Ms. Nickles recently was voted the RHS New Teacher of the Year. Nickles co-teaches geometry with Ms. Taylor. “I always wanted to become a teacher. Math came easy to me, and I wanted to be able to teach it. I just like math,” said Nickles. She said that her inspiration for teaching was her third grade teacher Ms. Poinen. For her undergraduate degree, Ms. Nickles graduated from the State University of New York (SUNY), and for her graduate degree, she attended St. John Fisher in Pittsford, New York where she earned her certificate to teach special education.

Nickles enjoys Riverbend a lot because “there is a lot of support from the staff and the faculty.”  Her mentor teacher at Riverbend is science teacher Ms. Bergeron. Ms. Nickles is also the JV cheerleading coach. Ms. Nickles said, “The students teach me. I love working with people in general, and I could never sit behind a desk.”  Sophomore Brittany Harper said, “I aid for her, and she’s a really good teacher.”