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18 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday July 4, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com The Regional Municipality of Halton www.halton.ca New! Collection of untied bulk brush piles must be scheduled by calling: or 1-866-4HALTON (1-866-442-5866) or TTY 905-827-9833. 7 a.m. and no sooner than 5 p.m. the evening before. than 3 m (10 ft) long by 1.8 m (6 ft) wide by 1.2 m (4 ft) high, with branches a maximum of 7.5 cm (3 inches) in diameter. Bulk brush must be free of loose debris such as leaves and collection. Yard Waste Collection Only use paper yard waste bags or open, reusable, rigid containers labelled yard waste. If using a reusable, rigid container, you can drill holes on the bottom of the yard waste container for drainage. Do not use cardboard boxes. Yard waste labels for reusable containers are available at no charge from Halton Region. Call Halton Region between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday to Friday at 905-825-6000 or 1-866-4HALTON (1-866-4425866) or TTY 905-827-9833. Containers may have a capacity up to 125 L (27 imperial gallons) and weigh no more than 23 kg (50 lbs). Yard waste in cardboard boxes, Blue Boxes, GreenCarts or plastic bags will not be collected. Brush must be tied in bundles no larger than 1.2 m (4 ft) by 0.6 m (2 ft) wide, with branches a maximum of 7.5 cm (3 inches) in diameter. Bundled and tied brush will be collected with regular yard waste. You do not have to call Halton Region if your bundled brush meets these dimensions. Morden school teacher Andrew Rychel Morden teacher nominated for Governor General's Award of Excellence By Hiba Kesebi SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Yard waste is collected every other week, on the same day as your garbage. Grass clippings Tree stumps Tree trimmings Decorative cornstalks Pumpkins Fallen fruit from trees Yard and garden trimmings Clay Plastic shopping or garbage bags Grasscycling Grass clippings are not accepted with yard waste for collection. Instead, grasscycle! After mowing, leave grass clippings on your lawn. Grass clippings are approximately 80 per cent water and will decompose quickly, releasing valuable nutrients back into the soil. Grasscycling is Easy Access to the Services You Need Halton Region is committed to providing easy access to services. If you are looking for information about resources in the community, you can simply dial 211 for free, just dial 311 for direct access to Halton Region, your local municipality, the Halton District and Halton Catholic District School Boards, and the Halton Regional Police Service. 211 and 311 services are provided by Access Halton and assistance www.halton.ca for inquiries or information on all regional programs and services. Gary Carr - Regional Chair Halton Regional Meeting Schedule July 8 July 9 July 9 July 16 040708 1151 Bronte Road, Oakville, Ontario L6M 3L1 Up until Grade 8, I never thought Canadian history could be interesting. I didn't care about the War of 1812, and I only made sure to give it enough attention to pass my Grade 7 history class. Thanks to a project designed by Andrew Rychel, the history teacher at W.H. Morden Public School, though, I enjoyed learning about the development of Canada's industry, the construction of its Pacific Railway, its immigration and women's movement, and the Northwest Mounted Police. This project has also caught the attention of Canada's National History Society, which has selected him as one of 25 finalists for the Governor General's Award for Excellence in Teaching History, two years in a row. The main purpose of Rychel's project is to let students become teachers and experts of a specific section of Canadian history. Rychel said he developed the idea for the project while still a student teacher, and he gave credit to his teacher advisor. "He created this idea of breaking down sections of Canadian history and turning them into a project," said Rychel. "The social studies curriculum has a lot to cover and the question is how will you cover all this and I thought why don't I do something along those lines." In his one term project, Rychel divides his Grade 8 class into groups and assigns each group a section of Canada's history. According to Rychel "one of the big problems that teachers give students, especially in history, is that [they] go `alright go find out about this topic,' but the students don't know what to look for." When three other classmates and I got together, to research and prepare a presentation about the development of Canada's i n d u s t r y , Hiba Kesebi almost six years ago, we never ran into such a problem. That's because Rychel provided us with our own curriculum. "I give students 20 questions, and if you know the answers to those 20 questions then you understand your topic. It gives your students something to look for." The end result saw eight groups, each given their own distinct unit of Canadian history, present and teach their research to the rest of the class. "The idea was if everybody could do that, by the end students would have delivered a lesson. They would have created a written and oral presentation in their area and become familiar with everybody else's area and in the process have gone through the steps of creating a significant project and learn all the little things bibliography and footnoting along the way," he added. Rychel's been assigning this project for eight years, but it wasn't until three years ago, when the music teacher at W.H. Morden decided to nominate Rychel for the Governor General's Award, that Canada's National History Society came to know of his unique lesson plan. "First year they contacted me and I really had no clue who nominated me, how I ended up in this position," explained Rychel. "So I put together a little bit of a package not sure of what See Oakville page 20