By Mase Scarlet
Tannis Broad Scalplock is a first-time teacher at Chief Old Sun School for the 2025–2026 year. She is a mother of three and has two grandchildren. She first left the Nation in August 2018 with her son and husband to attend the University of Lethbridge. The three of them lived in a tiny shoebox apartment right up until COVID hit. With the lingering fears of the pandemic and a new baby, the family decided to return home to Siksika, where they continued classes online. After 18 months, university classes returned to in-person format, so in August 2021 they moved back to Lethbridge, where she and her family remained until she and her husband graduated on May 30, 2025.
“Being a first-time teacher is nerve-wracking, yet very rewarding,” Tannis expressed, “but I have a good support system of coworkers that support and guide me, especially Melodie Hunt. She’s kind of been my mentor, you know, through this, and I really appreciate everything that she’s doing for me and helping me figure things out as I go,” Tannis said.
Before deciding to become a teacher, she had a history of working in the schools as an Educational Assistant (EA), first at Chief Old Sun, then at Siksika Nation High School as a receptionist, and back to an EA at Siksika Outreach, where she worked for seven years, which led her to want to help her community in any way she could. For a brief moment, ideas swirled around about career options, with addictions counselling and social work at the top, but then she thought about how important it is to be there at the early stages of someone’s life.
“You want to be there at the beginning, you know, when your child is still developing and growing, so that you can take, I guess, preventative measures and really help them to know that there’s more to life than the boundaries of the reserve. To help them understand that the world is literally in their palms and that they have the power to do anything they want, if they have the right support,” Tannis said.
She’s currently teaching Grades 5 and 6 Language Arts, Health, and Art. Originally, she planned to teach at Outreach, but she is very happy about being placed at Chief Old Sun. “We’re a week in, and the kids here are amazing. The staff here are awesome, and it’s like a little family environment—a good team. I can see that everybody is devoted to the kids of our community,” Tannis said.
One of Tannis’s strengths as a teacher is building strong relationships with students to help with student retention. “They want to come in, and they want to see you, and they want to tell you their whole life story—you know, like what they did this weekend, or if they got a new puppy, something like that. Having that relationship with each of the students individually is really, really one of my strengths,” Tannis said.
Chief Old Sun School and Tannis Broad Scalplock have a clear devotion to raising the children of our community, keeping them safe, and letting them know there are no limits to what they can achieve.
Thank you!
