Michael commenced teaching in 1990 at Cairns State High School.
Between 1994 and August 2001 he was a teacher and Head of Department at Kowanyama State School. From 2001–2003 he fulfilled a variety of roles at Western Cape College in Weipa including Head of Community Engagement, Attendance and Retention and Head of Napranum Campus—Western Cape College.
In 2004 Michael was appointed to Doomadgee State School as Principal where he spent four years in that role. In 2006, Michael was further appointed as Director Government Coordination—Doomadgee and successfully coordinated Government service delivery on behalf of the Government Champions and the Queensland Government that lead to the Queensland Government signing a Local Indigenous Partnership Agreement with the Doomadgee community.
In 2008 Michael was appointed as Principal at Cairns West State School, a low SES Partnership School, where the main focus was engaging parents and community to develop real partnerships with the school, case management of all students and removing distractions from teachers, allowing them to focus on explicit teaching and learning. In 2009, Cairns West introduced the Academic Success Guarantee. This is a signed contract with parents and the school. The parents commit to send their child to school 95% of the time. The school guarantees students meet or beat their year level benchmarks. This has led to significant improvement in student performance.
In 2011 Cairns West State School won the Queensland Showcase Award for Academic Excellence. Michael was confirmed as Principal National Partnership in July 2011. Michael has presented at numerous International and National Conferences. In 2012 Michael was the recipient of “The Australian Government Minister’s Award for Excellence in Teaching or Leadership in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Education” – Australian Principal of the Year in that category.
Michael is now the Executive Principal of Redlynch State College.