Michelle Gates
Launch the media gallery 1 playerElementary & Middle School Counselor
Email: gatesm@griggsvilleperry.org
Ms. Gates is the elementary and middle school counselor at Griggsville-Perry schools. Ms. Gates completed her counseling internship with the high school's Allison Dokey during the 2019-2020 school year. During that time, Ms. Gates was awarded the Illinois School Counselor Association Honorable Mention for School Counselor Graduate Student of the Year 2020. During that time, Ms. Gates led small groups for anxiety and also initiated a Mental Health Day for high school students where students learned positive coping techniques. Since that time, the program has expanded to include the middle school.
Ms. Gates spends Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at the middle school and Tuesdays and Thursdays in the elementary school. Ms. Gates teaches social and emotional learning lessons to K-6 classes, seeing each class every other week. At the middle school she meets with every student quarterly to check in with them. In the spring of 2022, Ms. Gates organized an after school study hall program at the middle school two nights a week, with the program continuing in 2022-2023. In the fall of 2022, she also implemented the Attendance Matters Everyday program at the middle school to reinforce and reward good attendance.
Ms. Gates is a graduate of Illinois State University with a B.S in education and concentration in middle school mathematics. She spent 20 years in K-12 classrooms and has taught in Texas, Illinois, and Missouri. Her main tenure was twelve years in middle school math. Ms. Gates returned to graduate school in 2018 at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska where she graduated with a Master's degree in school counseling and preventive mental health.
Ms. Gates lives in Pittsfield with her dogs Snickers and Sadie. She enjoys line dancing, reading, crafts, traveling, and riding her 33 year old golf cart fondly named “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” Ms. Gates is registered to receive a therapy dog for Griggsville-Perry and is super excited for that day to come.
