Her Story
About Nicole
Nicole Bell is a behavioral interventionist based in Saint Louis, Missouri, with 25 years of experience in the field of education. She began her career working in an autistic room during summer school, which inspired her to pursue further learning on how to support students with special needs. Bell previously served as a special education teacher for many years before transitioning into her current role, where she supports students from pre-K through fifth grade who exhibit challenging behaviors. Her diverse professional background also includes work as a psych technician, deputy juvenile officer, and case manager for the Department of Mental Health. She earned an undergraduate degree in general studies with an emphasis on special education and holds a master's degree in special education while pursuing a second master's in counseling. Bell emphasizes the importance of being a positive light for students, helping them view each day as a new opportunity to turn challenges into positive outcomes.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Nicole
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I received is that you have to document. Nothing happens if it wasn't written down. We can go in and say hey this didn't happen but did you write it down? Is it documented? Gotta document what happened.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell them to make sure that they take care of themselves, your self-care. It's very much your mental. It's very important that we go in and we're doing so much and we will lack taking care of ourselves. We have to make sure that we're taking care of ourselves whether you're taking walks, massages, vacations, time alone, whatever. Pamper yourself but take care of yourself. We only live once and we can't be any good to anybody else if we're not taking care of us.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
You have so many different grade levels so you have a lot of personalities and everybody's household is different and ran differently. We come across when kids are hitting another student and they say well my mom or my daddy said if somebody hit me I gotta hit them back. You can't go to school somebody hits you you can't even put your hands on them. Who would ever thought pre-K would have dysregulated behaviors all the time.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
One of my values is that every day when I get to see them to just help brighten up their day to be able to be a positive light for them. Everybody's household is different. What I tell them is every day is a new day what happened yesterday we don't have to focus on today's a new day you get a new chance let's start over and let's be positive. How can we turn this negative into something positive? And that's something that I have done to let that bleed over in my own life.
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