For Stratton’s Mallett, State Bilingual Teaching Honor 'Very Rewarding'

When you see Stratton Academy of the Arts’ Danielle Mallett next, make sure to say “bonjour” and congratulations to the 2026 Illinois State Board of Education Bilingual Teacher of the Year. 

Her assistant principal, Jamal Maatuka, nominated her, and even almost a week later, she’s still shocked. She said the nine years and long nights working for her students paid off.  

“I'm always working hard just for the sole fact that I want to see my students be successful and have great experiences while at school,” she said. “So I think this award makes me happy, and I think it's very rewarding that other people acknowledge the hard work and effort.”

The Chicago native started her path to French fluency as early as preschool and continued it through the elementary grades at an international baccalaureate school. She doesn’t see herself stopping with just English and French, though. She wants to learn Spanish, Vietnamese, Lingala and Arabic, too. 

Mallett grew up and read to her stuffed animals and also worked at a home daycare, furthering her desire to be a teacher. 

She graduated from the University of Illinois in 2017 as a member of the first dual-language cohort. She student-taught at Stratton and in her first year found a special connection with the students and community there.

She recalled the International Women’s Day festivities, started by Kiri Sowers, a friend who died last year. In addition to mentoring more than 50 teachers of multilingual students across 12 campuses, Sowers started a tradition for the holiday where students would celebrate their cultures in a parade throughout the school.

Students and families came dressed in African fabrics to celebrate. It is that event that is so special to her.

“One of my students’ parents made me a custom dress. She took my measurements, and I still have that dress, and I wear it almost every year to the parade,” she said. “I feel like that is one of my highlights for our school and our community participation. 

Even though she didn’t work there yet, Mallett said it was touching to offer the young teacher a handmade dress. 

Stratton adopted the 50/50 model, allowing for a split language curriculum. For example, math and literary classes are in English, while social studies and science are in French.

Unit 4 adopted the more inclusive approach after assessing the ever-growing French population in Champaign.

She believed the joint-language structure was important for the Unit 4 community. 

“It’s very important to the families, because they get to have an element of their culture in the schools,” she said. “A lot of parents are just so appreciative that (the school) exists, because when I was younger, we didn’t have an immersion school or bilingual school … only the courses.” 

That connection helped her grow relationships with her students, like family who made her a dress. 

“It’s helpful for those families and also to the teaching community, because we get to reach them on a different level,” Mallett said. 

She was slowly adopted into her students’ families during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second-grade teacher would often do home visits, and it is where she had her first time eating Congolese food. 

She had pondu and fufu, pounded cassava leaves with seasonings and fish with a soft and stretchy dough, all of which he thought tasted good. 

Every day, she goes to school ready to be the change she wishes to see, which is why she cherishes education so much. 

“The reason I love education is that I feel like our profession is very transformative and that this is the future,” she said. “What you do and teach the students in your class can stay with them forever, and you don’t know how big of an impact you make.”

This article is an excerpt that was originally published by the News-Gazette.