‘We don’t all learn the same way’ says Pelletier

By Rick Garrick

Wikwemikong Elder Josephine Pelletier (nee Webkamigad) credits summer studies at the University of Ottawa, innovation and fun activities in the classroom for her successful 34-year teaching career.

“The second year I taught I went to summer school,” says Pelletier, one of 20 Ontarians recognized on Oct. 30 with Senior Achievement Awards for outstanding contributions to their community through voluntary or professional activities after the age of 65. “I was going to go to London for the summer school, but then (my friend) said: ‘Why don’t you come to Ottawa, that’s where I’m going.’ So I went there for three summers in a row.”

Pelletier, who received her B.A. from Laurentian University, says her commitment to learning more about teaching paid off with a pay raise and a promotion.

“After those three years, the department sent me a letter saying I was on the second level, “Pelletier says. “So that was an incentive to keep up to date with what is going on in education.”

Pelletier says it was important to find new ways to keep her students interested in their studies throughout the school year.

“You try to find ways to get whatever you are trying to teach across to them,” Pelletier says. “We don’t all learn the same way, so we have to innovate or find different ways to show them how to (do their school work), whether it’s in spelling or math.”

Pelletier says students also need to have some fun at school to keep them motivated in their studies.

“It’s not just all work, there has to be some play involved,” Pelletier says, noting she would screen movies for the students every once in a while. “To get them to pay attention, I would get them to write a story about what they saw in the movie. Whatever was available at the school, I tried to use for a little bit extra, something other than just books.”

Pelletier says education was “in the genes” for her, noting she always had good marks at St. Joseph’s Girls School in Spanish and at high school in Pembroke.

“I did Grade 1-10 in eight years,” Pelletier says. “Then a few of us went to Pembroke to finish our high school. That’s where I graduated in 1951 from Grade 13.”

Pelletier began her teaching career in 1952 in Heron Bay (Pic River) after graduating from teachers college in North Bay. She also worked in Pic Mobert and at a residential school in Lebret, Saskatchewan before returning to teach in M’Chigeeng and her own community in the early 60’s.

“I taught (in M’Chigeeng) for five years, from 1962-1967,” Pelletier says. “In 1967 I finally got hired on in my own reserve and I stayed there for 15 years.”

After retiring from teaching, Pelletier began doing Anishinaabemowin translation work for the Ojibway Cultural Foundation with the goal of keeping her language and culture alive. She also translated three Robert Munsch books for Sault College.

“That was fun work,” Pelletier says about translating the well-known children author’s books. “One of my friends, Dawna Leblanc, was teaching Kindergarten, and she had computers so she did the typing part of the job for me. And she also knew the language, so she helped once in a while by offering suggestions like:  ‘I think this would sound a little better’.”

Pelletier also performed with Debajehmujig Theatre Group’s Elders Gone AWOL production in 2011.

Pelletier is currently involved with the Wikwemikong Board of Education’s Anishinaabemowin Curriculum Department and has served on the board of the Amikook Seniors Centre and Rainbow Lodge, a substance abuse centre.