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A great teacher

A great teacher My mother recently sent me a copy of the article on Pete D'Artois. I was thrilled to see something written on one of my favourite teachers. Even though Watson Lake is a small community, we have had some terrific high school instructors ov

My mother recently sent me a copy of the article on Pete D’Artois.

I was thrilled to see something written on one of my favourite teachers. Even though Watson Lake is a small community, we have had some terrific high school instructors over the years. Mary Sloan, Ruth Holt, Denise Chism, John Hall (principal), Greg Bell and of course, Mr. D’Artois, also known as Mr. D.

Mr. D made Shakespeare fun, poetry interesting and gave us writing assignments that were actually inspiring. His unique approach to teaching really worked. My class excelled in English and French with Mr. D’s instruction. We were extremely lucky to have him in our school.

Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t always easy on Mr. D.

One night, a few of my classmates and I met up in minus 30 Celsius weather and wrapped his car with three rolls of industrial-sized saran wrap. He wasn’t thrilled with us that week.

He also became famous for his one-liners. When you got in trouble he would bellow, “Meet me in my office!” (the hallway)

Mr. D was gruff and very blunt, but deep down we knew that he really cared about us. We were really happy to have him as an invited guest at our 10-year reunion.

Thank you Mr. D, you are a terrific teacher.

Sorry for saran-wrapping your car.

Sara Skelton

Watson Lake Secondary

class of 1996