NASHUA — Teaching for 35 years, Louise Auclair still has deep passion for her career and her students.

“I come from a long line of teachers. I can remember as a child visiting my aunt’s classroom. Since then, I have always had a love for teaching,” said Auclair, a fifth-grade teacher at Main Dunstable Elementary School.

Auclair was recognized this week for her devotion to education, receiving the 2012 Teacher of the Year award from the Nashua Lions Club.

She is a 25-year veteran teacher in the Nashua School District, having spent her first year of teaching at Mount Pleasant Elementary School and the next 24 years at Main Dunstable.

“And honestly, I don’t want to leave,” said Auclair, 62. “I love it, but more importantly, I love the children.”

Auclair’s own children attended Main Dunstable, so her teaching position was a way of giving back to the community and the school system that gave so much to her own kids, she said.

Her teaching philosophy, according to Auclair, is to teach students on Day 1 that they can’t give up, and that they can never say “never.”

“You have to at least try. If you try, you can do just about anything,” she said. “I treat every child special, and I really think the kids know that and appreciate it.”

Auclair, of Hudson, was selected from a pool of eight nominees for the award. She said it is an honor to have been selected.

This is Auclair’s second teaching recognition. In 2009 she was named a Teacher of Excellence by the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Nashua, an award she considered extremely touching since the nomination was submitted by a child, she said.

Auclair, who has a degree in elementary education from Rivier College, received an engraved clock and $100 for her newest achievement.

“She was nominated by a parent for her caring and concern for not only the students, but for the parents as well,” Ed Lecius, Nashua Lions Club program chairman, said, noting she is continuously creative and innovative in the classroom.

A panel of secondary educators outside of the club reviewed the eight nominations and recommended Auclair.

The Nashua Lions Club began recognizing a Teacher of the Year about 10 years ago, and the award is open to any Nashua teacher, public or private.