STAFFORD SPRINGS, Conn. -- A Connecticut teacher was the recipient of a national award presented by first lady Laura Bush on Friday.

Maureen Festi, a fifth-grade teacher at Stafford Springs Elementary School, said that she never dreamed that a class project would earn her a national honor.

Festi was presented with the 2007 Preserve America National History Teacher Of The Year Award by Laura Bush at the Museum of the City of New York.

Festi won the award for a class project in which she and her students uncovered evidence of a colonial ironworks in Stafford.

The Connecticut teacher is the first elementary school teacher to be honored with the award.

Festi has been teaching for 30 years and said she knew from growing up on a farm in Connecticut that she wanted to teach. She said her goal is to make history meaningful and interactive for her students.

"Students need to touch and be touched by history," she said.

"Ms. Festi taught in a really different way than most other teachers. She really got me more interested in history -- more than before," said one of Festi's former students, Morgan Bagley.

Festi was chosen out of 50 state winners nationwide for the honor.

"I am but one teacher out of many who is trying to make the American legacy come alive for students in their classrooms," she said.

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