She's a member of the Order of Canada and is one of only 100 to be awarded part of the Compagnie des cent associes francophone in her half-century of work teaching French.

However, what Sandra Henderson seems most proud of when you ask her about her career are the many letters and thank-you cards that have come her way from former students and their parents.

It is those letters that tell of lives changed for the better thanks to one teacher who provided encouragement, incentive and did a few little things that made all the difference.

Henderson retired from working in the education system this year. She isn't giving up teaching entirely, as she continues to tutor French while she sets out on a new endeavour of opening up her longtime Riverdale home as a bed and breakfast.

"Teaching was my life, is my life," Henderson in an interview at her home Thursday. "Having worked with kids and families over 50 years, there's a passion that's part of you. You can't get away from it."

She has spent some time looking back, recalling her years in the education systems of Quebec, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and finally, the territory.

As a francophone who had grown up in Gaspe, Que., Henderson began her career teaching French at the predominantly francophone schools in the province.

When her British husband, Dick, went west to Saskatchewan to get his trade because he wasn't bilingual, she joined him, bringing her first language with her to teach others.

She would teach one year in the Prairie province and then 12 years in Newfoundland before she and her husband moved north, where she got the job to start the first French immersion class in the territory, after parents had lobbied for the program.

Henderson remembered the dates well. As she pointed out, it was in November 1980 that the program was approved, and in December that she was hired. On Feb. 2, 1981, Henderson began teaching the first French immersion class in the territory.

Henderson recalls those early days when she visited the Kindergarten classrooms meeting with her potential students who would transfer to the French program, to make sure they would feel at home in her classroom.

With no materials designed specifically for French immersion, Henderson would translate English stories she read to her students and make use of the school resources she had collected over her previous 25 years of teaching.

Her strong belief in an education system that promotes the French language as a way of making as many Canadians as possible bilingual saw her continue to teach the language and work over the years on creating more options for learning French.

"I really do believe learning a language opens so many doors for young people," she said, pointing to the travel and career options that develop.

In a territory where residents do a lot of travelling to other regions, the response to French immersion has been wonderful, with numbers growing every year, she said.

Indeed, one student who wrote to congratulate her on her retirement recalled spending her classes with Henderson talking to her classmates in everything but French.

On a trip to Paris though, the student found the language seemingly rolling off her tongue thanks to Henderson's class.

In some cases, her French students tested at the end of Grade 3 have compared well with their unilingual counterparts in Montreal, in some cases doing better with grammar and sentence structure.

Students have proved enthusiastic and wanted to be part of the program, which is the key to it, Henderson said.

Three of her students have followed in her footsteps and are teaching French in the territory.

While it's parents who make the decision to enroll their child in early French immersion, it's the students' desire to learn a second language and be bilingual that keeps them in it, she said.

After working in the early French immersion program for three years, Henderson moved on to develop the French first language program before going on to teach the language at the former Jeckell Junior High School and then at F.H. Collins Secondary, where many of her first students were by now graduating.

"Some of those kids I had in Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 and then Grade 10, Grade 11 and Grade 12 so I'm very close, you can appreciate, that having those young people for the amount of time that I did to work with them, we're very close and they come and visit me regularly and are part of my cheerleading (section), if you will," she said.

Though French was the subject Henderson focused on, many have recalled the teacher going above and beyond that role over the years.

One note comes from a mother of a man who Henderson drove to school every day through his early elementary school years.

Henderson recalled the man's single mother having to be at work before school started every day and with no one else in the home to make sure he got there, Henderson picked him up every day. After school, he would come by her classroom and wait for her to be done her work before they'd leave to drop him off at home again.

While it may have been just a drive, it also might have planted a seed that got him into the habit of going to school, Henderson said.

Another student recalled the French teacher coming to the rescue when she learned she'd need another academic credit in Grade 12 to get into university after she had already picked her courses.

Henderson tutored her outside of regular classes so she could challenge the Grade 12 French exam and go on to university without having to come back for a high school course.

Many others recall the fundraising efforts of Henderson to go on school trips to places like Ottawa, Quebec and even Europe.

It was a trip to Europe Henderson used as an incentive to encourage a young, bright first nations girl to attend classes every day. Told if she was at school each day she could go on the trip, the student diligently came to classes and was probably the most inquisitive student on tours during their time in Europe.

Back in Canada, Henderson learned of a scholarship available to aboriginal students. She immediately thought of the girl and suggested she write the required essay about her grandmother.

The girl wrote the essay, documenting her grandmother's life and the stories and legends her grandma told her over the years, then took it to Henderson to read.

It was so well-written, Henderson recalled, she went to the school's counsellor and said the girl should be in a higher-level English course.

The counsellor replied that it wasn't Henderson's place to say what English course the girl should be in and suggested that putting her in a higher level would discourage the student.

"I'd taken it to the English department, the English department thinks that this person writes as well as any other non-first nations child so why shouldn't she be in Grade 12 (English)?" Henderson recalled.

"Anyhow, in the end, she enrolled in Grade 12 English and got 72 per cent."

The sad thing about it was when the student decided to go on to college, she had to spend time upgrading her high school courses because she had taken lower-level courses in math, science and technology.

"That's the part that really saddens me. There are too many students we're simply putting them in classes without really knowing where they should be and working with them, even if they are short of skills," she said, adding there's a responsibility to ensure students get the skills they need.

There were never any questions that Mme. Henderson, as she is frequently called, had high standards for her students to achieve. Just as she worked to make sure her students got the skills they needed, she expected them to work hard too.

"There's no use being in a classroom and teaching mediocrity," she said.

"If you teach to mediocrity, you're not encouraging those who are bright and those who are medium- or lower-level students have nothing to work towards."

Though Henderson is not a believer in "teaching mediocrity", she does believe each student is an individual with different needs, and as such, the more variety of French programs there are in the territory the better.

Not everyone is suited to the early French immersion. Programs such as the late French immersion (Grades 6 or 7), intensive core, additional French courses and a French curriculum for the English-streamed students provides options to learn the language as well, she said.

Henderson's teaching of her first language to Yukoners didn't always end in June with the conclusion of the school year. She often spent her summers offering French camps to kids. They featured all the usual camp activities except all communication was in French.

As the Order of Canada website notes about her 1989 membership to the distinguished club of exceptional Canadians: "A leading French language educator, she has promoted and encouraged French language and culture in her many teaching assignments throughout Canada, particularly in the

Yukon where she was instrumental the establishment of the first French school which has broadened the scope of education and provided new learning opportunities for children in the territory."

While her impact is obvious on her former students and their parents who have written letters and thank-you notes and were among the 110 to attend her recent retirement party, she's also had an impact behind the scenes, developing the late French immersion program which now has a waiting list for students to get into.

Over the years, she's also challenged the authorities in the system to make sure students in the territory were equipped with a good education.

She ended her career in Yukon education as president of the Yukon Teachers Association.

As she said Thursday, it's impossible not to keep busy, so she will continue tutoring and open her bed and breakfast this month.