I am Nicole. I was a nuclear engineer for part of my time in the Navy, followed by a yearlong stent as a staff education and training officer for a naval health clinic, and ended my naval career as an AC/R technician. My time in the Navy provided me with a mathematical, scientifical and mechanical engineering background. The year I spent as a training officer taught me how to administer formalized training, organize training, and track training. While in the Navy I helped train young sailors in various subjects to help them be efficient at their jobs. After the military I went to college to get a bachelor’s in game art and development. For that degree I became familiar with graphic design, photo shop, game design, and a large spectrum of art skills including drawing.
My main teaching experience happened after I got my degree. Covid struck and there weren’t a whole lot of jobs available. At first, my children did the online public school. This showed me several lapses in their education, and that they weren’t teaching one of my children. My child has ADHD, ODD, and Autism and the school’s solution to that became throwing my child in a corner. My solution was to pull them out of public school. For about six months I tutored my child, in addition to teaching homeschool curriculum, and managed to catch him up to his grade level. Since then, I have been teaching three children basic education as well as extra-curricular subjects, that I wrote to replace various public-school programs. I have taught from kindergarten to sixth grade.
Due to my experiences as a homeschool mom and sailor my core values are honesty and patience. I have found that when you try and force a student to learn something faster than they are able to learn it, it causes them to form a mental block against that subject. When it comes to teaching art skills, I never look for perfection, just for improvement. I find that having fun with it is the most important aspect. Ultimately, I want to grow with my students as they grow with me.