WIZDOM
(1) Anne’s Cloud, Part II, Denise Meyer
Elementary/Secondary TACTS
(2) Diary of a Newbie in TACT Block, Wong Siew Shan
(3) Scenarios
for Classroom Practice, Denise Meyer
CONNECTIONS
(4) 4th Annual TOC for Education International
Conference
QUOTE
(5) Margaret Mead
EDITORS’
NOTE
(6) Kay
Buckner-Seal and Cheryl Edwards
(1) Anne’s Cloud, Part II
By Denise Meyer, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Editor’s Note: We are publishing Anne’s Cloud, written by
Denise Meyer in three parts. In last
week’s TACTics Anne’s was trying to find a way to handle a major conflict with her
boss. If you would like to read that
episode in TACTics, 4/7/00, visit our website at: www.nwfl.net/suerken/toc/
As she sat there, she began to draw the
“cloud,” the strategy for resolving a conflict that she was learning in the
class. She began with the
"wants" boxes. “Let’s see,
she asked herself, “what do I want? To
go to my training. What does he
want? For me to go to his stupid
meeting. I better not put stupid in the
box? Are those wants in conflict? You bet!
“Now to the ‘needs.’ What need am I trying to satisfy? Why do I want that? I want to meet a commitment to myself. But more than that, he doesn’t seem to
consider what I think or need at all.
It’s all about what he needs. I
want to feel that my ideas and opinions are valued. She wrote, my ideas and opinions are valued in the top
‘needs’ box. That wasn’t too hard.
Now to the bottom side of the cloud. What need is he trying to satisfy? He just wants to control me. He’s on a power trip. She wrote ‘control me’ in the bottom ‘needs’
box. No, I think there’s something
wrong with that. She remembered that
both needs must be good. As she thought
about it she said to herself, I don’t think the need to control others is
really a good need. But what else could
it be? What does he really need? What would he say if I asked him? Probably that he needs his entire staff to
hear what is important. Probably that
there are some issues I need to be aware of.
He probably needs to know where I am on that new reading assessment
stuff and the cross-age tutoring program I’ve been working on. I guess he just wants to have a successful
meeting. She wrote ‘successful meeting’
in his needs box.”
“Now for the common objective,” she
thought. “I’m so mad, I’m not sure we
have anything in common right now.
Let’s see. If I could have my
opinions and ideas valued and can meet my commitment to myself, and he could
have a successful meeting, what would we have together? Hmmm… a good relationship! Yeah, that’s it.”
Anne’s
Cloud:
A: A good
relationship
B: My ideas and
opinions are valued!! and meet commitment to myself.
D: Go to my
training.
C: Successful
meeting.
D':
Go to my staff meeting.
“Now, to check the logic,” she said to
herself. She proceeded to read it to
herself the way she had been taught, “In order to have a good relationship, I
must have my ideas and opinions valued and meet a commitment to myself. And in order to have my ideas and opinions
valued and meet a commitment to myself, I must go to my training. However, in order to have a good
relationship, he needs to have a successful meeting. And in order to have that, he must have me go to his
meeting. And going to the training and
going to his meeting can’t exist at the same time so they are definitely in
conflict.”
Anne was proud of herself. It sounded good. Now she needed to find some assumptions on each side. First, in order to have her ideas valued and
meet (the commitment to herself), she needed to go to her training because… She
came up with two: (1) the training was crucial to her. It was the only way to meet her commitment
to herself and (2) learn something that was really important to her. And meeting the commitment to herself meant
she had to be there the whole time. As
she thought about the assumptions, she realized she was assuming that she
couldn’t miss any part of the session.
Which led her to question that assumption. She realized that the training usually started with a
review. Maybe she could miss the review
and not miss any crucial stuff. After
all, the staff meetings weren’t usually more than two hours. And if it started at 8:00 instead of 9:00,
she could be back to the training without missing anything important.
She ran to see if she could talk to Mr.
Alvarez but he was busy with a parent.
How long would that take! She
had to get home. Karla, the office manager,
was still there. She asked Karla if she
could ask Mr. Alvarez to start the staff meeting at 8:00 instead of 9:00. And she left in a rush.
Next morning, she arrived bright and early
at 7:30 and asked Mr. Alvarez if they were beginning the meeting at 8:00.
“No!” he answered abruptly. “We’re beginning at 9:00 as usual.” He was seething. And as his mood struck her, her thermostat raised considerably.
What had she done wrong? She had found the perfect way to break the
cloud and it had failed. What
happened? She thought about the process
and remembered communication guidelines.
You do not come up with the solution;
you must let the other person come up with the solution. “That’s it!” she thought. “I’m the one who thought of the solution. What do I do now?” Anne was so upset and furious and no longer thinking straight
that she did something she would never have done before. Her hands shaking with emotion, she took the
paper with the cloud on it to confront Mr. Alvarez.
“Mr. Alvarez, can I have a moment of your
time?” …Next week’s TACTics will
feature Part III: Mr. Alvarez’s
reaction!
ELEMENTARY/SECONDARY TACTS
(2) Diary of a Newbie in TACT Block
Wong
Siew Shan, Vice-Principal, Jing Shan Primary School, Singapore
Editor’s Note: As promised, we are publishing another entry of Wong
Siew Shan’s powerful and most inspiring work.
Your thoughts are exquisite, Shan; thanks for allowing us to share them
in Elementary/Secondary TACTics this week.
2.3.2000
When I returned from my TACT Workshop at
12.30 PM today, I sa!!w a note on my table from my principal, who was away at a
two-day course, requesting me to take his Math Enrichment class with the
Primary 2 pupils. The topic was on
“Weight.” I had barely 40 minutes to
gather my thoughts about the lesson, grab the materials I needed for the
lesson, and design an appropriate worksheet for the 1 hour session!
So, how do I engage the pupils and get
them to think creatively in order to solve a problem mathematically? Then an exciting idea came to me— the PrT
lends itself perfectly to the activity that I wanted to close the session with.
For the final activity for the session, I took out 3 empty boxes of different
shapes and sizes. I told the pupils
that they must help me arrange the boxes in ascending order of their
weights. "How would you go about
doing that?" I asked. "What
difficulties do you think you would encounter?"
The first obstacle that a boy came up with
was that there was no weighing machine.
"Well," I said, "I can't help you there. But you could use this weighing balance
here. Would it help?"
"Yes," all of them echoed.
"Are there any more obstacles if you
have a weighing scale?" And
together, the wonderful ones came up with the following PrT:
The Target of Our Activity: We succeed in arranging the 3 boxes given, in
ascending order of their weights.
Obstacles Intermediate
Objectives
We don't have a weighing
machine. Mrs.
Wong provides us with a
weighing
balance.
We
don't know which is heavier: Find
out which is heavier:
Box A or B. Box
A or B.
We
don't know which is heavier: Find
out which is heavier:
Box B or C.. Box
B or C
We
don't know which is heavier:. Find
out which is heavier,
Box A or C. Box
A or C.
After getting the pupils to do the above
PrT, simple though it was with only 4 obstacles, we carried out the
activity. The kids arranged the boxes
in order of their weights quite easily.
Then from under my table, I brought up a weighing machine and got the
kids to measure the exact weights of the boxes. How they protested about my
earlier “lie” that I did not have a weighing machine! But they had the satisfaction of proving themselves correct in
their earlier deductions. What an
invaluable boost to their confidence! I
may be wrong, but I sincerely believe that how well two children of equal
Mathematical ability do in Math is directly proportionate to each individual’s
level of confidence.
My first attempt at using the PrT was an
exhilarating experience, more so when I had so little time to actually plan a
proper lesson. Never have I conducted a Math lesson, so unprepared, but
paradoxically, with so much satisfaction about the outcomes.
Still experiencing the 'high' of the
satisfactory Math lesson, two boys were sent to me. One of them was Alex, the boy who was sent to me for biting
another friend on 28.2.2000 (You can read this entry in TACTics, 4/7 by
visiting our website at: www.nwfl.net/suerken/toc/) I moaned inwardly. “I thought you handled him pretty well last week? I thought you said the cloud was so
effective,” an accusing voice jeered at me from within. I refused to admit defeat so fast.
I quickly discovered that although Alex
ended up biting Jin Fei, the initial conflict that precipitated the act was different
from the last one he experienced. This
time the conflict was the result of his jumping queue while playing at the
playground. I helped Jin Fei and Alex
verbalise their wants, needs and objective.
They wrote them down on the template provided. After the cloud was completed, I read it back
to them. Jin Fei told me that he could have told Alex politely to go to the
back of the queue next time, instead of pushing him. To show Alex that queue jumping was not acceptable, the group
could decide not to play with him. Alex
saw that by jumping queue, he was being unfair to his friends who followed the
rule of the game.
After Jin Fei and Alex had resolved their
conflict, I allowed Jin Fei to return to class. I held Alex back and asked him to do a Negative Branch for me on
the cause and effect of queue jumping.
I also felt that we had to work on Alex’s habit of biting others when he
was angry. Maybe that was the only way
he knew how to handle his anger. Maybe
he needed to think about other ways that he could handle his anger in
future. A cloud would be perfect for
him to work through his way of handling anger to see if there were other
options he could take.
By Denise Meyer, Los Angeles, CA. USA
Editor’s Note: The following
scenarios for classroom use, were published in last week’s TACTics, 4/7. This week we are publishing possible clouds
for each of them. If you decide to use
them in your classroom, send us a brief explanation on how they were used
and/or share a few student samples. We
will gladly publish them in a future issue of TACTics.
Scenario
1—
Today the teacher plans on putting us in groups to work on a project. He wants to put me in a group that I don’t want to work with. Tony is in this group. I don’t want to be in a group with him. Why can’t we choose who we want to work with?
A: Have
a good class
B: Choose
the students I work with
D: Don’t
work in a group with Tony
C: Students
learn teaming skills
D’: Work
in a group with Tony
Scenario 2—
I have a friend who has a
very short temper. Yesterday, when I
was late and she had to wait for me for a few minutes, she got very upset. She called me a name that I didn’t like at
all. I don’t want her to do that again.
Possible cloud:
A: Be friends
B: Respect
me
D: Don’t
call me names
C: Let
me know she is mad
D’: Call
me names
Here are two more scenarios that you may want to use with your
students. They could be used as springboards for identifying conflicts,
constructing clouds, and/or surfacing needs and assumptions. Try them, then share the results in a future
issue of TACTics. Send to: bucknek@resa.net
Scenario
3—
I have a friend, he’s a guy
but only a friend. Yesterday he put his
hand on me in a way that made me uncomfortable. I want to tell him not to do that again. I’m not sure what to say to him. I don’t really want to lose his friendship
but I also don’t want to be disrespected.
Scenario
4—
I got angry when Joe took my
notebook without asking. I ran after
him and got it back. A teacher saw me,
but she only saw me running after him.
I got in trouble for chasing him around and bumping into someone. The teacher wouldn’t listen to my
explanation.
(4) 4th
Annual TOC for Education International Conference
Sheraton Ambassador Hotel
Monterrey,
Mexico
August
9-12, 2000
Lodging: (*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.
Executive room— $116(+tax) For more than
two people to a room there is a $25.00 charge for each extra person.
Reservations
for conference rates must be made before July 25. After this date, rooms will be released and
on a space available basis. Make reservations directly with the hotel by
identifying yourself as a member of TOC for Education.
To make reservations from:
• 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
“A
clear understanding of a problem prefigures its lines of solution.”
—Margaret
Mead
To
our entire TOCFE Family, please continue to share so that we all may maintain
our POOGI. Have a pleasant week!
Send
HYPERLINK to:
bucknek@resa.net
redwards@sault.com NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS!
Send
mail to:
Cheryl A. Edwards
2253 S. Hill Island Road
Cedarville,
MI 49719 USA