TACTics Journal

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

November 3, 2000

 

CONTENTS

NETWORKING

   (1)     Our Children’s Conference Needs You and Your Ideas, Kathy Suerken, USA

CONNECTIONS

    (2)       Texas Progress, Cheryl A. Edwards, USA

QUOTE

   (3)      Robert F. Kennedy

EDITORS’ NOTES

  (4)  Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards, USA

 

NETWORKING

(1)        Our Children’s Conference Needs You and Your Ideas

From Kathy Suerken

 

During TOCFE Conference 2000, Galina Doyla and David Higgins shared their experience in conducting a highly successful workshop session during a Russian Education Conference for both children and teachers.  Although intended just for high school students, their TOC session was so effective that teachers, who had only stopped to briefly observe, stayed for the entire session as well.  What a great way to teach TOC!

 

The TOC session included both product and process as several groups of students completed PrTs on the highly relevant topic of: We have a democratic school.  David and Galina began their Russian workshop by providing just the topic to the students and letting them first brainstorm their ideas.  This methodology, however, David noted, was not leading to any practical and timely outcome (product).  As soon as David provided the TOC process (PrT— Ambitious Target tool), the discussion and work became focused and yielded concrete and thoughtful plans which the students were excited to implement.  For those of us who have been involved in assessments, this example provides a great “pre” and “post” test evaluative approach.

 

For Galina, their experience reinforced the "whys" of her vision to include children in our conferences as a way of making our adult conferences even more exciting and effective.  The mind boggles at the potential synergy of providing some joint sessions.  Yes, but…

 

Planning and implementing such an event is also mind boggling— a supremely ambitious intermediate objective for TOCFE and one which will not be achieved without many helpful hands and minds.  Is it sufficiently clear that I mean YOURS?

 

To begin that process, I took advantage of a recent stop in London to meet with 4 of our directors at the same time: Eleanor May Brenneker (Netherlands), David Higgins (UK), Galina Doyla (Russia), along with— very serendipitously— Jana Borisavljevic (Yugoslavia).  Our group meeting at Galina’s school was very informal and brief.  As we started to brainstorm ideas on this topic, I was humbled by a most worthy question from Galina: “Kathy, why aren’t we writing a PrT?”

 

I just love it when others remind me to practice TOC!  Given that we only had a very short one-hour to think together on this exciting project, using TOC is likely the only reason we ended up with something concrete.

 

The target reads: A Successful First International TOCFE Children’s Conference in 2001.  It has been decided to hold it concurrently with the adult conference in Detroit and— due to needs of local targeted audiences, it likely will be scheduled the last week of June 2001.  Date is still tentative until we have a confirmed venue.

 

As you read our list of obstacles, please think of those we may have overlooked and/or better verbalizations of the ones we didn't.  I offer here only our obstacles because we need you to help us think of “good enough” IOs and to contribute some creative ideas on how to achieve them.  These can be e-mailed to me at suerken@nwfl.net or to TACTics at redwards@sault.com.

 

Obstacles:

1.    We haven’t identified children attendees.

 

2.   We don’t have funding to bring the children.

 

3.   We don’t have accommodations for the children.

 

4.   Children get bored easily (unlike adults, of course :-)

 

 

5.   Children must be properly chaperoned at all times.

 

6.   Conference is scheduled during school year in some countries.

 

7.   Conference will be conducted only in English this year.

 

8.   Sessions to demonstrate how to teach TOC to children require attendance by children who have not had TOC.  (Is this really an obstacle?)

 

9.   We don’t have a children’s agenda or trainers/workshop facilitators for children’s events.

 

10.  There are legal obstacles and they vary by country

 

11.  We don’t have a goal for the children.

 

This last obstacle “constraint” was very invigorating to us and, as we excitedly began to discuss ways to overcome it, I think we all intuitively realized that achieving the needed IO on this obstacle would be a necessary first step for most of the others.

 

A GOAL for the children?  What a fitting and inspiring IO, or should I say, question to ask of ourselves and of TOC For Education.

 

CONNECTIONS

(2)        Texas Progress

From Cheryl A. Edwards

 

January 30, 2001

Paula Sommer, Dr. Charles Blanton, and Rosemary Bolden, the principal of Arlington Middle School, will present at the Texas Education Agency 2001 Administrators Mid-winter Conference on Education.  The topic is "Using Thinking and Communication Tools (TACT) to Master TEKS Content and Achieve TAAS Success.”  Attendees will be superintendents, principals and school boards.

 

March 30, 2001

Charlie and Paula will present "Using Thinking and Communication Tools for Effective Classroom Management" at the Association of Texas Professional Educators Conference.

 

QUOTE

(3)        Each time a person stands up for an idea, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, (s)he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” —Robert F. Kennedy

 

EDITORS’ NOTES

(4)           Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards

To our TOCFE family, your contributions are welcomed.  Send us successful applications, humorous connections, favorite quotes, worthy news, etc.  Send your contributions by mail to Cheryl A. Edwards, 2253 S. Hill Island Rd., Cedarville, MI 49719, USA.  Or send hyperlink to <redwards@sault.com> or <bucknek@resa.net.