TACTics

October 22,1999

CONNECTIONS

Headed for Mexico

By Cheryl Edwards

 

Seen Flying over the Gulf of Mexico with the hummingbird migration, Kathy Suerken is headed to Monterrey, Mexico where she will be meeting with the Secretary of Education, Mr. Jose Martinez.  Mr. Martinez is not only TOC for Education Director in Mexico, Alejandrina de Garza and TOC for Education Coordinator in the Secretary’s Office, Marina Rodriguez; he has been named

by the President of Mexico to be the National Advisor of Education.

 

TOCFE Presentations and Classes

By Cheryl Edwards

 

Larry Till will be teaching a TACT class offered for State Board Continuing Education Credits at St. Clair Community College starting in October.  Contact Carol Andre-Nichols at 1.800.553.2426 for registering information.

 

Will Stentz presented at the 1999 MARHSS (Michigan Area Residence Hall Student Staff) Conference for college resident assistants, graduate assistants, and college hall directors.  The program title: Achieving Ambitious Targets.

 

Doug Roby and Mary Ellen Bourbeau will be presenting at the Michigan Counseling Association’s 1999 Convention in Lansing, Michigan USA, October 16-19.

 

News from Israel

By Gila Glatter, Director, Israel

 

Many things are happening in Israel with TOCFED.  My colleagues and I, are pushing the use of the tools through teachers' rooms, in order to avoid violence among children, and to promote thinking process through subject matters in classes.  The new concept and way, have caught teachers and kids.  They like it very much.  They use it, as they study it with our instructors and tell about

it to friends and others.  So, I can say very proudly, we are successful.  The point, which bothers me a lot, and keeps my mind busy, is what will happen after a while, after we will leave the scene?

 

We, all, know that to get an insight, regarding valued issues and matters, we have to invest a lot of efforts and energy.  In education, we need even more of these.  Teachers, from time to time, feel they can not carry the heavy burden any more, and they stop and leave , even they appreciate the valued treasure they have gotten.  I keep my mind busy, for many hours, finding better strategies that may help assimilate the need and the use of the TOC way.  I feel, deeply in my heart, that using the tools and adapting the concept, helps us to overcome our reflexive way of thinking, making our thinking organized, bright, clear and focused.  The more we use it the more it is easier to respond and act cleverly in real situations.

 

Last Thursday, we opened a TOCFED CLUB, in order to enable our TOC

people to get in touch face to face, to hear about new implementations in education, to ask questions, and to learn about new chances for jobs.

 

38 people participated, (too many for a club) and stayed for  3 hours.  The atmosphere was very solemn.  We tried to define our goal in the club and worked with TOC tool:" building a team spirit".  We have gone through a very qualitative process, despite the large number of the people.  We came up with unfinished strategy for achieving the goal.  The people have promised to continue at home and then to pass it to me, as soon as possible.  In another five weeks, I hope to bring a good strategy to the next meeting, which every one will feel he is a part of it.

 

I would like to share with you one unit lesson, in a course I'm in charge of.  I teach in a school collage named: Talpiot, in Tel- Aviv, Israel.  The course is about strategies in the heterogeneous class.  For many years I used to teach this course in a very successful way, so I didn't even consider to change my way of leading the students.  My TOC knowledge, induce me to look upon things, with new eyes.... So, I realized that what I give to my students are answers for how to deal with the complicated situations in the multiplex class.  I have to let them find out what they want to change.  They have to ask the first question, before they learn how to use tactics and strategies.  For 2 lessons, the students raised their problems in teaching in an un-uniform class.  We organized the problems as conflicts, in cloud diagrams, and after we described 4 "udies", we specify the core problem.

 

Problem which almost every undesirable phenomena in the heterogeneous class can be define and agree with.  It was amazing.  Even stories, which in the first moment looked as impossible to define and clarify, we succeeded to fill in a cloud... Now we all agree that in order to succeed in our instruction role, we have to keep the framework: norms and regulations, in one hand, and in the other hand, we have to enable our students to be independent and responsible. We can not achieve these two needs, while we keep our dominance on the framework.  We have to transcribe the mastery to the students.  How to do that we will examine through the entire course.  The process we have gotten through was so meaningful to most of the students. So, some of them came to me showing me, how their specific problems, which in the first look seems so far from the generic problem, are suitable perfect.  Now , we have to go a long way to study the strategies that are intended to overcome this problem.  Each concept in the strategies, we will check with TOC tools; thinking cause and effect way.

 

POOGI POOL

Rami Question #6

            (Need)-            B -            Get from point Y to point X

            (Want)-            D -            Take the family car

 

Are the following statements suitable assumptions for B —D?

                        There is no public transportation available to Y.

                     I can’t borrow a car from my friends.

 

QUOTES

From Denise Meyer

 

"When you make the finding yourself, even if you're the last person on

earth to see the light, you'll never forget it." —Carl Sagan

 

You asked what can we learn from it?  Simple… Our teaching must be Socratic.

 

"Assumptions allow the best in life to pass you by." —John Sales

 

I often say, now, that the most difficult person in my audience makes me

learn the most.  Learning is the best in life.  I used to say, "How negative;”

and dismiss those learning opportunities.  My assumption being they had

nothing to offer me but headaches.

 

I also want to add one of my own: “Albert Einstein is full of TOC wisdom.”

I love every quote I hear from him.  One I always remember and refer to:

 

"Setting an example is not the main way we teach, it is the only way." — Albert Einstein

 

EDITORS’ NOTES

By Kay Buckner-Seal

 

Many people enjoyed the lesson submitted last week by Judy Holder entitled: An Introduction to Clouds.  Her lesson was a model; it was highly interactive, it involved higher order thinking, and it made relevant connections by the use of the TOC thinking tool… the evaporating cloud.

 

I will share a few responses to Judy’s contribution from the TOCFE family:

“Thanks for the update this week.  It was very helpful.  I am doing a presentation to 6-12th  grade students about understanding feelings and making positive choices.  Then information from Judy Holder was helpful and some of the ideas I will be incorporating into my presentation.  Thanks Judy.  The focus of my presentation will be using a cloud to help us solve conflicts that result out of our feelings.  The presentation is Sunday October 24, 1999 at the Grosse Pointe Memorial Church in Grosse Pointe Mi.  The title of the program is SAVE OUR CHILDREN and there are two other speakers addressing issues of violence and substance abuse.  I only wish the title was SAVE OUR CHILDREN USING TOC.  I guess there is more work for me to do.” —Doug Roby <RobyD@gp.k12.mi.us>

 

“Bernie, is it possible to get Judy to identify the tunes that are used for the

songs in her "Introduction to Clouds"?  I suspect they're common ones, but I can't figure them out for the first two songs listed.” —Barbara Riester <RIESTERBB@vmi.edu>

 

Judy, I hope you are reading this week’s TACTics.  Thanks for your article and we look forward to hearing from you with the title of those tunes.  We welcome contributions from the entire TOCFE family.  Send snail mail to:

 

                Cheryl A. Edwards                                          Kay Buckner-Seal

2253 S. Hill Island Rd.              or                     10230 Dartmouth

Cedarville, MI 49719  USA                             Oak Park, MI 48237  USA

 

Cheryl’s e-mail address has changed.  Her address is now: cherylaedwards@aol.com You can also send via e-mail to me at: bucknek@resa.net