Educator Of The Month: Nicole Fornadel

Severna Park High School (SPHS) art department chair Nicole Fornadel has made an impact not only on her local community but also on high schools across Anne Arundel County. Fornadel is the creator of the unified art course, which brings together students with and without disabilities.

Fornadel grew up in Pennsylvania but moved to Maryland to begin her teaching career after college. Before teaching at SPHS, she taught at Maryland City Elementary School, High Point Elementary School and Old Mill High School.

The unified art course originated during Fornadel’s time at Old Mill. She taught introductory art to both a traditional class and a specialized learning class in the same lesson, which was a struggle for everyone involved due to the differences in students’ needs and learning styles.

“At the time, I had gone to the art coordinator for the county, and I was like, ‘We need to do something differently,’” Fornadel said. She wrote the pilot for the class in 2019. Now, she’s the county lead for the program, which has been integrated into nearly every public high school.

The course allows students to take on leadership roles and practice skills for career pathways such as occupational therapy, physical therapy or speech-language pathology, as well as connecting students with peers they might otherwise not get the chance to know. Peer leaders and buddies work together one-on-one.

“I get a lot of positive feedback from the parents too, like, ‘My kid feels such a sense of belonging,’ or ‘This has really changed their high school experience,’ because their peers that aren’t in the classroom are saying hi,” Fornadel said. “So (it’s created) a positive environment all around the school.”

This is the third year that the unified art course has run at SPHS. Fornadel enjoys seeing the excitement it brings. The course has a waitlist due to the number of students who want to take it, and some students have shown interest in taking it for a second time. “I actually get kids to sign up faster for these field trips than I do a typical art field trip,” Fornadel said. “I think it just goes to show how this community has really developed in Severna Park.”

Over the course of her 14 years as a teacher, Fornadel has taught many forms of art to both elementary and high school students. In addition to the unified art program, Fornadel primarily teaches photography at SPHS.

One of Fornadel’s favorite parts of being an art teacher is the way that open-ended expectations foster creativity. “You can give them a set of criteria, but then you have one class turn it in, and you get like 32 different responses,” Fornadel said. “I like seeing the creative problem-solving.”

As a resident of Severna Park, Fornadel can connect with her students outside of the classroom. She attends many of her students’ sports games with her son, who’s a big soccer fan.

“I see the kids out and about, and I think one thing that’s been really rewarding is … nine times out of 10 they acknowledge me. They don’t put their head down,” Fornadel said. “I feel a really good sense of belonging with the kids and with a lot of the parents and living in the community too.”