.png "Nicole Glaze with student")
Dr. Nicole Glaze is a magnet school curriculum specialist at Tom Joy Elementary School who is passionate about helping teachers reach students through classroom technology and theme-based education.
Glaze has been an elementary educator for 16 years. She spent her first five years in Atlanta teaching kindergarten and fourth grade prior to relocating back to Nashville, where she taught at Shwab, Neely’s Bend, Glengarry, and Warner elementary schools before moving into a teaching leadership role.
Her current job does not include teaching daily, but she enjoys every opportunity to tap in and touch base in the classroom. She is helping teachers implement theme-based education at Tom Joy, a magnet school where the academic theme is digital literacy and leadership.
“I go in and co-teach all the time and model different strategies of how digital literacy can look in classrooms,” Glaze says. “This helps teachers release their fear of technology being implemented in classrooms and shares different platforms to break the monotony of scripted curriculum.”
Glaze works closely with teachers and instructional coaches, guiding them to insert technology into lesson plans to engage their students in different ways to close learning gaps. Some of the platforms being introduced and offered to teachers are Padlet, which gives students the opportunity to respond to a question or prompt and share their thinking in a sentence or picture, and Flipgrid, a video-based teaching tool.
“Our students are accustomed to technology – we are a digital world. We want to prepare them for college and careers that they are going to be applying for. I try to implement these platforms or technology so they are able to master these objectives and prepare for the digital world at the same time.” 
Helping Students See So Many Possibilities
Glaze loves her job and is passionate about student outcomes. Tom Joy is an AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) school, and Glaze is working to get her students their first exposures to careers.
This is the perfect merger of two of Glaze’s passions. She frequently invites educational experts and career professionals to connect with their learning themes.
Glaze shared an example of what those mergers look like.
“Kindergarteners are currently learning about the five senses. We were able to get connected with McGavock High School and their culinary arts program. Teachers and students came to our school and talked about how a chef uses their five senses to create delicious meals. They exposed our kindergarteners to what their culinary career looks like.”
Glaze didn’t stop with the careers that are easy to find; she cast a wide net to include careers in marine biology, oceanography, zoology, and cardiology.
She is letting Tom Joy students know that the sky is the limit, and they have the opportunity to be whatever they choose to be.