This Week’s Issue:
(1) Congratulations…
(2) INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2001: A SILVER
BULLET EVENT!, Kathy Suerken
CONNECTIONS
(1) CONGRATULATIONS…
And all best wishes to our
founder, Eli Goldratt, on the birth of his first grandchild-a son, born to
Efrat and Yshai Ashlag on July 2.
(2) INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2001: A SILVER BULLET EVENT!
From Kathy Suerken
As our keynote speaker, founder, and mentor, Eli Goldratt, so aptly explained to our special event audience of 225 people, "if" you use TOC to analyze a situation, it is possible to so pin point and understand a core problem that it is "then" possible for you--just like Archimedes! –-to leverage the problem into a silver bullet solution.
How can we use this concept to
help us expeditiously and exponentially move toward our TOCFE goals? In order
to leave behind a better world, we in TOCFE are constantly striving toward the
goal to prepare our children for life. Based on our experiences, we assume that
TOC provides substantive, realistic tools to enable us to achieve that august
goal. However, in order to expeditiously and exponentially market and
disseminate TOC to education
systems worldwide, we must convince others to use their time to learn and teach
TOC. The existing 5 day TACT seminar is not always seen as a
practical and simple enough entry into best practices--especially by mainstream
teachers but sometimes even by other school stakeholders. Therefore, the focus /leverage point of this
conference and beyond was (and
is!) 6 silver bullet training modules, designed to teach the fundamental TOC
tools (the cloud, cause and effect branches and the "Ambitious
Target"—IO map) through relevant and accelerated (14 hour) learning
applications for every stakeholder in a school system. In other words:
primary and secondary teachers, counselors and social workers, administrators
and school improvement teams, students AND parents/mentor.
A special commendation is due to the conference facilitators who donated their
own time to develop training materials and to facilitate these new seminars to
175 conference delegates from 10 states of the United States and international
facilitators from 13 nations. What a local and global impact!
Thank you:
Denise Meyers, Remedeas Kelly-Weekes and Audrey Taylor (parents);
Doug Roby and Mary Ellen Bourbeau (counselors and social workers)
Larry Till, Jana Borisavljevic and David Higgins (students)
Khaw Choon Ean (academic content for primary teachers)
Danilo Sirias (academic content for secondary teachers)
Rami Goldratt (administrators and school improvement teams)
Thank you also to Cheryl's dedicated USA conference committee for organizing
the event in which to host these seminars. It is, however, as important to
acknowledge those who have helped develop these applications in the
trenches-those of you who turned theory into practice and shared your results
so the rest of us could learn from them. I am instantly reminded of a
teacher who shared, during Danilo's pilot 'TOC in Content' seminar last March,
that she was convinced to come to the seminar after downloading Marcia Hutchinson's
classroom intervention case study from the web site. She was so impressed with Marcia's work that she shared it with
all of her colleagues. Sometimes we don't realize what global impact we
have!
A representative sample of our TOCFE "in the trenches" work has been compiled and edited into an Anthology of International Case Studies to support the marketing and dissemination of TOC to education systems worldwide. This 'first edition' consists of 63 case studies from 10 nations and demonstrates TOC best practices in conduct (includes a 'how to use TOC in peer mediation'); academic content; and administration. In the words of Denise Brown-Ocdise of Detroit Public Schools, "The TOC Anthology truly enables you to go straight to work. While reviewing it, I could put a real name to each example!"
We will begin the process of adding these additional case studies to our web site very soon. In the meantime, a special thanks to Barbara McKenna who, through a generous donation, helped make the hard copy edition a reality.
In TOCFE, everything is on a
process of ongoing improvement-even silver bullets! Faster and
further? Therefore, A TOC for Education E-Learning Site is being
developed and will be launched in January 2002! At the conference
we proudly announced a win/win partnership with Colin Rose, web-based publisher
and founder of Accelerated Learning LTD of the United Kingdom. By
integrating our infrastructures and BECAUSE of shared goals and vision, we
think we will achieve more and more of the goal now and in the future.
The exciting details will be shared as the TOCFE family work together to
develop them.
After all, the BEST IS YET TO BE!
(3) Thanks!
From Cheryl
Edwards, TOC for Education, USA
“It is amazing
how much people can get done if they do not worry about who gets the credit.”
—Sandra Swinney
I
would like to acknowledge and publicly thank the many dedicated folks who put
so much of their time and effort into
making this 5th Annual International TOC for Education Conference
happen.
·
The
marvelous Bernie Kean, Kathy's indispensable assistant.
Rami
Goldratt Audrey
Taylor
Denise Meyer Remedeas
Kelly–Weekes
Mary
Ellen Bourbeau Doug Roby
Larry
Till David
Higgins
Jana
Borisavljevic Danilo Sirias
Jeff
Rideout Jose
Martinez
Suzanne
Klein Colin
Rose
Paula
Sommer
This
team, made up of all full time professionals, managed to find the “extra” time
to lend their expertise and labor to accomplish all of the behind the scene
tasks.
Audrey Taylor Sears
Taylor
Fran Foote Jim
Low
Beatrice Kovacs Larry Till
Joyce Beasley Mary
Ellen Bourbeau
Warren Foster Sandy
Grosso
Austerine Hambrick Doug Roby
Kay Buckner-Seal Suzanne Klein
· Mr. and Mrs. Lyman Ellis who donated their expertise, time and equipment to video tape the conference
·
And
my very, very special thanks to Jane Hudak who was ready, willing and
incredibly able to do anything that was needed to keep the show going.
Appreciation for their support:
·
Wayne
State University:
Dr. Frank Plonka, Chairperson, Department of Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering
·
Detroit
Public Schools:
Dr. Austerine Hambrick,
Supervisor, Guidance and Counseling
·
Mularoni
·
Arvin Meritor Group
EDITOR’S NOTES
(4) Kay Buckner-Seal
If you would like to share a connection, an experience, a wish, or a thought, send by mail to Cheryl A. Edwards, 2253 S. Hill Island Rd., Cedarville, MI 49719, USA. Or, send hyperlink to <redwards@sault.com> or <bucknek@earthlink.net.
To view TACTics in its intended formatting and to read previous issues, visit the TOC website at: www.tocforeducation.com