The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday September 19, 2007 - 5 Gross factor helps get students excited about history Continued from page 1 he had them stage a mock trial for William Lyon Mackenzie, architect of the 1837 rebellion. "The kids assume the different roles of actual historical people. They have to research those roles and they have to act as those characters would have acted," said MacPhail. Relating the events of the present to those of the past was also an important focus for MacPhail, who notes that the issues Mackenzie fought against continue to emerge from time to time. "We bring in things that are relevant today, like the Toronto City Hall scandal where they were hiring all their family and friends. William Lyon Mackenzie fought against the family compact, which was a similar situation in 1837," said MacPhail. "Today's issue of the whole terminology of what is a terrorist was also brought in. To some people, William Lyon Mackenzie was a bad guy at the time, but as history evolves and the decades pass, we now look at him as a hero. How did that happen and could that happen to some of the people we regard as troublemakers and rabblerousers today?" MacPhail says the exercise is perfect for engaging his students because it allows them to have fun by dressing up like historical figures and acting, while at the same time forcing them to gain a deeper understanding of history. "Kids love to argue, so it's natural for them to want to get up there and argue a point, but this exercise forces them to be a little more disciplined because they have to have the facts," he said. MacPhail, who has been teaching since 2000, has already received two other nominations for the Governor General's Awards. However, he is still blown away by the fact that his work is being celebrated. "It's flattering. It really speaks volumes to the hard work of the students and to the great community that I work in, lots of very supportive parents and colleagues," he said. No less excited about the prospect of winning a Governor General's Award is Andrew Rychel, of W.H. Morden Public School. Rychel has been recognized for engineering a history teaching style in which his Grade 8 students become the teachers. To begin, Rychel divides the students into groups and assigns each group a section of Canadian history, which ranged from the Red River/Northwest Rebellions to the immigrant movement to the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Each student is assigned 20 questions on their section of history which they were required to answer in preparation for teaching their historical subject to the rest of the class. "I kind of joked around with them saying, `by answering those 20 questions you are the history student at that point. When you're done, you've now qualified as a history teacher'," said Rychel. "Then I'd give them a curriculum, `to teach the class you must talk about this, this, this and this. How you go about it is strictly up to you, but these points must be covered." Rychel says some students would teach the class through a play, while others would video tape their presentation, show it in class and then add to it. While this was happening Rychel would also teach seminars on bibliographies and footnotes to help students give their reports a more professional look. To keep kids engaged and producing this kind of work Rychel uses a technique he refers to as the hummer.gm.ca `gross factor.' "If I can gross my Grade 8's out, I'm in good shape. The history textbooks never talk about the real dirty, nasty stuff like how people got frost bite while they were building the Canadian Pacific Railway or what life was like at the time," he said. "If you can get them to go, `oh my God that's gross. What else would happen?' You've got them. It's the little details. In history you usually get the big picture with the dates and lots of boring peo- ple, but when they start to learn a little bit more about those people they tend to become a lot more interested in them." With a total of 25 similarly remarkable history teachers nominated for the Governor General's Awards the task now falls to a committee of judges to select six recipients. Those chosen will be awarded $2,500, a gold medal and a trip for two to the Awards ceremony in Ottawa at Rideau Hall on Friday, Nov. 2. 25 MPG.* BECAUSE THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE DOESN'T COME WITH GAS STATIONS. QUEENSWAY HUMMER 1652 The Queensway, Etobicoke, Ontario M8Z 1X1 · 416.354.2222 · WWW.QUEENSWAYHUMMER.COM D#98483 TIRED? STRESSED? Kundalini Yoga can Help! Enjoy your first class for free. Call Salveta at 905.825.8466 *HUMMER H3 3.7L 4-speed automatic highway fuel economy. City fuel economy rated at 15.7L/100km (18mpg) based on available manufacturer's fuel consumption data for 2007 HUMMER H3 SUV 3.7L in-line 5-cylinder AWD. Model shown is a 2007 HUMMER H3 1SA starting from $40,995 MSRP. Freight ($1,220), licence, insurance, registration, administration fees, duties, fees associated with publication/filing at the movable property registry (PPSA) and taxes not included. Dealers are free to set individual prices. See hummer.gm.ca or dealer for details.