Sixth grade English language arts teacher Michele Dugan has been teaching for the past 36 years! She started at Washington & Jefferson Elementary School, then McAullife Heights and finally ended up here five years ago.
You can persevere when you have people to lean on and help.
“I’ve been surrounded by amazing people: staff, administration and pretty much everyone,” Dugan said.
One of the main things of maintaining something is perservering when times get tough. She definitely has orchestrated that over the years.
“One of the things that helped me persevere the most is involvement with clubs. I ran drama clubs at W&J and McAullife Heights and now I assist with the high school drama club. I love going over there to help them with their shows after school. Sometimes after a long, hard day, it’s the best part of my day. I truly love that,” said Dugan.
By saying that and her 36 years of teaching, she has a lot of advice for newer teachers.
“You better love coffee and you better love reading a whole lot of writing and making a whole lot of comments on papers, because I spend a lot of my time doing that,” Dugan said.
Dugan said to get to know your colleagues, make friends and let them become your family
“They’re the people you can lean on for help and advice when you need it. I’d also recommend getting involved in extracurricular activities like drama club or other clubs, sports, and groups. It’s wonderful to work with those kids because they’re so passionate about what they’re doing, and they’re a lot of fun to be around. That keeps you going,” Dugan said.
