LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Danielle Cushenbery was nominated anonymously. 

Ms. Cushenbery has made it a lifelong mission to make learning enjoyable for others. She pours her creative thinking skills into making lessons engaging and memorable. She wants her students to learn beyond the textbooks (while also knowing when and how to use those textbooks as a tool). Even though she teaches third grade, she creates lesson plans with real-world applications. For example, if students are learning about money, then the lesson will cover allowances, ways to save and multiply money, and the consequences of spending. She ends this lesson with a tour of the local bank so students can see how money works! When her students are engaged, they become active learners ready to take on anything she throws their way!

Recently, she moved her child's Melissa and Doug grocery store into her third-grade classroom, along with recycled boxes of pantry items, old dress-up clothes, etc. Some may think third graders are too old for that, but it is so engaging! This way of learning gets her eight- and nine-year-old students off the screen and puts hands-on learning on the front burner. She wants to bring more of this dramatic play-learning into her classroom.