TACTics Journal

December 17, 1999

CONNECTIONS

by Kathy Suerken
My Rotary club always "rings the bell" to collect funds for the Salvation Army in December and, while doing so earlier this month, I "connected" (TOC) to the message expressed on the sign hanging over the collection kettle. It reads: NEED knows no season.

One such perennial need for those of us in TOCFE is to mentor each other and not just from a distance. Therefore, I traveled to the United Kingdom last week to attend the first regional TOCFE upgrade in London which was organized by David Higgins, who directs TOCFE, UK as a volunteer. About half of the existing London network of fifty-five MSW/TACT graduates gave up a Saturday during the busiest month of the year to share their enthusiasm- AND constraints.

Therefore, we started with a PrT on what prevents us from effectively spreading TOC as fast as we would like. Happily, I think the new TACT materials will address many of the obstacles. We spent half of the day discussing the recent changes, which I will share with all of you through a series of articles planned to begin in the January 7 TACTics. (My New Millennium Resolution to you!)

Additionally, Judy Holder presented her dedicated work as a volunteer to create student materials. Designed to actively engage primary school children, we were all captivated as well! Are we adults of like minds, do you think?!

Linda Trapnell, who represented the Nottingham network (of about 30) traveled to share the latest applications with her primary students. She recommends teaching the cloud to young children through literature and she is trying to put together a pamphlet of examples for us all. Currently, she is working with her staff to implement a PrT on raising numeracy standards- as required by a national directive.

In order to ensure that communication among the network stays on a POOGI (Process of Ongoing Improvement), Kate Miller has volunteered to maintain the database, disseminate TACTics to those who can not access it by email and to schedule more frequent support "get-togethers".

We all agreed one obstacle, however, is still quite daunting- how to overcome habits: falling back into old paradigms!

For inspiration, I share a story about possibilities- represented by a woman named Janna who attended the London upgrade although she had only been exposed to one session (the PrT). A win-win solution (to her excitement following the upgrade and my excitement about what she wants to do with TOC) was to put her through a crash course one-on-one before I left London. Although Janna is an UK citizen and has been working in London as a successful education consultant, she is returning to her native Yugoslavia next week "to help the children of my country." She had made this risky decision despite huge uncertainties. The uncertainty on how to begin, however, has been laid to rest.

"Finding TOC just before leaving" Janna says, "is the answer I have been looking for. Now I know WHY I must go back- and HOW I'm going to start". She plans to live on her savings and expects to be teaching the cloud in the classroom as a volunteer within weeks. She will have access to the Internet.

Which brings me back to a "need which knows no season." Who among you would be willing to help mentor Janna now and in the future? suerken@nwfl.net

NETWORKING

Peer Mediation at the Elementary School Level
Denise Meyer, Long Beach, CA USA
I have really struggled with peer mediation at the elementary school level. The only way it seems to work is with the intuitive method that Rami outlined at the conference (LA, CA 8/99). However, A twenty-minute recess is just not enough time to solve a conflict on the yard by doing the clouds and assumptions. Students don't have the patience; they just want to go back to the game. I have some clouds from a class in which we tried to teach mediation. I don't think they ever used the cloud process on the yard.

When you do mediation, you really have more than one step. You have to get the story straight. When I was a classroom teacher, many times I hated to deal with yard issues because it took about half an hour and 20 kids to get the story straight. I have found a way to cut this down, using what I call a sequence branch. It's simple, it's quick, and it's very accurate. You can easily clear up inconsistencies in the story because the logic of the sequence is clear. When some connection doesn't make sense, you say to the students, "I don't understand. This doesn't make sense." And the students will be able to clear it up by adding the missing information. One thing about the sequence branch is that it starts in the middle because students always begin at the point of crisis. You have to go back to the beginning point. That, you do simply by stating the box and adding that wonderful word "because..." and you will get the box below.

Example: Johnny comes to you and says, "He hit me." I say, "Johnny hit you because?" And I get the box below, which is something like, "I wouldn't let him have the ball." Johnny will say, "It was my turn." You now have a banana that says: "If Billy keeps the ball from Johnny and it is Johnny's turn, then Johnny hits Billy. At this point, we can begin to point out that the responsibility for the conflict does not lie just with Johnny. When you write this, you can use the wording, "When... then..." and you can read it back "If...then..." and it works fine.

The next step in the process is to decide the course of action to take so the two disputants can go back to play, which is what everyone, is anxiously awaiting. You can do a simple questioning of: "What was it you needed?" "Why did you take the ball away?" Then once you have both needs identified, you simply ask: "How can we find a solution so both of you can get your needs?"

This year, we have one school asking us about a mediation program and we are talking about using the NBr as the main tool. The sequence branch- rather than cause effect- is a very useful tool to get the story straight from the disputants. Once students have written the "when...then..." branch, you ask them each to point to the boxes they had some control over. When they pin point the boxes, you discuss what other options they could have taken. It really doesn't solve the heart of the issue. It only gives them a way to trim the negative branch of their behavior so that the next time they will be aware that there is a different way to do it. After that, they go into the needs questions and intuitive solutions.

"I'm wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences or observations. One last comment. In all of our work with students, we are realizing that for the first time, all of our discussions with students are totally open-ended. There are no right or wrong answers, just answers to be questioned and considered. I recently read a poem, which included the phrase: "questioning the answers not answering the questions" That's what we're teaching them to do.

Denise is one of our TOC for Ed family that has done a lot of work with peer mediation.

ELEMENTARY/SECONDARY TACTICS

Lesson Plans in the form of Transition Trees
By Pat Huddy, Art Teacher, York High School, George, South Africa
STARTING SITUATION:
Learners are not good at selecting their subject in their pictures.

OBSTACLE:
Learners lack experience in critical assessment of their photos.
NEED:
Learners need to practice in a way that will enable them to put in and remove elements.
ACTION:
The learners take two photos of a part of the school, which is empty of subject. They use magazine images to montage composition in such a way that a cluttered composition results in one and a focused composition in the other. They then compare the two images critically.
REASON:
Taking photographs results in complete images, which can not be improved compositionally easily.
RESULT/NEW SITUATION:
Pupils are now aware of the need to be selective in what they eliminate and include in the picture.

OBSTACLE:
Learners have not had to take photographs where they make these decisions.
NEED:
Learners need to use the camera to make these decisions, possibly cropping where they have made poor choices.
ACTION:
Learners go to town during he period and find suitable subject matter. They must take at least two pictures: one demonstrating a focused composition and the other one where there is actually more than one subject. They must then compare them critically.
REASON:
The camera is the basic medium of expression and often decisions must be made on site.
RESULT/NEW SITUATION:
After critically assessing their work, learners will be aware of the danger of not arranging their subject so that it is the focus of the composition.

POOGI POOL

Let's Use the Tools!
Cheryl A Edwards
Many of us have an Ambitious Target that reads something like this: "Set up a TACTics Training in my school district." Some of you have already started working on this PrT. So, what is preventing you from reaching this target? Let's work on this together. Send in your obstacles to TACTics. We'll organize and publish them for all of us to consider and come up with (breakthrough) Intermediate Objectives. Then, of course, we'll publish the IO's, too.

IF YOU HAVE NOT CONTRIBUTED TO TACTics YET, THIS IS THE OPPORTUNITY. The more varied the Obstacles/Intermediate Objectives, the better our tree will be.

How do you submit to TACTics? Check the end of this Journal.

QUOTES

from Denise Meyer, Long Beach, California
"The way organizations are now is a product of how we think and interact. They can not change in any fundamental way unless we can change our basic patterns of thinking and interacting so that learning can be a way of life." -Peter Senge

EDITORS' NOTE

Many of our TOC for Ed family are celebrating holidays this season. We would like to share our very best wishes for a happy holiday season to everyone.

And a special toast for the new millennium to all of our TOC for Ed family: Skál! Lícchaim! Salud! Proost! Santjes! Geluk! Gesondheid! Á votre santč!
Cheers!
Kay, Cheryl and Bernie, too

Remember the next issue of TACTics will be January 7, 2000. If you find you have some free time over the holidays please consider sharing some of your questions, concerns, lesson plans, marketing plans or any other bits of information with TACTics.

Send HYPERLINK to:
bucknek@resa.net
or
cherylaedwards@aol.com

Send mail to:
Cheryl A. Edwards
2253 S. Hill Island Road
Cedarville, MI 49719, USA
or
Kay Buckner-Seal
10230 Dartmouth
Oak Park, MI 48237, USA