MAITC Teacher of the Year 2025

Amanda Ripa

MAITC is excited to announce the 2025 Teacher of the Year, Amanda Ripa from Messalonskee Middle School in Oakland.

Since 2015, Amanda has been committed to growing the school garden program at Messalonskee Middle School and integrating agriculture into her science classroom. When she started the school garden program, there was only a neglected community garden. Since then, Amanda has applied for and been awarded many grants and donations every year for her students to maintain the gardens. Starting with building a hoop house with 8 raised beds, they have since installed an irrigation system, put in a rice paddy with "School Garden Grown" award-winning upland rice, procured a Lowe's toolbox supply shed, and established a pollinator garden. Inside the classroom there are tower gardens, aquaculture, composting, and microgreens. Amanda says, "Gardens keep my classroom alive!"

During the 7th grade loop, Mrs. Ripa begins the year with a focus on earth systems, symbiosis, and biodiversity. Her classes spend time in the ‘legacy gardens' and harvest the crops, plant the tower gardens, start seeds for a fall harvest, and grow microgreens. One student stated that "being outside for classes helps me think better and lets me calm down a bit more." At the end of the interdisciplinary unit they have a Harvest Celebration where they make different foods to eat as a team like salsa, pesto, baked potato fries, muffins, and popcorn using many vegetables and herbs from their gardens!

During the 8th grade loop, Amanda plans a Gulf of Maine Research Institute "Bees, Blueberries and Climate Change" unit, continues with the tower garden, and plants the "legacy garden" for next year's students. Other 8th grade topics have included soil and chemical testing, victory gardens, nutrition and the human body/development, and food systems and climate change. She is able to teach more rigorous topics in 8th grade and incorporate agriculture year-round!

Amanda says what she enjoys most is integrating the school gardens into her science classroom while building relationships with students and sharing her love for homegrown food, sustainability, and self-reliance practices. She also notes the benefits of bringing students outside and gardening. Often it is students who struggle in the classroom who are focused and engaged in the gardens, directing their energy in a positive way. She is planning to send students home with seeds next summer and run a pumpkin or sunflower growing challenge.

Congratulations, Amanda!

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Past Winners