This honor celebrates my creative efforts to make spaces and experiences that allow each student to bring their whole self to accessing science—for each to influence our classroom with their personality and strength. I'm humbled as I'm not alone in the work but have been influenced by amazing teachers, colleagues, and students along the way. Mostly, the Presidential Award feels like a big "thank you" for the long hours and devotion I give to doing my best for my city, my school, and my students.

Anne Zielske Saint Paul, MN | 7-12, Science, 2021

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

Anne Zielske has been an educator since 1991. She has worked at Harding Senior High School for 12 years, where she teaches 9th-12th grade Chemistry and Physical Science. Previously, she taught at Columbia Heights High School for 10 years, South Saint Paul High School for 10 years, and Oliver McCracken Middle School for four years. Anne’s passion is making abstract science concepts accessible to all, especially English learners and those for whom a western-style educational setting is unfamiliar or repressive. She sees her students’ varied backgrounds, experiences, and interests as assets and strongly believes in the use of manipulative materials and constructivist activities to build content language, skills, and self-efficacy. In distance learning, using an Ecolab grant, she led the assembly of 240 materials kits, personally delivering over 130 to students' homes. Walking by Anne's classroom, one will see learners collaborating to create and explain models; internalizing vocabulary through movement, call and response; or laughing as their teacher performs original chemistry songs. Named Harding's Teacher Of The Year in 2020, Anne is co-advisor of the Gender Sexuality Alliance and co-chair of the science department. She mentors new teachers and regularly facilitates in-house professional development around culturally responsive teaching and LGBTQIA+ equity. Anne has written extensive chemistry curricula for her district and developed a bioplastics engineering unit with support of the University of Minnesota and ATP-Bio, an NSF Engineering Research Center. Anne earned a B.A., cum laude, in biology from North Park University and an M.A. in education from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. She is certified to teach chemistry and life science.

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