Yellowknife (Apr 14/03) - After two years in his challenging and rewarding teaching position at Chief Paul Niditchie school, principal Dean Roop is heading back to the Rock he calls home.

In August 2001 Roop and his wife, Sylvia, left their humble Newfoundland home in Grand Falls-Windsor and drove all the way to Tsiigehtchic in a 1995 Hyundai Sonata.

"We wanted to come up to a smaller community. I was looking for a new challenge and to experience a different culture. Just something different," he said.

And a challenge is just what was waiting for him at the kindergarten to Grade 10 Chief Niditchie school, which had just opened earlier that year.

Aside from the shock of the bitter cold, Roop was teaching Grades 7 to 10 and also took on an administrative position as principal. It was a much smaller school than those he had worked at in Newfoundland.

"You teach more than one grade, all the students are grouped together, and they all have the same attitude towards education and they certainly know each other better," he said.

But Roop was up to the challenge. He said he works an average of 60 hours per week, teaching 70 per cent of the time.

"The actual teaching was certainly a challenge because of the lesson planning. And you also have to get used to a new system of values and the amount of time that you have to work as a teacher/principal," he said.

But hard work is something Roop is used to. All teachers, wherever they are employed, have to give it their all in order to be successful.

In June, Roop will end his term in Tsiigehtchic. He is heading back home to Grand Falls-Windsor for his son's wedding and some well-deserved time off.

But he will return home with plenty of good memories, a new outlook on life and a unique Northern culture to share with friends and family back home.

"Certainly we have learned a new way of living, a new culture, and we have grown that way," he said.

Roop plans on taking a year off work, but who knows? Maybe he will return to Tsiigehtchic once again.

"The experiences I had here would encourage me to think about coming back again, that's for sure."