Michelle Sailer, art teacher at S.G. Reinertsen Elementary, was named Minnesota’s 2014 Elementary Art Educator of the Year by the Art Educators of Minnesota. Sailer was honored at an AEM awards luncheon on Nov. 7, 2014, for her outstanding achievement and contributions to Reinertsen Elementary and Minnesota.

“It is an honor to be the Minnesota Elementary Art Educator of the Year and represent Moorhead Area Public Schools as an arts leader in the state,” Sailer said. “My hope is that arts programming continues to flourish as a vital component to education.”

Her nominators acknowledged Sailer’s energy, creativity and ability to make learning fun.

“Some of her accomplishments are large, such as a large mosaic Statue of Liberty created with students. Some are emotional, such as the lesson she designed to help students understand the cancer their classroom teacher was battling. And some involve the world around the students such as the flood,” wrote one nominator.

Sailer has been teaching in Moorhead Area Public Schools for the past 22 years. She taught fifth grade for 13 years at Robert Asp. Since 2004, Sailer has been the art teacher at S.G. Reinertsen Elementary. Sailer also maintains an Artsonia website, which is an online gallery for student work, for the more than 800 students at Reinertsen Elementary.

Sailer earned her degree in elementary education and visual arts education from Moorhead State University, now Minnesota State University Moorhead, and her master’s degree from University of Saint Thomas, St. Paul.

“Children inspire me to embrace my ‘inner child’ and allow me to find time to play, laugh and always have an unquenchable thirst to learn,” Sailer said. “Teaching is a rewarding and enjoyable career where every day is a fresh start and an opportunity.”

During her years in the district Sailer has been a member of numerous school and district committees, she serves on the Education Moorhead board, and she has taught Community Education classes, been a community college instructor and been a summer school teacher. 

In 2007, Sailer was named a Moorhead Teacher of the Year and was selected as one of the top 35 candidates for Minnesota Teacher of the Year.