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TSIIGEHTCHIC/ARCTIC RED RIVER - Daniel Gagne has seen his share of extreme temperatures. Gagne is in his 27th year of teaching and after several years in the middle-eastern countries of Azerbaijan and Kuwait, he and his wife Annette decided to come to Tsiigehtchic to cool off.

"We' had never been this far north and thought this would be a nice place to try it out," he said.

Gagne is principal and the Grade 7, 8, 9, teacher at Chief Paul Niditchie school in Tsiigehtchic.

He said he came to Tsiigehtchic for the experience in the fall of 2007 but he is staying because of the people.

"We're looking forward to another year next year," he said.

Gagne and his wife have been well received in the community. He said the small town life gives you a quality of life you can't get anywhere else in the world.

"Just the other day we were looking out the window and there was a fox in our backyard. Even in northern Ontario we would not have them come that close," said Gagne.

He said he got into teaching so he could do something new every day. He didn't want to face a daily grind. It is the unpredictability of teaching that keeps him going, he said.

"The kids show up and you never know what you're going to get out of them," said Gagne.

Gagne brings his own style to the classroom. Instead of just teaching straight from a textbook, he offers a personalized math curriculum for each of his students. It allows them to advance at their own pace, but it keeps him on his toes every morning.

Because he acts as the principal as well as a teacher, Gagne has a lot of administrative duties and paperwork to do when he is not in the classroom. He might have to travel a lot for meetings were it not for the latest technology that the school board has been using.

"We are fully set up in all the classes with smartboards," he said.

The interactive smartboards act as movie projectors, digital chalkboards, and allow for virtual meetings with other schools.

Gagne said the technology isn't only used by administration. He and other teachers are looking into partnering with major museums in the south for special interactive lessons for the students.

"The museums will do lessons and everything with you over the internet using the smartboards," he said.