By
Eleanor May, United Kingdom
(Let's welcome a new 8 lb. beautiful baby into the
TOC for Education family!)
A TACT Workshop was completed on Jan. 15, 2000. Recently I returned to London from the
Netherlands after having taught the second half of the TACT Workshop. Eight (8) candidates received diplomas at
the end of the training.
Marco, a member of SEAL
(Society for Effective and Affective Learning) attended a workshop on TOCFE,
which I directed in the UK at the SEAL Conference April '99. Subsequently, he and Nel invited me to run a
workshop on TOC for Education and another one at Brain Gym in October '99 in
Rotterdam. The result of that event was
a request to come and teach the very first TACT Workshop in the Netherlands. What a learning experience this has turned
out to be for them as well as for me!
A
week before teaching the first half (just before Christmas '99), Kathy updated
me on the latest draft of the curriculum materials for education. Many thanks again, Kathy; your new material
is a lot more user friendly! I taught the course in Dutch, “on the hoof”, so to
speak. The candidates were terrific,
enthusiastic and very helpful when I got stuck with the latest educational or
political jargon.
Kathy
advised me to attract an administrator from the high ranks (even if it were
only for an afternoon) in order to achieve a buy-in at the top. This materialized beautifully! In fact, at the end of her intended half-day
and a cloud or two, the administrator, called Astrid, bent over backwards to
change existing plans to attend the whole course. In NLP, one of the pre-suppositions (assumptions) says, “The
meaning of communication is the response you get.” We were delighted with Astrid's response!
We
gathered in a private home (my sister's abode) in the center of the country and,
the Dutch being Dutch, were ready to begin at 20 minutes to 9 for a 9 o'clock
start, every day.
It
was a real joy to work with them and (judging from the evaluations) in the form
of a Round Robin feedback meeting at the end of each part, they had a whale of
a time too. One member acted as scribe
for these meetings. In due course, I'll
translate their comments, which were elicited by asking them: “Which 3 positive
elements have you experienced today, in regards to material, presentation,
practice, multi-sensory and Socratic teaching, are worth holding on to and which ones need to be improved?” That aids the POOGI (Process Of Ongoing
Improvement). Among the revealing
remarks were the following:
• It has become clear to me how important it
is to take little steps.
• You learn to look at problems from a
different angle.
• Focus on the real goal.
• Fantastic, inspiring material, ready for
immediate use, practical.
• You're a fine teacher because you know how
to ask the right questions at the right time....(Socratic).
• Your constant alertness kept the energy of
the group at a high level.
I
left the new session 4 till last. For
our Ambitious Target we chose “How do we get TOCFE off the ground in The
Netherlands?” We created a 'Wailing
Wall', (sorry Eli), on which we stuck all of our post-it-note-obstacles. We found that being able to gripe and
grumble about these hurdles together united us even more and increased the
determination to grapple with the grievances on the way to success. In fact, it made them appear smaller and
easier to tackle and to overcome. We
turned mountains into molehills! Some
of the IO's (Intermediate Objectives) which were transformed from these
obstacles are worth listing:
• Dates and times are set for
the translation of the materials into Dutch.
The 8 candidates are divided into pairs and take care of the translation
of one session each, with the help of family and friends. By mid-March I am to receive the translated
material for proofreading to be returned to Astrid for the 2nd proofreading and
printing. We eagerly await session 5 to come off Kathy's penmanship conveyor
belt to be translated immediately.
• A “steering group” is set up
consisting of Marco and Nel, co-organizers of this course, and Geerte and
Astrid, who see great potential in spreading TOC for Education in the Dutch
world of education.
• A practice day will be held
in April and I'll shoot across the Channel again in May for an update/upgrade
in the form of an after-sale's service day.
• Flyers and leaflets are
being designed for distribution nation-wide.
Articles will be written for publication in educational magazines on the
subject of TOCFE and its applications.
• Conference organizers will
be approached to slot in TOC workshops and buy-ins for me at several
universities, educational organizations, teacher training and re-schooling
institutes.
• Possibilities have been
discussed to organize funding and further marketing.
It
clearly looks as though our Ambitious Target will soon be realized to make room
for a new one; together we can make it happen in The Netherlands. We'll go for it, or, as Eli once said to me,
"Eleanor, just do it!"
For
further information, please contact Eleanor May at: eleanor.may@emayl.freeserve.co.uk
From Cheryl Edwards
Great
comprehensive report, Eleanor! Your
enthusiasm reminds me of a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Nothing great was ever achieved without
enthusiasm.”
TOC for
Education HTT/Facilitators Workshops:
February
16-20, 2000
March
9-13, 2000
Want to be trained as a
facilitator or know someone who does?
Space is still available in the Metro Detroit, MI class. Criteria: (1) Have successfully completed
the TACT Workshop. (2) Have experience
using the tools with students and educators. (3) Have a solid commitment to
teach TACT to educators. Contact:
Cheryl A. Edwards at 906.484.6808
As
always, your contributions are what make this TACTics Journal. Please continue to share so that we all may
maintain our POOGI. Thanks!
Send
HYPERLINK to:
bucknek@resa.net
cherylaedwards@aol.com
Send
mail to:
Cheryl A. Edwards
2253 S. Hill Island Road
Cedarville, MI 49719 USA