TACTics Journal |
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POOGI Pool As in the Jonathan Livingston Seagull quote used recently in TACTics, "our race to learn" has just begun. Especially, do I want to infuse that sense of excitement and wonder into our conferences. They too (our conferences) are on a POOGI... and yes, I am doing my TOC homework. Like most ambitious targets, successful conferences require extensive collaboration. Denise, RE and their LA network are doing a magnificent job with logistics, social events etc. Cheryl (TOCFE director, USA) is spearheading the entire event and, always, we have Bernie, our quiet servant leader. Who's missing? What to change? I need your input to what to change. What do you need from TOCFE? What applications do you want to work on in Los Angeles? Where do you struggle? Which tools do you want to spend time with and why? How to cause the change? Please share your thoughts (as questions, concerns, or any format) with me: The conference is an upgrade for all of us (myself included). Your ideas need to be part of the conference even if you can not physically attend. We will find ways to broadly disseminate the progress we make during or conference. We have identified a need to highlight an application in school improvement (or administration) on the first day of the conference. Does anyone have such an example, which could be shared in a 10-minute presentation? We need such a presentation because in order to ensure that our first day audience (that includes TOCFE family as well as a large group of local visitors) is fully aware of the broad spectrum of TOC applications in education. Why just 10 minutes? We have serious time constraints due to sharing all of the other TOCFE benefits! I hope that it is obvious that YOU and your ideas are essential ingredients to our momentum. u uWizdom ![]() Denise Meyers I do have a question for which I would like a response from the network. It has to do with the measurement of what we do with children. If we are going to make some improvements in the educational system, we need to think about what we are measuring. And in order to define what we are measuring, we need to think about the ultimate goal of education. My first question is what is the ultimate goal of education? Just like making money was the ultimate goal Alex came up with. I thought about this for awhile and want to see if others come up with the same thing I'm thinking. And, probably more difficult is to figure out what are the things that we need to measure and keep track of to ensure that what we are doing is getting us to that goal. These seem, to me, fundamental questions if we are going to make fundamental improvements in education. u u Flying Pigs J Send us your hard to believe but true stories. Success is always fun to read about! Elementary/Secondary Tactics ![]() "Quotes..." "There must be a way and the way must be simple... the world is designed with divine simplicity." Eli Goldratt Notes from TOC for Education Jonah Class, TOCFE Networking Trainer's Training Mary Ellen Bourbeau, Grosse Pointe, MI This past April, some or our TOCFE colleagues and I were with Cheryl Baugh at her home for a debriefing of our TOCFE presentations at the Michigan Reading Conference. During our conversation, we discussed our TACTS teaching experiences. It became evident that at some time we all had to or may have to experience a "reluctant" participant in our classes. As we eagerly talked about what that situation might be like for us and for the participant, it was clear that we were describing a conflict. Naturally, a cloud emerged: Assumptions B/D Assumptions C/D INJECTION What do you think? Can you add more? The exchange we had that evening was so productive in looking at other ways of presenting information and upgrading our own skills. We concluded that this cloud could prove to be a useful tool for our TACT classes. Do you agree? u u |
Connections Marcia Hutchinson, Director of TOCFE, Philippines We are making good progress implementing our Frt and I am happy to say that with the present MSW courses, which began today, we have surpassed the 300 mark and will have 327 MSW graduates as of July 11. Their goal is 2000 trained by the year 2000! Whoooppppeeeeee!!!!! The two classes, running concurrently right now from the Quezon City Division, are filled with principals and one assistant superintendent Divisions are like school districts in the United States. They function autonomously as U.S. school districts do and all fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Education, Sports and Culture. They will be coordinating their joint TOCFE activities and will meet monthly to check progress. There are also division level meetings for all MSW graduates once a month and inter-division meetings scheduled every two months. Last September, the coordinators, superintendents of two divisions, and I met with the Secretary of Education. He gave the go-ahead for allocating funds at the division levels.) Since then, we have had steady funding for MSW courses. However, these funds are limited and they have not been adequate for as many courses as we would like to hold. Since we now have 52 MSW facilitators trained (24 of whom are actively running MSW courses), we are working on a proposal which will fund us up to 15 MSW courses per month; increasing to 20+ over the next three years. That means more HTT workshops, MSW upgrades, HTT upgrades, HTT3, attendance at International TOC conferences and Jonah courses. The second joint coordinator's meeting was scheduled for Friday, July 2. This was a meeting of each of the coordinators for the three divisions we are presently in: Makita, Manila, and Quezon City. During May and June, both Kathy Suerken and I were in the Philippines. We held two HTT Seminars. Kathy taught part of an MSW, the local facilitators taught five MSW seminars and I taught two. Along with eight of the Makita Division MSW facilitators opened up the Manila Division and trained 72 teams of administrators, teachers and counselors from 13 schools. We have scheduled a HTT for Manila Division in September, so they will have their own core of MSW Teacher Facilitators. We also held a three day MSW Upgrade wherein I was assisted by eight of the MSW facilitators. We had 139 attendees on day one and the numbers fluctuated between 139 and 128 over the next two days. Things did not go perfectly and Murphy's Law definitely was there in full force, but, overall, for a first time, it was a pretty successful upgrade. This was followed by a two day HTT Upgrade that also went well.
One of the highlights of the trip was the Educators' Congress which Kathy and I attended. On the opening day, I was sitting with a group of TOCFE trained administrators (including our TOCFE coordinators) listening to the Secretary of Education's keynote address. When he mentioned TOCFE as one of the workshops everyone ought to attend!!... Well, we were screaming and high-fiving it all around. Everybody was looking at us! Needless to say we had an overflow crowd for Kathy's presentation. We were honored to have the Secretary of Education and some of under-secretaries and assistant secretaries at the presentation. Then, in the Secretary's closing remarks at the end of the conference, he again mentioned TOCFE and gave us a job to do. We were to help solve the problem of converting the school canteens (cafeterias) to teacher cooperatives. This became the session 4 and 5 goal for the following MSW courses. We now have written the Trt for the conversion and I am charged with typing it up on my VISIO program and sending it back. I should be done early next week. It is not a short Trt!!! But it is a good plan and we know it will work! We are looking forward to the conference in Los Angeles in August where we will be well represented. Two of our advisors (superintendents who oversee the coordinators), two of our coordinators, and possibly 5 MSW facilitators will be in attendance. The number of facilitators who will attend will be determined by the US Embassy, which must issue their Visas. Visas are very difficult to obtain, especially for educators. I surely hope that everyone comes to the conference in LA so you can meet these wonderful people I have been working with for the past year. You will not want to miss our presentation on the Philippines TOCFE Program! The one thing missing will be the Rotarians who have played such a key role in our development. They are primarily responsible for Nancy Hamilton, Jane Hudak and me being able to voyage to the Philippines on a regular basis to teach TOC and have the times of our lives. They flew us there, fed us, housed us, and drove us to our appointed destinations each day. They wined us, dined us, and made us feel like a million bucks the entire time that we were there. That, combined with the warm reception the Filipino Educators have given us, makes our experience on this journey priceless. I know that I have not mentioned any names in this update, so let me now mention a few of the key players. The first four will definitely be in LA should all Visa applications be approved: Dr. Cora Santiago Makita Central Rotarians: Mar Gatus, Pol and Evelyn Buenaventura who lodged us, fed us, and put up with our outrageous schedules Cubao West Rotarians: Fr. Tony Ranada, who made contact with Kathy and I in Glasgow, Scotland at the Rotary International Convention two years ago; Bobby Viray, who was instrumental in scheduling all of our activities via e-mail; Fred Fragante, Tita Fragante, Ping, Sison, and Josie Sison, who also lodged us, fed us, and put up with our outrageous schedules Rotary Club of Manila: Ben Aragon, who was key to us moving into Manila Division this past June Midbay Rotary Club of Niceville Florida: special mention must be made of Rotarian, Kathy "Twinkle Toes" Suerken, who so generously financed the first trip of Nancy and Marcia in June of 1998. Mabuhay and goodnight, Marcia Hutchinson |