Junior Abigail Parker is always striving to learn. She asks lots of questions but sometimes needs to be redirected back to the original topic.

“It’s hard to learn with autism,” Parker said.

But she is dedicated — and she has teacher Charles Gladfelter to help her.

“I get stressed out a lot,” Parker said. “… Mr. Gladfelter is good to me with my autism and helps me learn. I get stressed a lot when I don’t know something.”

Gladfelter is patient, he listens and he makes sure he accommodates his students to learn in the best way for them.

“Just working with the kids, just getting them to open up, building up their trust and building a friendship with them,” Gladfelter said of his goal in teaching.

He’s highly successful with his students.

“Mr. Gladfelter, he cares a lot about his kids,” teacher Austin Glanville said. “He works hard to make sure they have what they need. He listens to them, he also makes sure he has a really good relationship with their parents, so that they can keep in contact with them so he can keep in touch about how they’re going.