(1) The
Global Bank of TOC For Education, Kathy Suerken
(2) Noteworthy
Progress at Hutcheson Jr. High, Paula Sommer
(4) New
E-mail Address for Conference Tapes, Lyman Ellis
(1) The Global Bank of
TOC For Education
By
Kathy Suerken
"A
picture is worth a thousand words; an experience is worth a thousand
pictures." —Maya Kallir, 4th Annual
TOC for Education International Conference, Mexico
In teaching
the transition tree during TACT, I often show a transparency of a lesson plan
from when I taught middle school to reveal how “insufficient” I had written
it. A definition of the concept I was
teaching was followed by a typical list of activities planned to “teach the
concept.” That document is a great
NON-example of a great lesson plan!
When I ask
my TACT participants if my activities would achieve my intended objectives
during the planned lesson, their response is predictable! Their vigorous shaking of heads is
indicative of their interest to learn what they need to put the “why’s” into
their thinking and not just into lesson plans.
If a picture in a lesson is worth a thousand words, picture this: In
my World Cultures classroom, I had a nice big box wrapped in world map paper as
a global bank, which could be opened to illustrate how civilizations took ideas
out of the bank, improved them and returned them as “deposits” for future
generations.
Is the
concept of the global bank of ideas relevant to TOCFE? The activities of our entire conference were
connected with causalities to the definition of the concept! A case in point is Maya Kallir's quote above
given during her presentation in which she shared her budding ideas on how to
use TOC to teach science and which generated for all of us at least 1,000
pictures (and the first time I ever understood the concept she was
teaching!) For those of you who missed
it, I have good news. She is also
willing to share these experiences with TACTics very soon in an upcoming
article.
In the meantime, TOCFE has improved the concept of my box—all the ideas
are thankfully "outside of the box” and spreading so rapidly because of
people's willingness to share them and because of the exciting opportunity that
exists for all of us to take each other's budding ideas and build on them for
future generations.
Starting with the concept of TOC that came from Eli's mind; he
eventually wrote a workbook on using TOC to resolve day to day conflicts. Gila took that idea from the TOCFE global
bank and wrote a workbook for kids.
Cheryl and I built on her idea (thanks Gila!) with our current workbook
and which Audrey and Sears Taylor (just) used in Trinidad to teach Session One
of a full 5 consecutive day TACT to a class of 6 children (middle school and
high school) and 20 adults (teachers and administrators). Sometimes our contribution to the TOCFE
global bank of ideas is seemingly “no big deal” to us. And yet when shared, it opens people’s mind,
like what I learned from Audrey's experience is worth 1,000 pictures (or
ideas?) and which she is already writing for TACTics.
As historian
Bruce Barton once said, "Sometimes when I think of the consequences of
little things, I am tempted to think there are NO LITTLE THINGS." We are working on getting all of your ideas
into TACTics. The synergy of
shared, little things is creating the very big results to which we are all so
connected.
(2) Noteworthy
Progress at Hutcheson Jr. High, Arlington, Texas
Paula Sommer, Charlie Blanton, Texas, USA
Some background:
On July 25 we shared a
TOCFE educator-training packet with the assistant-principal and
counselors. We followed the review of
the packets with an ambitious target on using the packets. They were very excited about the direction
and discussed what they could do as counselors in using the tools. Through their input we added a six weeks
follow up process for monitoring and adjusting the class plans and tied the
process to the teacher evaluation process.
Students who are referred to the office will bring their plans to the
counselors to assist with deeper level conversations about what is working,
what isn't, and how we make decisions.
The principal, assistant-principals and counselors also committed to
spending another day to use an ambitious target to deal with the returning
students that they were unable to reach last year.
We developed (with the
principal) lessons plans to teach two tools, the PrT and the Cloud, to the
teachers when they returned August 7.
Each teacher was given the training materials to use with his/her
students. Each class was to use the PrT
on having a successful class with all students learning and passing the
tests. The Cloud will be used for nine
sessions with students helping them to make decisions on things like:
1.
Being successful at school:
·
complete homework / do not complete homework
·
participate in extracurricular activities / do not
participate in extracurricular activities
2. Having
a safe school:
·
speak up/ do not speak up
·
join a gang / do not join a gang
3. Making
sound decisions:
·
use the cloud / do not use the cloud
·
use the ambitious target / do not use the
ambitious target
·
set goals / do not set goals.
Up to date on Hutcheson
Jr. High:
Hutcheson is becoming
"The Learning Place." The
faculty is moving toward referring to students as learners not students…
This
was the third day of school and the day that all teachers (approximately 65)
worked with 800+ learners to use the ambitious target for each class. It went extremely well. We left the school last Tuesday knowing that
they had verbally committed to the project but anticipated that some might not
be on board. Principal Rose Mary Bolden
said that the pictures of targets with the words “Ambitious Targets” on them
just appeared in many places throughout the school.
As Rose Mary, Charlie
Blanton, the two assistant-principals, and I walked around we saw every class
working on their plan. By the fifth
class period the learners were really working well on the concept.
There were three
comments from the teachers that I want to share:
Assistant-principal
Joe reflecting on the spark in the students' eyes: "They see that something they said… their idea has
impact. It is written down for all the
class to see I did something."
Teacher
after teacher was pleased and somewhat surprised at what the students
think. English teacher:
"The
students really get it. They are just
sailing on through it. Each class is a
little different."
Mr.
Freeman, the English-as-Second-Language teacher said, "Most of them [the
students] don't think about the crisis they face. They just roll through it the best they can. This [thinking process] helps to empower
them and helps them think they can do something about their situation. Just the sense that they can do something
about their situation is different from anything they have known before."
We are thrilled. The conference stimulated our thinking
processes, especially on curriculum. So
using TACT in curriculum content is our next effort at Hutcheson Junior High.
(3) IO: Readers Realize the Importance of
Sharing*
From Beverly Brown, Ashland, Ohio, USA
One of the obstacles
that is mentioned for the TACTics ambitious target was "readers don't
realize the importance of sharing their experiences.” I too want to thank Mira and Rami for sharing the
"Necklace" story. The intermediate objective was: “readers realize
the importance of sharing experiences.”
Because
of Mira's idea, I now have other ideas for using TOC. One thought I had was using the same story and writing a negative
branch of what happened to show the consequences of our actions. Another idea is to use another Guy de
Maupassant story, "Piece of Yarn" or "Piece of String" (textbooks
use different names for this one) and write a cloud and/or negative branch for
that one as well. Thanks for the idea;
we really do need to share everything.
Please
continue to keep in touch via this newsletter.
Beverly
* IO from Ambitious Target: TOC for Education
practitioners are intrinsically motivated to enthusiastically share their
learning experiences with their fellow TACTics readers.
(4) New E-mail Address for Conference Tapes
From Lyman Ellis
Lyman Ellis and Evalyn
Ellis, doing business as Recording By Ellis, have a new e-mail address
for that business: ellisbigbear@earthlink.net
If
you were unable to attend the conference but would really like to know what
went on, you may order the tapes from Evalyn and Lyman Ellis, who donated their
expert services and equipment to TOC for Education.
Recordings
by Ellis
536
Timber Lane. Post Office Box 120502
Big
Bear Lake, CA USA 92315-8942
Phone: 1.800.262.0429
email: ellisbigbear@earthlink.net
Video
and audiocassettes are available for individual days of the conference or for
the entire conference. You will find
the agenda in TACTics, 8/11/2000.
Kathy, thank you for
sharing your insights; the concept of a global bank
of ideas is the basic nature of TOC for Education. And, it is timely illustrated in Beverly
Brown’s contribution to this week’s TACTics on the importance of
sharing.
Paula and Charlie, what
a significant report… very interesting!
We love to hear about this kind of progress. We look forward to hearing more about the achievements of the
Hutcheson students and comments from the staff. Maybe our readers can share their ideas about using the thinking
tools to better comprehend content.
Thanks to all who
contribute TACTics. If
you would like to share with us, send hyperlink to:
<bucknek@resa.net>
or
<redwards@sault.com>.
Or,
you may send it by mail to:
Cheryl A.
Edwards
2253 S. Hill
Island Road
Cedarville,
MI 49719 USA