At Hancock Creek Elementary School in North Fort Myers, maybe it’s her colorful glasses.
Maybe it’s her homemade jewelry.
But there’s just something about Danielle Hopkins that gives it away that she’s the art teacher.
“I have a fun job,” Hopkins said, smiling.
The proof is on the colorful walls, in the creative decorations and with the unique student assignments.
But Hopkins is adamant that art is more than just the "fun" class.
“The kids are learning skills that they can take outside the classes. Problem-solving skills. Working as a team,” she explained. “You're building the whole person. The whole child.”
And Hopkins knows that the arts are why some kids want to be at school.
Not only does she teach, she also helps run clubs, including band and musical theatre.
“She doesn't just focus on that art classroom. She's worried about all the students everywhere and she's looking for ways to support them,” Jessica Conley, the assistant principal, said of Hopkins. “If a student's struggling in the classroom, she wants to use art as a motivator to help.”
“She's creative, and she's intelligent and she's awesome," fourth grade student Lunden Seda said, describing Hopkins.
“She's really funny,” fellow student Jillian Rodriguez added. “I would tell her that I love her, and I would definitely look forward to being like her in the future.”
Making that kind of impact is what teaching is all about. After all, for as much as Hopkins loves art, the point isn’t what she’s teaching.
It’s who she's teaching.
“We're building relationships and we're making, you know, you into a better human. That's the goal," she said.
For Hopkins, Hancock Creek has become a second home. She was a student herself at the school years ago, and now her two kids attend as well.
All that makes the Golden Apple she is being honored with even sweeter.
“I feel like I'm really where I'm meant to be,” she said.