CONNECTIONS
(1)The 2nd TOCFE
Conference in Israel, Continued, Rami Goldratt
4th
International TOC for Education Upgrade Conference
(2) New Internet Site
(3) Conference Information
NETWORKING
(4) Responses
to ‘Look Who’s on a POOGI!’, ZZippi Margalit, Denise Meyer
(1)
The
2nd TOCFE Conference in Israel
By Rami Goldratt
Well, you waited long enough to hear the
rest of the coverage of the second TOCFE conference in Israel. I admit, it’s
been a while since the first part of the coverage. It’s just that I had a lot
of work. But now, when I have to prepare work assignments for the university,
there is nothing like writing a report for the TACTIC Journal, as a good excuse
not to study.
The first part of my report about the
conference ended with the beginning of Mira's presentation. To remind you all,
Mira is a teacher of teachers, who teaches at colleges and schools throughout
the country.
Mira began her presentation by sharing what
she thinks is one of the basic problems of the teacher. On one hand, in order to be a successful
teacher, a teacher needs to pass information to the student (that is also the
standard by which s/he is measured). In order to meet this condition, the
teacher wants to be, what Mira calls, "More of an informative
teacher", that is, a teacher who focuses his teaching on passing
information to hes students.
On the other hand, in order to be a
successful teacher, the teacher needs to model being a good character to hes
students (guide them to be a good person). In order to fulfill this need, the
teacher should be, what Mira calls, "More of an educating teacher",
that is, a teacher who focuses hes teaching on the students lives and
behavioral aspects.
Mira claims, that these two types, the
'Informative teacher' and the 'Educating teacher', that every teacher feels
compelled to adopt, are practically in conflict. For most teachers being an
Informative teacher' and also being an 'Educating teacher' is impossible. The time & resources available for the
teacher forces hem, many times, to make a choice: either be an 'Informative
teacher' or to be an 'Educating teacher'.
Now, Mira pointed out that this conflict is
based on many false assumptions, one of them is that: "It is impossible to use the information 'scheduled' to be
passed to the students, as a means to educate them".
Mira claims that the teacher can use the
material that s/he is supposed to teach the student in a way that deals with
their lives and educates them to become a better person. I stress again, because it is very
important. THE TEACHER DOESN'T HAVE TO CHANGE THE MATERIAL S/HE ALREADY
INTENDED TO TEACH. The teacher also doesn't have to change the measurements by
which hes students and s/he are measured.
What the teacher does is teach the content in a way that will be
relevant to the student’s day to day lives.
How can s/he do that easily?
Well, you probably have guessed it. The
teacher will use the thinking tools in order to teach the content. How can we use the thinking tools in a way
that will teach the content and educate the student?
Instead of telling you the general sense
behind the method, I'll describe an example Mira shared with us during her
presentation. For those of you who wish
to learn more about it, I'll share the methodology in the future.
Mira spoke of a story called "The
Necklace" by De-Mopasan, I probably miss-spelled it, but you are used to
Raminglish by now. This story is being
taught at every school as part of the program. Mira taught it to 5th grade
students.
For those of you who don't know the story,
or "forgot it" (I am so polite), I'll describe it briefly. The story
is about a very poor couple. This couple was very happy living together, had a
lot of friends, and did not let their poor economic status get in their way.
One day the couple was invited to a very exclusive party. The woman wanted to
look respectable, so she borrowed from her rich friend a diamond necklace.
After the party when the couple returned
home, they discovered that the necklace was missing. They searched everywhere,
but they couldn't find it. The woman did not want to tell her friend, so they
sold everything they had, took big loans, and bought another diamond necklace
which they gave to the rich friend.
Needless to say, their economic situation deteriorated. They had to work for 15 years, living in bad
conditions, and loosing all their friends, in order to pay back the loans they
took.
After 15 years, the woman met her rich
friend accidentally on the street. Responding to her friend’s question, she
told her, that her life had been destroyed, and told her the whole story. Her astonished friend said, "But the
necklace I gave you was fake, it cost only 5$. Why didn't you tell me?”
Well, how can you teach this story and
educate the students using the Cloud?
That's right, Mira guided the students to
construct the internal cloud of the woman:
A- To feel good with myself
B- To protect my honor (Not to feel embarrassed)
D- Not to tell the friend about the necklace
C- Try to receive help and support
D'- Tell the friend about the necklace
This cloud summarizes the essence of the
story. The assumptions also expose
other details from the story. Do you
see any resemblance of this cloud to the students ‘Day to Day’ lives?
Mira asked the students to think for while
about their lives and tell her if they also have a similar conflict. After a few minuets, one student raised his
hand and spoke of a dilemma he has. His parents got divorced, and he is very
frustrated. He has a dilemma, should he
tell his friends about his frustration or not. His needs were exactly the same
needs as the ones from the "Necklace cloud". Now, when his friends in
class, heard his dilemma, they immediately supported him and told him that he
should have told them.
Mira then guided a discussion over this
case.
She also received other examples (to tell a
secret or not...)
By transferring the cloud from the story to
the student’s lives, Mira was able to move from being an informative teacher,
who teaches the story, to being an educating teacher, who shapes a good
character of her students.
Mira has many other examples from other
subject matters, such as History, Bible, Geography... In every subject matter, she claims, it is possible to move from
the cloud of the content, to a cloud from the day to day lives of the students.
This way they are being educated, and really learn the content -not just
memorizing it.
Have a better world
Rami Goldratt
Editor’s Note:
Thank you, Rami, for sharing this valuable learning with our TACTics’ readers. We all hope that your studies have not suffered too much. A big ‘Thanks’ to Mira, also. The cloud she shares is certainly a generic teacher’s cloud. We agree, the solution can be used by all educators in all subject areas and in all countries. Our global world is not as big as we seem to think. We hope to hear from both of you again!
4th
International TOC for Education Upgrade Conference
(2) Conference
Information:
Monterrey, Mexico
Conference
Hours: 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Conference
Registration
$75.00
covers the cost of lunches.
Send
checks payable to TOC for Education,
Inc. along with your registration forms to:
Attention: Bernie Kean
TOC for Education, Inc.
1532 Glenlake Circle
Niceville, FL 32578 USA
Airport: Gen. Mariano Escobedo International Airport (Code is
MTY).
Transportation
from Airport to hotel: Cab $15.
Departure
Tax: $10.00
Hotel: Sheraton
Ambassador Hotel- Monterrey, Mexico
(*Room rates are based on single OR double occupancy.)
Classic room— $86(+tax)For more than two
people to a room, there is a $15.00 charge for each extra person.
Reservations:
Identify yourself as a member of TOC for Education.
• Mexico — (direct to the hotel) 1.800.832.8400
• USA
& Canada— (central reservation) 1.800.325.3535
• Nations
outside of North America—(switchboard) 1.528.380.7000
Registration
Deadline: July 25, 2000 (for conference rates)
(3) Check It
Out!
A new page on the Internet announcing… TOC for Education’s IV International
Conference in Monterrey, Mexico. You can access in either of two
ways:
http://www.galeon.com/zurdomx/
or
Click on “What's
new” and you will see the link for the conference. Thanks for a great job, Sebastian !
(4)Response to: ‘Look Who’s on a POOGI!’, TACTics Journal, July 14,2000
Responses from ZZippi
Margalit, Israel and Denise
Meyer, USA
Last week we asked
for your help in our continuing efforts to make the TACTics Journal a
publication that entertains, celebrates and provides us with new
knowledge. We are growing our
Prerequisite Tree. Thank you, Denise
and Zzippi for taking the time to help us.
Ambitious
Target:
TOC for
Education practitioners are intrinsically motivated to enthusiastically share
their learning experiences with their fellow TACTics readers.
Would you agree with this ambitious target? Will you help us with the verbalization?
Some thoughts from Denise:
On the verbalization of the target, I think you need
to exclude the words ‘are motivated’ and just say "we share". Because I'm motivated—sometimes there are
just some obstacles that are more concrete.
Like:
Ø
I know that piece of
work is somewhere--but where?
Ø
How do I format it and
load it so TACTics can read it?
As usual I thought
there were all kinds of obstacles but as I think about
it, there's really
not so many. I think that one is my
biggest. Which brings
us back to time.
We know you have more obstacles. We’ll add Denise’s and the following from Zzippi to the list and wait for yours.
More Obstacles contributed by ZZippi:
Ø
there are no new experiences during summer
holidays
Ø
there are not enough educators that apply
TOC in education
Ø
it is not easy to write in English if it is
not your mother tongue
Original Obstacles:
Educators
often do not have the time to write up their experiences.
Educators
don’t know if their stories are worthy of publication.
Putting experiences in “writing” and then
sharing leaves the author open to criticism.
Readers don’t realize
the importance of sharing their experiences.
An Intermediate Objectiive offered by ZZippi :
Won’t
you please take the time to help us on our POOGI? We need your help with the:
(1) Verbalization of our ambitious target.
(2) Obstacles that prevent you (and others) from sending in articles.
(3) Intermediate Objectives that will invalidate the obstacle(s).
We look forward to hearing from you! Send responses via hyperlink to <bucknek@resa.net> or <redwards@sault.com>. Or you may send them by mail to: Cheryl A. Edwards, 2253 S. Hill Island Road,
Cedarville, MI 49719 USA