The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Rural setting provides opportunities for growth and connection

In a rural education setting, you never know who will turn out to be lifer. That’s certainly not what Laurena Newman expected to be calling herself after she relocated from Red Deer to Valleyview. But 20 years later, she’s firmly entrenched at Hillside School, has a vast web of contacts throughout the community, and enjoys hobbies and pursuits that she’d never imagined herself doing.

“I hunt now, I’ve shot guns, I’ve shot large animals,” Newman says. “I shot a moose this year, and on social media I posted a picture and some of my friends from university said, ‘like, who are you?’”

While many who venture to rural environs to begin their teaching careers leave after a few years, Newman followed the path of those who stay: she got involved in the community and married someone local.

“A significant challenge for young teachers coming out of university is meeting people in a small town,” Newman says. “We have lost some of our really great young teachers because they just haven’t been able to make those personal connections in our community.”

On the professional front, Newman says her long tenure has enabled her to form a vast network of connections that serves her well when, for example, she needs to refer someone for mental health support or is looking for a math tutor.

“It’s become easier and easier over time to meet the needs of students just because of being in the small community,” she says anyone want to apply? The availability of teachers is one of the most pressing challenges faced by school administrators in Valleyview, whether it be certificated substitutes, specialized teachers such as shop or chemistry, or simply teachers who are willing to apply for any opening.

Last year at Hillside, principal Darlene Wood had a language arts/social studies teacher resign part way through the year and was never able to replace her. This year, knowing she had a teacher going on maternity leave in the fall, she double-staffed the position for two months just to ensure she’d have a replacement.

“Those become our challenges, never-mind when it starts to be the physics [teacher], the math [teacher], my shop teacher—when those people leave or retire, that is a crisis for us,” Wood says.

Jodie Chisholm, principal of Valleyview’s St. Stephen’s School, said her school has experienced periods of high turnover but is currently in the midst of staffing stability.

The growth of Grande Prairie, which is an hour further north, and the twinning of the highway all the way from Edmonton have made Valleyview more liveable, Chisholm says, but it’s still tougher to attract applicants than it used to be.

“It’s very hard to find people to come who want to stay,” she says.

Wood and Chisholm both agree that the rural setting and its smaller schools provide teachers with a broader range of opportunities in teaching or leadership.

“There are a lot of opportunities in a smaller place that you wouldn’t get in a larger place,” Chisholm says.

Pat Galandie agrees.

Now the co-ordinator at the outreach school in Valleyview, she started out as a business education teacher 29 years ago. Over the course of her first 15 years she “taught just about everything that’s offered,” including computer science, social studies, math, science and CALM.

She went on to become the special education co-ordinator and a counsellor.

“It seems like the opportunities are just there and you can just grab onto them,” she says.

All the Valleyview teachers believe that they are able to forge deeper relationships with students in a small town.

“We know their parents. We don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and make a connection,” says Sherry Howey, principal of Oscar Adolphson School.

For Newman, not only is Valleyview an ideal setting in which to teach and connect with students and their families, but it represents the best of both worlds in terms of her own lifestyle. City facilities are within an hour’s drive and the local recreational activities can’t be beat, she says.

But getting to this point of contentment required her, as a new, young teacher in town, to step out of her comfort zone and make an effort to join social organizations. (Curling was one of her early outlets.)

“You have to be willing to take risks,” she says. “The potential rewards are great, but it doesn’t happen instantaneously.”