Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Providence (Feb 18/00) - Margaret Field's transition from an elementary school teacher to community adult educator with Aurora College three years ago came with at least one glaring difference.

"The willingness to learn is one of the big differences," she said, adding that adults are generally in the classroom because they want to be.

After 15 years of teaching children, almost exclusively in Fort Providence, Field decided to try her hand with adults.

"I just thought I need a change in career," she explained.

As one of the community's adult educators, she instructs advanced levels of English, math, social sciences and career/college foundations.

"I call it personal life management," she said of the latter. Career/college foundations consists of topics such as communication, nutrition, self-esteem and assertiveness.

Field also instructs the students in the basics of reading and writing in the aboriginal language and has introduced them to writing and editing stories on computers.

Her colleague, Rosemary Bonnetrouge, is responsible for teaching lower level or introductory classes. Each of the two classes has 10 students, but a total of 38 had applied. It's encouraging to see the interest, but funding and classroom size resulted in limited numbers, according to Field.

The students' abilities vary somewhat, particularly in math, which is offered in an individualized format, she noted. However, students with stronger skills are usually willing to lend their peers a hand, she said.

"They are very helpful," she said of her students, some of whom had been out of school for the past 10 to 15 years.

She admitted that she was learning along with the students for some time, while she gradually began to recall mathematical concepts such as binomials and polynomials.

"I had to brush up on math that I took 30 years ago in Fort Simpson," she said, adding that, fortunately, she had a good math teacher.

Outside the classroom, Field is often busy filling out applications for long-distance learning and answering educational questions for her students, making up tests, marking assignments and planning for the following day.

She tries to present units based around themes, she said. For example, in biology, the students will learn about the functions of the body's systems while learning to name the parts of the anatomy in the Dene language. At the same time, they will be offered lessons in nutrition and its effects on the body.

"I try to tie them in so there's sort of a wholeness to it," she said.

The rewards of the job include the joy she witnesses when students succeed, she said.

"Just having them committed to their learning and seeing them enjoy learning new things," she said. "I really stress the atmosphere in here also. I encourage positiveness."

Student Jemma Bouvier said she appreciates Field's approach.

"She's a great teacher," Bouvier said. "She helps and is understanding."