The Carlyle Elementary School (CES) welcomes new teachers to their staff. This includes University of Regina interns for the semester Erica Frazer and Preston Dumaine, as well as Megan Devlin a teacher who works in both G.F. Kells and CES.
Frazer originally hails from Maryfield, but has been living in Carlyle for the past four years and loves everything about being in the community as well as teaching so far.
"This is the first week, but I love it," Frazer stated. "I know lots of kids from swimming lessons, I managed the pool for, not this year, but for years before that; so, I was kind of able to know all the kids and all the parents"
Teachers run through Frazer's family and it was this coupled with the joy of teaching swimming lessons, which inspired her to become a teacher.
"It's in my family," she explained. "My mom is the principal in Maryfield, so I've always just known that it was something I had wanted to do and working at the pool, I've always just known that kids are my forte."
Frazer is interning with a grade one class at CES and is extremely excited for the upcoming semester.
"Being with the kids, grade one I love that age, I love all the ages of elementary but grade one especially because it's that newly developed, like they're just starting to develop their skills," Frazer stated.
She went on to explain that it's very fulfilling to watch young children grasp new concepts including, "watching them grow and teaching them different life skills that they need."
Frazer is joined by fellow intern Preston Dumaine, who is taking on the other grade one class at CES.
Dumaine is originally from Redvers, but is enjoying her time learning in Regina and is excited to apply her knowledge in the classroom as well as learn from her teaching mentor, which includes a reggio inspired approach and the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach. These she will then be able to integrate these approaches into her own classroom upon graduation.
"It's more of a holistic way of teaching than what we used to do," Dumaine explained.
Reggio is a play base learning system in a natural environment and RTI being a framework used by teachers to help struggling students.
Dumaine, too, was involved in teaching children throughout her younger years.
"I had done a lot with kids," She stated. "I taught figure skating, dance, CanSkate, and had done a few things in the church. I did lots of babysitting as I grew up."
Dumaine is excited for the opportunity to teach in Carlyle and is simply looking forward to the semester.
Finally the newest face to come to CES is, Megan Devlin, originally from British Columbia.
Devlin went on to complete an undergrad at the U of R and has recently finished teachers college in Ontario. With her brother ending up in the area working in the oil patch, she decided to come back to Saskatchewan.
"I love Saskatchewan," Devlin exclaimed. "There's a real neighbourly feel, which is something I wasn't expecting in Regina and it's even more so here. People are kind and people look out for you. It's a great place to live."
Devlin works at both the high school and elementary school, spending the mornings at G.F. Kells working in RTI. She then makes her way to CES where she teaches grades one, four, five, and six the subject of health and careers.
The inspiration to become a teacher for Devlin came with poor teacher experiences as a youth.
"I guess a lot of people have this inspirational story about these really good teachers, but I had really bad teachers," Devlin explained. "I didn't want other kids to go through the crumby teachers that I did."
The first week for the teachers has gone over well and they are looking forward to participating in the school and community.
