Mr. Dudak’s journey from Jefferson to South
Wheaton Warrenville South juniors Jacob Bishop and Lexi Jurkus say they love physics because of their teacher, Mr. Dudak. “Mr. Dudak lets us own our learning. He tells us it’s not necessarily about getting the answer right, but it’s about learning how to get to the right answer,” says Bishop. “For me, physics can get challenging but Mr. Dudak encourages discussions that help steer me in the right direction,” adds Jurkus.
Mr. Dudak is just finishing his first year teaching science at South and it’s been a great year. Getting hired at South was a sort of coming home for Dudak who graduated from South several years before. Dudak’s education in District 200 began at Jefferson Early Childhood Center at the age of three.
As a toddler, Dudak was having trouble making a number of speech sounds and it was difficult to understand what he was saying. After being diagnosed with Phonological Disorder, through the support of Jefferson staff and his parents, Dudak was able to graduate from Jefferson to attend his home school with speech therapy.
Because of all of Dudak’s hard work and the help he received, Dudak was a member of South’s State Championship Speech team and went on to study physics and education at Brown University.
On January 15, Mr. Dudak and his parents attended the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the new Jefferson. “Jefferson played a big part in my early life and got the ball rolling to help me become the person I am today,” says Dudak. “Jefferson holds a special place in my heart.”
