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Excellent Educator: Cedar Ridge's Katie Tompkins

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Caring, patient and devoted are three words used to describe this week's Excellent Educator. Another word is creative.

Ms. Katie Tompkins has been teaching second graders at Cedar Ridge Elementary in Eden Prairie for two decades and thinks outside of the box during reading time.

Tompkins loves teaching second grade because she says the students love to learn.

"They are like sponges," she said.

Four times a year Ms. Tompkins will bring her second graders to a nearby nursing home where they're paired up with seniors and get to interact with them.

But she is best known for her dog reading program when therapy dogs come into the classroom and students practice reading to the dogs.

Watch the story above to see more about this week's Excellent Educator.

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