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Teachers' representative retires

Herb Mathisen
Northern News Services
Published Monday, Friday, June 27, 2008

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - When Amanda Mallon walks around town, she sees the past in the faces of the present.

"I can walk down the street and see somebody who is in their mid-30s, and can look at them and remember them as a six-year-old or a nine-year-old and remember the kids they hung out with and remember the fun that we had that year," the 30-year education veteran said.

NNSL Photo/Graphic

Amanda Mallon reflects on her accomplishments in her last week as president of the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association. She was first elected to the position four years ago, then acclaimed two years ago. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

The outgoing president of the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association (NWTTA) is preparing to pass the torch on to her successor on Monday.

Mallon began teaching in 1978, at the age of 20, to a Grade 3 class at J.H. Sissons elementary school.

"That would make those kids almost 40 now," she said.

After 22 years of teaching, Mallon earned a master's degree in education at the University of Alberta, then got a position as an induction new teacher co-ordinator with the Government of the NWT, helping ease the transition for teachers heading up North.

This set her up to run for the teachers' association president, in which she has served for the last four years.

"It's been a really natural transition," she said of her career. "It just seemed like it was a fairly consistent, steady journey from starting out as a classroom teacher, to working with new teachers, to representing teachers."

"It just seemed like everything was leading up to what I am doing now."

She had two major objectives when she took on the job: raising the profile of association and retaining teachers.

Mallon said the association has been in constant dialogue with government, politicians, education boards and teachers over the past four years.

Dave Roebuck, executive director with the association, has been "through the wars" with Mallon.

"She has been at the forefront of keeping education on the minds of our elected officials and raised the profile of the association quite a bit," he said.

"She knows teaching from the inside out, and it's really good when somebody is standing out there, who has been on the front line, and is your leader and the one talking to the politicians," said Roebuck.

Teacher retention is still an issue.

The issue was tied into the housing shortage when it was addressed in the legislative assembly this past session.

"It always has been an issue," said Mallon.

"The difference is now the government is talking about it."

"There is not enough housing for community members, let alone professionals," she said. "They are going to have to address that."

Mallon explained both Yellowknife education boards are allowed to own property, but other boards around the territories are not, leaving nowhere for them to put up teachers.

She said last year, the principal in Sachs Harbour had to stay on someone's couch for a while, and then house-sit for someone else when they went away.

Safe schools is another issue Mallon worked on. Two high-profile incidents involving teacher abuse - a student urinating in a teacher's water bottle in Ulukhaktok, and two teachers being run out of town in Fort Liard - surfaced over the 2006/07 year.

Mallon said she worked to educate teachers on what is acceptable behaviour, and to know that they don't have to put up with abuse. Also, the association urged teachers to report abuse.

The safe school issue is one Mallon had hoped to advance further.

"In order to do it properly, you need to have all the players in the room," said Mallon, referring to the difficulties getting eight board superintendents along with RCMP divisions together, while also dealing with exceptionally fast staff turnover in the professions.

Mallon said she has enjoyed her time as president of the association, which is much smaller than southern teachers' associations.

Mallon joked that some southern presidents might not even know what a teacher looks like, with their large support structures in place.

"I think my experience has been a lot richer than theirs," Mallon said of the hands-on approach she has had to take.

Mallon leaves the president's post to David Reid of Hay River.

Reid has served as Mallon's vice-president over the past four years.

Over her time with the NWTTA, and as a director and executive board member with Canadian Teachers Federation, Mallon said she has loved being able to travel extensively across the NWT, to new places in Canada, and overseas.

On her last trip, though, she boarded a "teeny-tiny" plane from Fort Simpson and got tossed around in the rain.

"I was thinking to myself, 'this is the last time I have to do this, not this is the last time I get to do this,'" she said. "So I think it is time I left, because I always enjoyed the travel."

Mallon plans to stay in Yellowknife. She intends to take it easy this summer and may take a trip to British Columbia when school starts in the fall, to distract her from any nostalgia she may feel.

"I am going to be hanging up my shingle and just see what comes my way," she said, adding she wants to keep working on educational matters as a consultant, "a Northern consultant that actually lives in the North."

Mallon said she hopes to be involved again as a co-ordinator of the safe schools program.

"I look forward to working towards the same kinds of things I was working on in this job, only one at a time, not all at once," she joked.

She also hinted at potentially getting into politics.

"I'm moving on with no looks back. No regrets."