Ridgeway RAP December 17, 2021
Phone (573)214-3550 ~ Fax (573)214-3551
Unit C Teacher - Maria Cox
My name is Maria Cox. I have been teaching in Columbia Public Schools for 30 years. This is my tenth year at Ridgeway in Unit C, and all three of my children are Ridgeway graduates! I am originally from Maryland and came to Columbia to attend Stephens College. I then earned two graduate degrees at Columbia College. My husband, Norm, works at Shelter Insurance. Our son lives in Columbia with his wife and two dogs; our oldest daughter is a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Army, and our youngest daughter is a sophomore at Hickman High School. When I’m not at school you can find me working at my church, going to high school sporting events, or just staying at home with my family and pets!
Unit C Teacher - Zach Gramke
Unit C Teacher - Laura Sandstedt
This is my twenty first-year teaching at Ridgeway and my very first year in Unit C. I am originally from Florissant, Missouri but we have lived in Columbia for 30 years so I consider myself a local now. I have been married to my husband Chip for 31 years this Sunday, and together we have three children (Amanda, Catherine, and Adam). Adam is graduating today from Colorado School of Mines with 2 bachelor’s degrees: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Catherine is in her final year of her doctoral program studying opera in New York. Amanda is a pharmacy operations manager for Walgreens in St. Louis. When we aren’t busy traveling to visit children, we love to spend time with friends and family or hanging around enjoying the outdoors.
Fun fact about me: I was the media specialist at Ridgeway and Two Mile Prairie my very first year of teaching.
Unit News
Unit C
Specialist News
A message from Ms. Roettgen, Speech Language Pathologist
It’s almost winter break and the holidays are right around the corner! Over winter break, there are many natural and unstructured opportunities to work on language and communication skills. Chances are you might be doing some of these activities already!
-Baking cookies: Baking is a great way to practice language skills like following directions and sequencing the steps of a recipe. You could also work on prepositions, like “put the eggs in the bowl” or “put the sprinkles on top of the cookie”.
-Guessing games: Guessing games are a great way to work on language and communication while having fun. These games, like Hedbandz, incorporate many different skills, like turn-taking, categories, describing, and making inferences. Some games have holiday or winter versions, or you can make your own with winter vocabulary.
-Family traditions: Every family has their own special traditions during the holidays. If you find some downtime during the break, you can sit down with your family and talk about the special things you do during the holiday season that you don’t do at other times of the year. Once you have your list, you can turn it into a book to commemorate the holiday season.
Message from the Nurse
Ridgeway Second COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Thursday, January 6.
If your student received their second dose elsewhere, please notify the school nurse as soon as possible.
*** If you have outside records of COVID-19 vaccination you may share them with us via email (not required)***