CONNECTIONS
(1) The 4th International
Conference Fully Subscribed, Kathy Suerken
NETWORKING
(2) Business and Education: An Interesting Merger, Audrey
Taylor
(3) An Intermediate Objective: Sharing
Experiences, Beverly Brown
(4) Our
Quest for POOGI
EDITORS’ NOTE
(5) Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards
(1) The 4th International TOC for Education
Conference
From Kathy
Suerken
Our four-day
conference is fully subscribed at 500 attendees and we have closed registration
for the full 4-day conference. There will be delegates from 14 countries:
Canada, Ecuador, Israel, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines,
Republic of South Africa, Russian, Singapore, Taiwan, United Kingdom, the
United States and Venezuela.
The first
day of the conference will be open to people outside of education in order for
them to better understand the TOCFE program and vision. Seating capacity is limited to 800 for the
first day so registrations for the first day are on a space available basis.
(2) Business and Education: An Interesting Merger
By Audrey Taylor, Grosse
Pointe, MI USA
Dear Friends,
At long last I am
chronicling an interesting merger between the world of business and TOC
for Education. I teach a TOC class to
MBA students at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Most students are already working at some
high levels in area companies, and a few are owners of small businesses. Near the end of the semester, Cheryl Edwards
held the Regional TOC for Education Conference at Wayne State. The date of the conference coincided with
the TOC class, and so I invited Larry Till to speak to my students. Larry, as you know, is a counselor at Joy
Middle School in Detroit. Larry and the staff at Joy Middle School have
accomplished some amazing things using TOC tools.
As Larry spoke in his
quiet yet passionate way, my students were riveted. There was no movement or
coughing, none of the traditional signs of boredom with which all teachers are
familiar. He told these business professionals
of how by using the IO Map and TrT, the students in his school dramatically
raised their reading scores. He spoke
of restored hope in both the students and in the faculty. He told story after story of individual
students whose lives had been changed as they started to see a way out.
Even though my students
appeared to be riveted, I could not be sure what they were really
thinking. A few told me right after the
talk, that Larry had been a powerful speaker and that they had enjoyed his talk
immensely. However, I still did not
know what the rest of the students had thought of this educator's talk about
students and trials and dreams.
At the end of each
semester, I ask my students to fill out a survey, which I collect and review
immediately. Wayne State University
also has all students fill in a standard survey that is returned months later. As I read the survey, I was amazed. Almost every student had mentioned how
powerful Larry's talk had been and what a dramatic effect it had had on their
lives.
Never doubt the power of
the results you are getting. Never be
ashamed or hesitant to share them with someone you think might be a hardened
business person. Children learning,
growing and hoping touches and inspires us all.
Thank you Larry. Thank you very much.
Audrey Taylor
(3) An Intermediate Objective: Sharing Experiences
From Beverly Brown
One of the obstacles mentioned for the TACTics
ambitious target was "readers don't realize the importance of sharing
their experiences." The
intermediate objective is “readers realize the importance of sharing
experiences.”
I too want to thank Mira and Rami for sharing the
"Necklace" story. 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.
I will miss my TOC family this year at the
conference, but I will be thinking of all of you. Please continue to keep in
touch via this newsletter.
Beverly Brown
<bevbrown@bright.net>
(4) Our Quest for POOGI
Ambitious Target:
TOC for Education practitioners are intrinsically motivated to
enthusiastically share their learning experiences with their fellow TACTics
readers.
Obstacles
|
Intermediate
Objectives
|
Educators don’t know if their stories are worthy of publication. |
Educators feel strongly that their stories are
important in the POOGI of all TOCFE educators. |
Putting experiences in “writing” and then
sharing leaves the author open to criticism. |
The philosophy of
TACTics is that everyone has something of value to offer. Readers know this and share their thoughts
to keep us all on a POOGI. |
Readers don’t realize the importance of sharing their experiences. |
1. TACTics
readers value the learnings of others and therefore understand that they too must contribute 2. Readers
realize the importance of sharing experiences. |
I can’t find the information for TACTics in a timely fashion. |
TACTics readers are
prepared to contribute without unnecessary preparation time. |
I don’t know how to format my information and load it so TACTics can
read it. |
Information for
TACTics can be sent in draft form by e-mail to the editors and will be
formatted by then for the journal. |
There are no new experiences during summer holidays. |
1. Educators write up experiences from the school
year during the summer. 2. Educators share their experiences using TOC
with family and friends during the summer holiday. |
There are not enough educators that apply TOC in education. |
If all TOC educators
share their experiences, there will be enough good stories. |
It is not easy to write in English if it is not your mother tongue. |
Contributions to
TACTics can be in rough draft. The
editors appreciate the difficulty of writing in a second Language and will take
the time to carefully revise and edit any information coming from our
readers. |
(5) Kay
Buckner-Seal and Cheryl A. Edwards
Audrey
Taylor and Beverly Brown, thank you for contributing to our POOGI. We look forward to hearing from all of
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