ELEMENTARY
TACTICS
(1) Diary
of a Newbie in TACT Block, Wong Siew Shan,
Singapore
(2) Elementary Scenarios, Denise
Meyer, USA
QUOTE
(3) Dr.
Eliyahu Goldratt, William Butler Yeats
EDITORS’
NOTES
By Wong Siew Shan , Vice Principal, Jing Shan
Primary School, Singapore
It’s time, again, to enjoy and learn from Shan and her experiences
using TACT with her elementary students.
This time, Shan overcomes skepticism to use the Prerequisite Tree with
700 students- all at once!
INCREDIBLE! Just reminders,
several of Shan’s inspirational entries have been published in TACTics: March 10,2000,
April 7, 2000 and April 14, 2000. Thank
you so much for sharing your experiences and reflections, Shan.
The
assembly topic for today was “Respecting the Needs of Others.” Mrs. Balendra had transparencies of various
daily situations, which showed others in need.
“Here’s a fantastic platform to introduce the Cloud to the entire cohort
of PM. session pupils, I thought to myself.
Although I was eager to try it out with the kids, I was a bit hesitant
at first. It was one thing to try out
the TACT Tools on individuals, pairs, or a small class of pupils, but a totally
different thing to use it in front of 700 pupils and 27 teachers! It took lots of courage and determination
and an attitude of “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” At least if it was a total failure this
time, there would be lessons that I could learn from it. I was really afraid that if it was not
handled properly, some teachers might close their minds to the Cloud even
before I have a chance to formally share it with them!
So
with great trepidation, I rounded up the assembly talk like I usually did every
week. I retrieved Mrs. Balendra’s OHT
on a bus scene where a young girl took up two seats by putting her teddy bear
on the seat beside her. Standing beside
her were an old man holding a walking stick and a heavily laden mother carrying
a baby. I extended the pupils’ thinking
by doing a cloud with them on this familiar dilemma: To give up their seat for
an elderly person or a mother carrying a baby or not to give up the seat. It only took 10 minutes. I wished I had more time to fully explore
the assumptions and the injection. A
few teachers told me that they liked the fact that I spoke to the children
about this constant internal dilemma they faced in simple everyday
situations. They thought the cloud
helped their children to think through their conflicts and see the needs for
taking one option as opposed to another.
I was grateful that nobody told me that I was spouting nonsense. And most gratifying was the kids’
spontaneous response as the cloud was built up. I would definitely be keeping my ears and my eyes opened for
opportunities of this sort in future.
By
Denise Meyer, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Denise
shared several middle school student scenarios with TACTics readers in the
April 14 and 21, 2000 issues of the TACTics Journal. Denise uses these with students to practice identifying
conflicts, surfacing needs, raising assumptions and creating injections. This week we are publishing scenarios from elementary
school. How would you define the
problem in each of these scenarios? If
your students construct clouds or you use any of these scenarios in a lesson
won’t you please share the results with us?
Scenario
1: Jaime was playing soccer
with his buddies. Emily came by and
wanted to play. Jaime would not let her
play. In his family, girls don’t play
soccer. Emily is mad because she wants
to play and feels she has as much right to play as he does.
Scenario
2: A fight breaks out when
Juanita calls Mary a “loudmouth.”
Juanita is angry because Mary told the others that she liked Bill. Juanita told Mary in confidence, which meant
she didn’t want anyone else to know.
Mary didn’t realize that it was a secret. Now, Mary is talking about getting her after school.
Scenario
3: Anita let her friend,
Suzanne, in line in front of her. That
means others have to wait longer for their turn. It’s not fair.
(3) Dr. Eli Goldratt, founder of TOC for Education, has
often been heard saying, “We want to put the fire (for learning) back into the
eyes of children.” William Butler Yeats
put it this way:
“Education is not
the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
(4) Kay
Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards
TOC for Education‘s 5th
Annual International Conference will be held in Michigan, USA. In hopes of preparing you for your visit to
Michigan, we have compiled a few facts about the people who live in Michigan,
USA. Enjoy!
You know you’ve met a
“Michigander” if…
1. They
define summer as 3 months of bad sledding.
2. They think alkaline batteries were
named after a Detroit Tiger outfielder.
3. They know how to play and pronounce
“Euchre.”
4. They bake with soda and drink pop.
5. They know how to pronounce “Mackinac.”
6. They have experienced frostbite and
sunburn in the same week.
7. They year has 2 seasons: winter and
construction.
8. Half the change in their pocket is
Canadian.
9. They expect Vernors when you order
ginger ale.
10. They show people where they grew up with
their left hand.
11. Their little league game was snowed out.
12. The Big Mac is something they drive
across.
13. They know that “Yoopers” live up north
and trolls live below the bridge.
If
you would like to share, don’t hesitate to do so.
Send
your contributions by mail to:
Cheryl A. Edwards
2253 S. Hill Island Rd.
Cedarville, MI 49719, USA
Or send hyperlink to:
<redwards@sault.com>
or
<bucknek@resa.net.