Nicole Besselman’s favorite part about her teaching career is helping the kids in her Special Education class at St. Charles High. 

“I love working with students, and helping them meet their academic needs, and also their social and emotional needs,” Besselman said.

 Besselman wants to improve on making her lessons capture the attention of her students, all while following the curriculum. In order to improve on this, she researches fun lessons on google, and in the evening, she creates work and test strategies.

 Besselman’s greatest role model in her life is her fourth grade teacher, who she describes as kind, outgoing, and caring towards her students. Her fourth grade teacher taught her independence by allowing her and other students to take things out to her car, and Besselman appreciates that. 

“She was someone who no matter what, everyone in that class would’ve thought that they were her favorite student,” Besselman said.

Besselman and her fourth grade teacher remained in contact until her teacher passed away.

Besselman has always had a passion for teaching and working with kids, and that is why she pursued a career in education. She strives to be someone that her students can rely on.

“I think that I’ve always been passionate about working with kids. I want them to have that one adult in their life that they know they can count on,” Besselman said.

She directed her teaching career to Special Education, in order to help students who struggle in class or have disabilities. Besselman is a graduate from Missouri State University with a degree in Special Education. She likes having a smaller class size, as that way she can get student’s individual needs met easier.

If Besselman had one saying that she lives and dies by, it would be to move forward into tomorrow.

”I really believe that every day is a new day. That no matter what happened yesterday, you can start a new day, the next day fresh, ready to go,” Besselman said.

She often uses this phrase in her class. When a student receives a consequence the day before, Besselman doesn’t want it to carry over into the next day. She doesn’t want her or the student to harbour any negative feelings from the past. Besselman wants to help her students move forward.