Nicole

I love making connections with my students. I love helping my students do hard things and grow confident in their skills.

 

Placed 79th

in their group

Thank you for supporting Nicole in this competition. Your donations and participation will benefit The Planetary Society in their mission to advance space exploration, inspire discovery, and empower the next generation of innovators.

 

Tell us why you became a teacher

To be completely honest, I had no idea I wanted to be a teacher. When I was driving to orientation at Western Illinois University after I graduated high school, I simply just picked something. After a few years of teacher, I didn’t think it was sustainable. It was so hard. It was only recently, well after a decade of being in the classroom, that I really started to lean into teaching and enjoy it. I changed my mindset about education. I changed my mindset about things I can’t control.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

A couple years ago, I was teacher a challenging lesson on restricting domains on inverse functions. I asked a question to the class. Nobody answered. It was a classic “Bueller” moment. I gave plenty of wait time and was just about to give the answer when Jose raised his hand. Jose only raises his hand to go to the bathroom at the most inconvenient times. He doesn’t participate in math discussion. I thought he just wanted to leave the room, but, to my surprise, he answered correctly!

What would you do with the $25,000?

I would use the money for a down payment on a house! Throw a teacher a bone over here.

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