WHS Staff Highlight - Ms. Breann Nichols
Our third and final New Teacher November highlight is Ms. Nichols. Ms. Nichols started showing up last spring as a substitute teacher and loved WHS so much that she applied for a full-time gig as our newest science teacher. Although she is new to Winchester, she comes to us with eight years of experience in education at the elementary and secondary level.
Ms. Nichols has a long jungle cat history. After graduating from Jacksonville High School, she earned her degree in Environmental Biology as an Eastern Illinois University Panther. She then found herself working in a southern Illinois school district where she also coached cheerleading and dance for the East Richland Tigers. Now, as a West Central Cougar, Ms. Nichols has started to work on a master’s degree in Biology and Special Education.
Much like her jungle cat mascots, Ms. Nichols is a big fan of the outdoors. She loves backpacking and camping. She once worked as a campground activities coordinator. She says her biggest challenge has been backpacking 50 miles of the Appalachian trail in only five days! It shouldn’t come as a surprise that she also loves to travel, having been to such places as Japan, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Caribbean. It sounds like Ms. Nichols has already taken the advice she would’ve given to her 14 year old self: “Don’t be so shy. Stop being scared and have fun.”
Besides considering herself “strangely” shy, Ms. Nichols also says that she is weird, creative, and loves Harry Potter. Students saw that side of her on Halloween! (And check out her school website to see pictures of more of the weird, fun activities happening in her classes all year!) The winning class from her Halloween festivities even earned a party with Ms. Nichols’ favorite food--pizza (she could seriously eat it every day). Although when it comes to sweets, she cannot resist anything peanut butter or mint.
Speaking of things she cannot resist, Ms. Nichols has a bit of a shoe shopping problem. In fact, she owns somewhere between 200 to 250 pairs of shoes. (Hopefully she didn’t take them all on that backpacking trip with her!) That means she could wear a different pair of shoes to climb up those three flights of stairs to her classroom every single day of the school year!
Welcome to WHS, Ms. Nichols!
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