Doris Carlson has been an educator mostly in northern Saskatchewan since 1984. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

education

Carlson settling into retirement after more than three decades

Oct 7, 2021 | 4:51 PM

Doris Carlson has called it a career after moulding the minds of youth for more than three decades.

She officially retired from the Lac La Ronge Indian Band’s (LLRIB) Bell’s Point Elementary School. Since then, Carlson has been able to spend time at her cabin, and is looking forward to doing more reading, beading and visit with family and friends.

A LLRIB member, Carlson was born and raised in La Ronge, and graduated from Churchill Community High School in 1980. It was during those high school years when she became interested in teaching as she volunteered to coach sports and enjoyed seeing student athletes succeed.

“I started in the Northern Teacher Education Program in the fall of 1980 and graduated in 1984,” she said. “My first job was in Jans Bay. I was there for a year. I taught there as a multi-classroom Grade 6 to 9 with 38 kids, then went to Pinehouse for a few years.”

After Pinehouse, Carlson spent five years teaching at Chitek Lake but moved back to the tri-communities in 2000 for a position at Senator Myles Venne School. At that time, she had recently went back to school to study special education and joined the staff at Senator as a learning support teacher. Carlson became the principal of the school in 2002 and spent seven years in the role before being transferred to Bell’s Point in 2010.

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For the next two years, she served as a learning support teacher in Bell’s Point and Sucker River. She then entirely focused on Bell’s Point in that same role or as a Kindergarten teacher.

“My time spent there was quite busy because we changed our model,” Carlson said of learning support. “Before we used to have a model where we would only serve students who had a diagnoses or a medical report. Our model has changed to needs based. Technically you don’t need to have a diagnoses of a disability, however, those children who do have a disability are always at the top of our list.”

Another aspect of her work Carlson is proud of is the band’s speech program for students. Carlson successfully applied to Jordan’s Principal for funding. She noticed many students were struggling with reading and that several of them also had a speech impairment. Now, more than 60 students receive services to improve their speech and reading confidence.

As for advice, Carlson explained teachers need to be flexible, diverse, consistent, caring and loving. She noted building relationships with students is important and that teachers need to realize they are preparing students to be young adults who have to be successful in society.

Carlson also wanted to share a few words about her time in the tri-communities.

“People need to know La Ronge, Air Ronge and the Lac La Ronge Indian Band is an amazing community,” she said. “We are a tri-community and there’s such beauty and calmness. Just sitting here takes away all of what’s happening in the world. I’m blessed to live in this part of the country. I’m very happy to be here.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno