"Kindness is a strength, it is easy to walk away - it takes strength to face each day with your heart filled with kindness and hope for the day."

                                                                                   -Alison Dankel

Mrs. Alison Dankel, the 2024-2025 Shortlidge Teacher of the Year, knows a thing or two (or a thousand) about teaching students with autism. In just her second year as an autism support teacher here at Shortlidge Academy, Mrs. Dankel is in her 22nd year of her career as an educator. This experience has shown her that every child learns differently and that our job as educators is to identify and support our students, however they may learn. When you have partnership in education, big things happen!

Mrs. Dankel was inspired to become a teacher from her high school days spent volunteering at an elementary school. "Seeing the students get excited when they learned something new was the greatest thing ever!" she recounts about the experience. To this day, it is still her favorite part of being a teacher; that look on a child's face when something just clicks for them!

If Mrs. Dankel could take her students to any field trip, she would take them to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA because there is such a wide variety of learning environments for her diverse learners! When she isn't at work, you can catch Mrs. Dankel on the pickle ball court, playing board games, watching the NY Giants, or snuggled up on the couch with a good book and a cup of hot cocoa.