<![CDATA[TARYN L. WAGNER - Runes & Relics Blog]]>

<![CDATA[TARYN L. WAGNER - Runes & Relics Blog]]>Tue, 30 Jun 2026 23:42:42 -0400Weebly<![CDATA[Teacher - Mr. D. Shouldice]]>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.tarynlwagner.com/runes--relics-blog/teacher-mr-d-shouldiceI've always loved being in the garage tinkering with something. It's almost as good as being out in the garden. We went on a grade eight tour of the high school we would be attending in the fall. Our guide was a current student in the mentoring program, who clearly was not interested in going down the tech hall, but I was and I wasn't the only one.

It was clear that if we wanted to look into the rooms we were going on our own, so that's what we did. Each teacher was welcoming and let us wander, as much as safety would allow.

There were seven different shops; drafting, heavy machine, wood working, electronics, welding, auto body and auto mechanics.

I was the only girl in my group that went into the shops and took the time to look around. I still remember the the familiar smell the first time I walked into the auto shop that would quickly become my favorite class in years to come.

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Mr. Shouldice explained that the grade nine program was six weeks in each shop (with the exception of the body shop and welding) and we would get theory and hands on time in each. When we got our course section paperwork we got to pick two classes of our choice. Mine; Intro to Technology was my first pick and a computer course to keep my mom and Nana happy. I was very nervous to start grade nine in the shop program but everyone, and I mean everyone, was extremely welcoming right from the start.

Over my high school years the auto shop became my favorite class. I looked forward to it everyday. Even on days it wasn't on my schedule. Having a bad day, go to the shop. I have always had regular migraines, go to the shop. Need to study for a test or have a project due, screw it, go to the shop.

Mr. Shouldice never kicked me out. I was always welcome to sit in the classroom part of the room and work on anything I wanted while his class worked in the shop. He helped me get my Coop placement, which led to an amazing job.

]]><![CDATA[Teachers - Mr. R. Fournier]]>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.tarynlwagner.com/runes--relics-blog/teachers-mr-r-fournierWhen I started grade five I could read well enough to get by. During silent reading I would sit with a book that looked like the books the other kids had. I waited until someone near me turned a page, then I would turn a page and wait for them to turn the next one. I would pick books that had movies and do an oral report based on the movie.

Back then (not that it was that long ago) cannon mattered and adaptations were made true to the source material. Our teacher, assuming she was paying attention to our presentations, never seemed to notice. That is, until Mr. Fournier came to our school.

He told us he was going to call us to his room one by one, to assess our reading level. I knew my secret was going to be found out.

When I walked into his room there was a selection of books on his table and he asked me to pick one. I sat down at the table and waited for him to come back. He asked which one I picked, but I knew there were none I could even attempt, so I told him, “I can’t read sir”.

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I told him everything and he sat there and listened to every word. When I finished he smiled and said, “What if I promise you, if you work with me everyday, you’ll be reading by the end of the year?” It was the end of February but, I got up, hugged him and tearfully accepted his offer.

It was a lot of work but he was right. By June of grade five I was reading anything I wanted. I was never without a book, no matter where I went. By the end of the summer I had read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings from cover to cover.

]]><![CDATA[Principal - Mr. D. Morrison]]>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.tarynlwagner.com/runes--relics-blog/principal-mr-d-morrisonMr. Morrison started at my elementary school when I was in grade one. Once a week he hosted a garden club in the school library, and when I got to grade four I was able to join. It was also the year our school council agreed to help raise the money needed to start a school garden.

Over the years, under Mr. Morrison leadership the garden club not only maintained the garden in front of the school, we were able to plant a dozen trees along the back yard fence as well as a bunch of dogwood shrubs. We also started the schools first compost for lunch scraps.

Eventually he even started a hiking club on weekends. We had to have a parent with us to go because this wasn't a school trip. We planned the trips in our garden club. We choose the place we would go, and met there on the day.

As we walked he would point out different plants and get us to identify them from what we talked about in garden club.

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When my family moved into a house that had a garden, I was thrilled. I spent hours out there weeding and watering. I planted vegetables in the backyard and lots of flowers along the driveway and front of the house.

In the spring of grade six Mr. Morrison left and we got a new principal. All we were told at the time was that he was sick and would be returning when he felt better.

Without him, the garden club ended. Four of us couldn't stand that the garden, we had taken such care of was becoming overgrown, so we found a teacher who agreed to come out and sit with us while we cleaned it up once a week.

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The following year, the four of us, the last remaining of the garden club were called to the library. I remember the excitement I felt thinking he was coming back.

Mrs. Morrison was sitting at the table waiting for us. In 1993 Mr. Morrison passed after a hard fought battle with cancer. We sat there crying as she told us how proud he was that we kept up the garden.

The school held a massive fundraiser and was able to purchase this beautiful tree. The nursery we bought it from, agreed to donate their time and the equipment needed to plant such a large tree.

It stood in front of our school for many years. You can not only see the tree, but our garden to the left of the photo.

They are both gone now. A renovation of the front entrance of our school was done and they were both removed to make room. The memorial stone and some of the shrubs were moved next to the flagpole at the insistence of myself and another member of the former garden club. We had to petition the current parent counsel with the help of a retired staff member who also remembered him and the impact he made on so many students who loved the outdoors.

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I work at the school now and we still have little garden out front. We have a beautiful naturalization area behind the school where our students can run through trees. It's my favorite part of our school.

]]><![CDATA[Teachers - Mrs. D. Pavlove]]>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.tarynlwagner.com/runes--relics-blog/teachers-mrs-d-pavloveWhen my son was in grade four his teacher started them on a book writing project. They worked with partners and completed a story and a recipe about healthy eating. The best part about the project was the trip to the printer.

They got to see how their book was formatted and put together, from start to finish. A few weeks later he came home and couldn’t wait to show me the completed book, that he was so proud to keep.

When we were packing to move and going through the book shelves, it was the first book he looked for and the first one into the moving box. There was even a note on the box that he wrote, so he which one it was in and that it made it back to the shelf in our new house.

When I started publishing my first book, Welcome to Mallard Pond, Mrs. Pavlove was the first coworker I told. She was supportive, and encouraging through the whole process.

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The same is true for, Runes & Relics. It’s a long process sometimes when you have to wait for each step before moving to the next and Mrs. Pavlove has been a constant source of encouragement. I always enjoy our hallway chats after school.

Here's to making another dream come true my friend!

]]><![CDATA[Teacher - Mr. D. Huggins]]>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.tarynlwagner.com/runes--relics-blog/teacher-mr-d-hugginsIn grade eleven I took an exclusive creative writing course. Students had to apply for the course by writing a ten page short story to be read by the teacher. He had picked his class every year and I was chosen.

Things started well enough. We did a LOT of reading. We were given a list a of books and each one had a number of days. The expectation was; pick a book for the list, read it, write a paper, and submit it in the time allotted by the number on the book. This was on top of all the other class work from our other courses.

I was so excited to finally write my first story. It was about a couple of teenagers whose plane crashed in the Arizona badlands. They gathered what they could and while trying to find help found a small town that seemed to be lost in time.

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The girl had been hurt in the crash so she stayed in the town and the boy (I don’t remember their names) took one of the towns horses to go and get help.

Long story short when he found the help he was looking for, they told him there was no town. It had been there, but it was abandon hundreds of years ago. They returned to find the girl was safe, sleeping soundly on the remains of a dirt covered bed. The thriving town was gone and there was no trace of the people who had been there when she laid down.

I got back a book report with a note that said “Come to the Lit. Office at lunch”. I did and the first thing he said was, “Who wrote this?” and dropped my story on the edged of his desk. I told him I did and he called me a liar. He accused me of plagiarizing it and that I was being removed my his class and my stuck a post it on my story with my new English room.

I was heartbroken. He wouldn’t listen to anything I said because it was “too well written for a kid to have written it”.

The next day I went to my new class. I was moved from advanced creative writing to basic general English. I knew the teacher, he was also my welding teacher. His class room was a portable on the far side of the school. He started the class reading and we went outside. He said he was surprised that I was added to his class asked why I was moved. I told him everything, he told me not to worry and asked to read my story.

Teachers have connections. I don’t who or how, but Mr. Huggins saved me. I met him and the other teacher in the guidance office a few weeks later. The other teacher apologized for his “rush to judgment” and offered to allow me to return to his class. I asked, if any, what other options I had. Mr. Huggins said I could stay in his class and he would oversee my creative writing work.

I did the work for his basic class as well as the additional work of the other class. I was allowed to attend all the guest speakers the writing class got to enjoy without having to deal with the other teacher.

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But that wasn’t all. I met Mr. Huggins at a chapters bookstore one night and while I waited for my mom and his wife (two different people) to walk every inch of the store, we went to the comfy chairs and talked about my new writing project.

It became a weekly meeting. We would sit at a table in the Starbucks section and work while my mom and his wife looked around the store. With all his extra help and support I was able to ace both the creative writing class and his English class while keeping up with my other class work.

For years we met at Chapters once a month for a couple hours.

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