Deninu Ku'e/Fort Resolution
A teacher doesn't just teach, but also has to continue learning.
Laura Boucher, an elementary teacher at Deninu School in Fort Resolution, recently learned something new in a four-day course titled Advanced Wilderness First Aid.
Laura Boucher, a teacher at Fort Resolution's Deninu School, recently took a course titled Advanced Wilderness First Aid at Deninu School from March 14 to 17. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo |
Boucher welcomed the chance to learn how to respond to injuries or illnesses that may happen in the bush.
Now that she has completed the course - offered at Deninu School from March 14 to 17 - Boucher said she feels better prepared.
"If something comes up, I'll know what to do," she said. "I have a much better foundation in that than I did before."
She said she now knows how to deal with hypothermia, concussions, back injuries, cuts and broken bones.
"When you're out on the land, this is what could happen," she said, noting there are also traditional ways of dealing with injuries that she learned from being born in Rocher River and growing up in Fort Resolution.
Boucher spent the first five years of her life on the land.
"But this (course) taught me a different way of dealing with stuff."
The teacher said she enjoyed the course and she learned things she needed to know.
"I didn't know if I had the confidence once we started," she said. "But when we got into the scenarios, (the instructor) used really good practical ones for us to practise."
The course, which was funded by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, was offered by Yellowknife teacher Stephane Sevigny, who is a certified trainer, and assisted by Saeid Mushtagh, also of Yellowknife.
Four full-time teachers and one substitute at Deninu School took the course.
Boucher, a member of the Deninu Ku'e First Nation, said learning about wilderness first aid will be good because she does on-the-land activities both at school and away from school.
"I just thought that this is one of the best things that I could have done because I can use it in both my workplace and my personal life," she said.
Boucher said she participates in culture camps on Mission Island, which is on the outskirts of Fort Resolution.
She hasn't travelled into the bush with students but she said she is now ready if that happens.
"I think any school that's going on the land and taking any kids on the land should have this because it is beneficial," she said.
Boucher has been a teacher for 14 years, with 13 years at Deninu School and a year at Joseph Burr Tyrrell School in Fort Smith.
"For one thing, it's not a boring job. You're always thinking. You're always wondering," she said. "It's challenging, and I love
challenges."
