never complained, and showed nothing but compassion and concern for our daughter. Our daughter began having emotional melt-downs in school and her ability to perform academically began to suffer greatly. We never anticipated such a burden would be placed on a 6 year-old-girl and her first grade teacher.
Our daughter had to have a personal verbal confirmation from Mrs. Ipson every time the class was given a task to complete. If she would get a little behind in class she would freeze and then break into an uncontrollable melt-down. These melt-downs were impossible to foresee, and they happened completely at random. Our daughter would have to be removed from the classroom until she calmed down. Through much trial and error, patience and love, on her own time, Mrs. Ipson found that with one word and a calming voice she could stop a melt-down before it started.

Mrs. Ipson took the proper steps to get our daughter the extra help she needed. She would arrange for her to get her homework done during school, and we never had the extra burden at home. Because of Mrs. Ipson’s personal involvement and concern for our daughter her writing, math and reading have improved exponentially and she is now an above average student, more than prepared to go on to 2nd grade.

Throughout the year Mrs. Ipson has gone above and beyond to involve the kids and their parents. She put on a Mother Goose Program where each of the kids memorized a Mother Goose Rhythm, dressed up as the character from their rhythm, and performed it for the parents. Mrs. Ipson was even dressed up as Mother Goose. She also put on a Dr. Seuss Reader’s Theater where each of the kids read lines from several Dr. Seuss books, and Mrs. Ipson dressed up as the Cat in the Hat. She put on a patriotic program to slides and music and then the kids sang patriotic songs such as God Bless America. She had a mom’s and muffins and a dad’s and donuts party where we each got to read with our kids. She had a slide show of the kids saying what their favorite things were about their parents. At the end of the school year she put on a puppet show for the parents. The kids had to learn lines from different story tales, such as The Three Bears. They each took turns being one of the characters, and were able to record their voices. They then preformed their puppet show to their recorded voices for other classes and their parents.

Mrs. Ipson is loved by all her students and parents alike. Her main focus is on reading which we can see is exactly what it needs to be in first grade. Our daughter can currently read beginning chapter books fluently. What Mrs. Ipson has done for our family is nothing short of a miracle.

Thanks for all you have done, we love you Mrs. Ipson.

–Ginny Shuck