Program designed for new teachers
Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 04/01) - When Lori Milleker moved North last year, it was "hugely intimidating."
Nearly fresh out of university, moving from southern Saskatchewan for her first big teaching job was "a scary, scary thought."
Yellowknifers bent over backwards as they are known to do, but an official mentorship program at her school, Ecole St. Joseph, is what really put her at ease.
That's where Michel Emery came in. The French immersion teacher knew what she was going through.
"It's an adjustment," Emery says of moving this far North. He was one of three teachers who decided to volunteer for the school's new mentorship program, after remembering being a little nervous after his own big move North from Ontario four years ago.
Milleker says the new program made her a better teacher right from the starting blocks. She had lessons to develop and students to get to know, plus a curriculum to learn that's "binders thick."
She and other new teachers have to cope with all that without a safety net of family or friends.
Help from a mentor "made me more relaxed in the classroom."
She experienced some stress because NWT classes are more integrated than in the Prairies, but Emery was always there as a sounding board.
His local knowledge helped with things like picking good field trips and arranging guest speakers.
Lori, who's used to shopping in the U.S. just a half-hour from her Weyburn home, found it "hard to adjust to the lifestyle here."
Emery wishes he had help after first arriving in town.
"It would have made a big difference. That first year would have been a lot easier."
He said the mentoring partnership is two-way, because Lori offered him a fresh perspective on things.
Ecole St. Joseph hopes to expand the mentorship program next year.
