Mrs. Dansel is a middle school science teacher, and has been teaching for 23 years! She went to Andale High School, then started the path to becoming a teacher. Dansel is known for being tough and pushing her students to be their best selves. Mrs. Dansel’s favorite part about being a teacher is seeing the “Aha” moments and the light bulb going off in her students’ minds when they finally understand or figure something out. At the beginning of each class, she has her students fill out their agendas and do a daily exercise. This gets the students blood flowing and hopefully wakes them up a little bit. Of course, she does the exercises with them.

When asked what Mrs. Dansel’s favorite thing to do with her kids is, she said introducing them to the microscopes for the first time. She says it’s “pretty magical”, and she loves watching the excitement on the kids’ faces when they see what’s under the microscope. One unique thing that Dansel does in the classroom is rap. She creates a rap consisting of the things the kids are learning and has them recite it in class. Dansel suggests they learn and memorize the rap, so they can remember it during a test or homework to help them with questions they might be stuck on.

If Mrs. Dansel could do any other profession, she would be a restaurant critic. Dansel loves trying new food and even making it herself. If she had a bad day, she’ll go home and make some stir fry. If Mrs. Dansel ever has a day that’s totally free, she said she would go out to eat for every meal. After that, she would go watch a movie, and hang out with her husband. 

After Mrs. Dansel retires, she plans to travel. Dansel always talks about traveling the world with her husband. She doesn’t really have a least favorite thing about teaching, but if she had to pick, it would be entering grades, which is long and very time consuming. Mrs. Dansel also coaches t-ball. She says it’s like “herding cats”, but she loves it anyway. When I asked her what was one thing she would change about St. Marks, she said “Mo money!!”.