MITTIMATALIK/POND INLET AND IQALUIT
No more teachers, no more books is usually what students chant when the school year ends. But for two retiring teachers, it will be no more students, no more marking.

Sheila Levy will retire from a 33-year career in education when the dismissal bell rings on June 24 at Inuksuk High School in Iqaluit.

"Now, it's just time to do something different," she said. "I will miss the interaction with the kids and the parents and my colleagues. There's always something exciting and something to learn every day of my life here and I'll have to make sure that continues."

Levy moved to Pangnirtung from Toronto in August 1978 to teach Grade 2/3 and home economics for senior students. After three-and-a-half years she took time off to have her first child, a girl.

In 1982, the family moved to Gjoa Haven where Levy taught Grade 3 for a year before having twins, a boy and a girl.

They moved to Cambridge Bay in 1984 where she taught Grade 1 for a year. Then three years later, the family moved to Iqaluit where Levy became a student support teacher at Nakasuk School, she said. She added she went on education leave in 1992-93 to finish a master's degree in guidance and counselling. Since 1993, Levy has been a guidance counsellor at Inuksuk High School.

Levy said she had read a lot about the North and decided to give it a try in 1978 and 33 years later, she said it's still a positive experience.

"There's challenges wherever you live and I've enjoyed living here," she said.

She said witnessing children's joy when they discover a new skill will be what she remembers most fondly from her years of teaching.

"When kids (first) learn to read, when they actually pick up a book and the light goes on, they're so excited they can decipher something," she said.

She added knowing she has made a difference in people's lives through her work as a guidance counsellor is also something she will cherish.

The 60-year-old will split her retirement time between her homes in Iqaluit and Ottawa, where she was raised.

Donna Walters, 58, will retire from her 37-year teaching career when school ends on June 10 at Nasivvik High School in Pond Inlet. The Grade 8 teacher will move to Conception Bay South, N.L., about 30 minutes east of St. John's.

"I am going to start a new life in a new community where I have never lived before and probably do some reading and travelling," she said, adding she also gardens. "I have just finished 37 years of teaching. It's time to retire, don't you think?"

Walters said she fulfilled a lifelong dream of teaching in the High Arctic when she arrived at Grise Fiord's Umimmak School on April 4, 2004, to teach Grades 6 to 12, including high school level English and social studies. She had been teaching Grades 4 to 12 in Labrador City for 28 years, with most of her career in the junior high grades of 7, 8 and 9.

From 2005 on, she has taught Grade 8 in Pond Inlet.

"Teaching in Nunavut has been the most rewarding and the highlight of my teaching career," she said. "I was immediately struck by the breathtaking landscape and the genuine nature of the people. For seven years, I've been rewarded. It's been the highlight of my teaching career because I was very impressed - my students were always eager to share their culture and to help me adjust to the North."

Walters, who has two grown sons, said her brother and sister are both teachers, as were her parents.

Her students' enthusiasm and willingness to learn in a second language was inspirational, she said.

"I'll miss the warm smiles and my students' faces every morning," she said.

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