To win the Presidential Award is the greatest honor of my teaching career. This award is an affirmation of all my hard work and dedication to providing meaningful science education for my kindergarten students and encouraging future teachers and colleagues in their teaching of science. I am proud of the important role a kindergarten teacher plays in establishing a beginning science foundation and am motivated by the sense of wonder and energy my students bring to learning.

Paulette Saatzer West St. Paul, MN | K-6, Science, 2010

The official biography below was current at the time of the award.

Paulette Saatzer has been an educator for 32 years and has spent the last 14 years teaching kindergarten at Garlough Environmental Magnet in the West Saint Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan area school district. She has also taught at Saint Joseph's Catholic School and Mount Calvary Lutheran School in Minnesota and Holy Cross Lutheran School in Tennessee. Paulette's passion for teaching science goes beyond the classroom. Her leadership skills have helped create a nationally recognized magnet school where the role of science is central to the curriculum. She directs the Journey North whole-school Symbolic Migration activity and has created simple tools for her students to use when exploring outside. She recently began a program with her students' families called "Weekend Naturalist." Paulette has hosted many future teachers and student observers in her classroom. She readily hosts education classes from Saint Catherine's University and has taught the university's kindergarten methods course. Paulette has presented sessions on exploring science inside and outside the classroom with young children at the district, state, and national levels. Paulette has a B.A. in education from Concordia University, Saint Paul and an M.Ed. in early childhood education from the University of Minnesota.

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