Canyon head teachers excited for year ahead

Every day at Canyon Elementary is a busy one. But for teachers Nicolette Bales and Sherry Petersen, each day is a little bit busier than most.

Bales and Petersen are the school's co-head teachers for the 2010-2011 school year.

"We're busy. We have a very full day," Petersen said.

"We hit the ground running when the bell rings, but that's everybody on the staff," Bales added.

Bales teaches first grade. She's been teaching at Canyon for four years, but her memories go back further. Bales went to Canyon Elementary as a child, after all.

Petersen has taught physical education, fourth and now fifth grade. She's been at Canyon for eight years, but with School District 6 for 22.

"We're learning as we go," Bales said. "It's balancing between everything you have to do in your classroom. There's not a down moment."

In addition to teaching their own classes, Bales and Petersen are responsible for disciplining unruly students and for scheduling. But they both note that their fellow teachers have stepped up and spread the workload around.

"We're missing a few people, but I think we'll adjust," Petersen said of the smaller number of teachers at the school this year. "We'll continue to keep Canyon the school it's always been."

Petersen and Bales have planned a number of activities throughout the year for students and their families. Sept. 26, the entire school is taking a trip to Sweet Pickin's Pumpkin Patch in Kalispell. The Missoula Children's Theatre is coming to the school in November.

"We have a whole lot to do every month," Petersen said. "All kinds of ideas. School carnivals. 'I love to read' month. Literacy night. Mother's Day tea. Fun with Fathers.

"It's great to have the community part of our school district."

In the months to come, Bales and Petersen will prepare Canyon students for the transition into Columbia Falls schools. For Petersen's fifth grade class, it's just the next step. They'll miss their elementary school, but they've made some great memories.

"A couple of years ago, we taped Ms. Hoerner to the wall!" said Brandon Fleury, a fifth-grade student, of a past fundraiser.

"I liked fishing (with Ms. Petersen) because I've never fished before and I caught my first fish. She's my favorite teacher," said fifth-grader Kaitlyn Floyd, recalling the Hooked on Fishing program.

Brandon, a precocious lad, said he'll miss the size of Canyon.

"It's fun and it's not overcrowded."

Bales and Petersen are hoping to schedule combined field trips or other school activities with Ruder and Glacier Gateway elementaries so that Canyon students can make new friends for next year, when they will attend one of those two schools.

"Dave (Wick) and Mike (Nicosia) have been very supportive," Bales said. "They know what we are going through is not easy."

Even with the added work, Bales and Petersen enjoy their positions as head teachers.

"We're just bummed it's only for a year," Petersen said.

School District 6 plans to close Canyon Elementary at the end of this school year, citing declining enrollment that does not justify the cost of keeping the building open.

If Bales and Petersen have any say, though, most of their students will transition just fine. For the teachers, it may be harder.

"I went to school here," Bales said. "This is where I wanted to be, where I wanted to teach. What I'll miss the most is that it feels like a family."