Original Educator Profile
Original Educator Profile: Meet Nicole!
What makes you an Original Educator? I am openly and proudly autistic. I am also an outspoken neurodiversity advocate and art advocate. I've taught students how to use art as a social-emotional tool and an academic tool. I teach my art classes in a "neurodiverse friendly" style and go out of my way to support students that have IEPs and 504s (though all students benefit). Differentiation in the arts for all students is my jam! I do professional autism advocacy work outside of my teaching job and co-run a meetup group for neurodiverse adults (ADHD, autism/Aspergers, Dyslexia, etc.).
What is your superpower as an educator? I have a growth mindset and I'm very reflective about my practice. This has made me resilient in a lot of difficult teaching situations, especially when it comes to building relationships with students. I'm particularly reflective about the rapport I build with students, especially when it comes to cultural responsiveness, differentiated academic support, and accountability.
What have you learned from working with Sara? I've benefited from the somatic body exercises you taught me. Having awareness of how my body feels and where it collects emotion has helped me not only manage my emotions at my job, but help me deal with sensory processing issues better. The the drama triangle has also been helpful.
What is the most important emotional skill educators need to have? Empathy and open-mindedness are two of the most important emotional skills that educators need to have. I really appreciated learning about the drama triangle. It gave me a lot of perspective of how I see students and how they could see me, especially from the perspective of discipline. With a culturally responsive lens, the drama triangle can be an even better structure.
"By being open about who I am and creating empowering relationships with students, I'm defying many stigmas and stereotypes about autism."
Who is your hero?
You are my hero, Sara! It has been such a privilege to have you as a teacher/mentor in my life. It's been even more of a privilege to have both of us work in the education field. I'm so grateful that we now have a collaborative relationship. Your social skills support (both when I was a teen and in my adulthood) had a massive impact on the way I emotionally connected with students.
What is the last song you danced to? "Learn to Live" by Alice Merton and "Fear and Delight" by The Correspondents.
Nicole is a secondary art teacher and autism advocate. The artwork at the top of this email is done by Nicole. I have always seen it as a perfect illustration of Mary Oliver's poem, Wild Geese. You can read the poem here.
Stay tuned for more inspiring profiles of Original Educators!