{"id":400272,"date":"2025-11-24T01:21:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T01:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/400272\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T01:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T01:21:14","slug":"jacksonville-teacher-with-decades-of-experience-named-preschool-educator-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/400272\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville teacher with decades of experience named Preschool Educator of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A Jacksonville educator with three decades of teaching experience has been named Preschool Educator of the Year by the Florida Association for the Education of Young Children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Kerstin Teutonico, known affectionately to her students as \u201cMrs. T,\u201d has spent more than 20 years teaching at the Jewish Community Alliance\u2019s Michele Block Gan Yeladim Preschool &amp; Kindergarten, where she focuses on developing children academically, emotionally and socially.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cI always had a connection with children. I always was easily one of their people they always trusted, who they came to with their stories and their questions,\u201d Teutonico said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The state recognition celebrated her 30-year commitment to early childhood education. For Teutonico, the award brings both honor and responsibility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cFrom that point on, I have been trying to look at everything I do every day in the classroom to live up to that responsibility that comes with an award like that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Teutonico emphasized that her work extends beyond individual student success to create wider community benefits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cIt is why I still teach after 30 years of teaching in early years of childhood,\u201d she said. \u201cIt feels like we make a difference in the whole community and the whole country if everybody gets a quality childhood education.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Her approach to early childhood education combined academic instruction with emotional and social development, creating a comprehensive learning environment for her young students.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">At the Michele Block Gan Yeladim Preschool &amp; Kindergarten, Teutonico continued to shape the next generation of learners, demonstrating that quality early childhood education can have lasting impacts on both individual students and the broader community.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A Jacksonville educator with three decades of teaching experience has been named Preschool Educator of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":400273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,718,407,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-400272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115602055808199328","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}