Category Archives: Education

Vanguard, Saskatchewan – Home Base!

Before I set out to see this province on my hike for Huntington Disease awareness and research, I thought I would like to profile my hometown of Vanguard, Saskatchewan by doing a little walking tour.

We are celebrating Canada’s 150 this Saturday, July 8.  There will be a social, dance, inflatable battle rings, and a huge fireworks display.

Here is where I am from:

 

Links:

Here is a link to my fundraising page. 

Please also check out the Huntington Society of Canada’s website.  It has a ton of information and articles.

Follow me on Twitter @gshwaga – Please like or retweet if you can. It gets my message to more people that way.

Follow me on Facebook: Greg Shwaga or my event page @GregsHDwalkSK

Travel Plans!

I have worked out a tentative schedule for my walk across the province of Saskatchewan in support of Huntington Disease research and awareness.  I totally expect the schedule to be ruined by noon of the first day but if all goes as planned (which it never does) I should be on the road from July 10-27.  Here is the breakdown:

July 9 – Sunday

Leave from my hometown of Vanguard SK.  Drive to Macklin.

July 10 – Monday

7:00 a.m. – Leave the Alberta/Saskatchewan border.

8:00 a.m. – Arrive in Macklin SK – The rest of the towns are all in Saskatchewan.

10:30 a.m. – Arrive in Evesham 

I won`t see any other towns today.

Total Kilometres:  44

July 11 – Tuesday

7:00 a.m. start

11:00 a.m. – Arrive in Unity

7:30 p.m. – Arrive in Wilkie

Total Kilometres:  49

July 12 – Wednesday

6:00 a.m. start

I won`t see any new towns today. I will be between Wilkie and Biggar

Total Kilometres : 45

July 13 – Thursday

6:00 a.m. start

11:30 a.m. – Arrive in Biggar

No new towns.

Total Kilometres: 42

July 14 – Friday

6:00 a.m. start

8:30 a.m. – Arrive in Perdue

4:00 p.m. Arrive in Asquith

Total Kilometres: 45

July 15 – Saturday

7:00 a.m. – start

1:00 p.m. – Arrive in Saskatoon

Total Kilometres: 25

July 16 – Sunday

Recovery Day in Saskatoon

July 17 – Monday

6:00 a.m. start

No towns on the road between Saskatoon and Humboldt.

Total Kilometres: 50

July 18 – Tuesday

6:00 a.m. start

No towns on the road today.

Total Kilometres: 50

July 19 – Wednesday

6:00 a.m. start

9:00 a.m. – Arrive in Humboldt

12:00 noon – Arrive in Muenster

3:00 p.m. – Arrive in St. Gregor

5:30 p.m. – Arrive in Englefeld

Total Kilometres: 47

July 20 – Thursday

6:00 a.m. start

8:00 a.m. – Arrive in Watson

3:00 p.m. Arrive in Quill Lake

6:00 p.m. – Arrive in Clair

Total Kilometres: 44

July 21 – Friday

6:00 a.m. start

11:30 a.m. – Arrive in Wadena

3:30 p.m. – Arrive in Kylemore

6:00 p.m. – Arrive in Kuroki

Total Kilometres: 43

July 22 – Saturday

8:00 a.m. start

10:00 a.m. – Arrive in Margo

1:00 p.m. – Arrive in Invermay

Total Kilometres: 23

July 23 – Sunday

Rest in Yorkton

July 24 – Monday

6:00 a.m. start

8:30 a.m. – Arrive in Rama

12:30 p.m. – Arrive in Buchanan

6:30 – p.m. – Arrive at Good Spirit Lake

Total Kilometres:  50

July 25 – Tuesday

6:00 a.m. start

3:00 p.m. – Arrive in Springside

6:30 p.m. – Arrive in White Spruce

Total Kilometres – 42

July 26 – Wednesday

7:00 a.m. start

9:30 a.m. – Arrive in Yorkton

12:30 p.m. – Arrive in Tonkin

Total Kilometres: 45

July 27 – Thursday

7:00 a.m. start

9:30 a.m. – Arrive in Wroxton

4:00 p.m. – Jump in the Lake of the Prairies! (Saskatchewan/Manitoba border)

Total Kilometres: 32

Spend the evening concluding my trip in Esterhazy, SK

Total Kilometres: 676

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Building a Mobile Reading Shack

Implementing the Saskatchewan Reads program in a school or classroom often starts with establishing a physical reading space. This reading space is usually a comfortable and safe place within the classroom or school where students can just kick back and enjoy a good book.

At Vanguard Community School we wanted to add to the interior reading spaces by giving our elementary students somewhere outside where kids could comfortably read away from the elements.   With visions of the bookmobile from my youth in mind, my PAA (Practical and Applied Arts) 10 class set out to convert an old tent trailer into a mobile reading room.

We started out by stripping the old trailer down to the frame.  Next, we used our newly acquired welding skills to add reinforcements to the floor. Basic framing followed as we built a stick frame building and mounted it to the steel frame.  To keep our weight down, we framed our building using 2 x 3 studs on two-foot centres.  Also, in order to keep a low profile, we constructed a flat roof. We doubled up on finishing and structural integrity by using 1 x 4 tongue and groove spruce on the interior. Laminate flooring completed the interior.  We then wired our shack so that we could run one L.E.D. light on a switch and an electrical outlet. For our power source, we simply wired in a heavy-duty extension cord so that we could plug our trailer into an external outlet. R-12 insulation was added to the walls and ceiling.  The roof was completed with pre-cut corrugated steel.  Vinyl siding finished the exterior.

At this point, all we needed was to add a bookshelf and some books and our mobile reading room was complete.  The wheel wells served as built-in benches.  Most people who see it think it would make a great ice-fishing shack.  You can decide:

The Durham Report and Responsible Government in Canada.

So we know that Great Britain messed up.  They taxed the United States into rebellion in 1776 and blamed it on too much freedom. Determined not to mess up again, Great Britain forced an oligarchy on what remained of its British North American colonies (Canada).  To no one’s surprise, this led yet again to rebellion in 1837 in Upper and Lower Canada.  Still unsure of why their colonies had this nasty habit of rebelling, Great Britain appointed Lord  “Radical Jack” Durham to both govern its North American colonies and also find out the causes of the rebellions.

Durham told of his findings in the now famous (guess what?) Durham Report.  Basically, he reported what the United States knew decades earlier: People generally like a say in how they are governed (i.e. responsible government).  The thing is, Great Britain rejected the Durham report! Instead, they opted for a kind of hybrid between Durham’s recommendations and what they had already established for government in the colonies. This led to among other things, the Act of Union in 1841, separation of English and French speaking Canadians, separate schools and overall a unique (or weird) political system that would be a forerunner of Canadian Politics.  Here is how it went down:

A New Start!

Wasps

I had an alternate beginning to my shop class this year.

I thought I would start out showing the students where to get wood in the woodshed and organize a few pieces of lumber while we were in there.   After about five minutes of rattling around in the shed one of the students happened to notice a fairly small Yellow Jacket nest right above us.  There was only about 15 wasps but they were most certainly annoyed with our presence and were moments from kicking us out of “their” shed.

A quick trip to the Co-op and a can of Raid later, and we reclaimed our woodshed. No one (except the wasps) was hurt.

Just another start to a rural school principal’s year.