TACTics
Journal
In this week’s issue:
Elementary/Secondary TACTics
(1) The
Case of the Disruptive Student, Belinda Small,
(3) TACT, ETC in Michigan
Quote
(4) Jan
L.A. van de Snepscheut
Editor’s
Notes
(5) Kay Buckner-Seal
By Belinda Small, Crestview, Florida USA
The most horrible scenario for any
teacher, new or experienced , is a group of children who are continually
disruptive. Sometimes it is the class as a whole that is cause for concern and sometimes it
is just one student causing all of the problems. Either way, little or no instruction or learning can go on until
the problem is resolved. Having a
toolbox of effective strategies to help with disruptive students is a
necessity for all teachers. TOC to the
rescue! The simple yet powerful thinking tools are proving successful with
students of all ages. In this case
study from the TOCFE Anthology, the Negative Branch seems to work wonders but
we know it's not luck and it's not magic! Do you have similar examples to share with
our readers? —Cheryl A.
Edwards
Shortly after I was
trained in TOC, I began to adapt one of the thinking methods (the Negative
Branch) to get students to write down for themselves the consequences of their
actions. The application was so
effective with my 7th grade disruptive students that soon all of the
teachers on my team began to send their disruptive students to me rather than
the office because the process I was using was so effective!
The amazing thing is
that the students actually “fix” their own problems. All I do is get them to use the
process. The first step is to have them
write down the behavior that led to the problem with the teacher. After that, I just guide them with: what
happened next? I think the students
can write this so easily because they have experienced the chain of
events. In this way, they are also
developing a skill cause and effect), which is sometimes difficult to
teach. Using this method, they can
develop the skill by building on prior knowledge rather than having to learn it
as an independent skill.
In this example, the
student had been making noises in another teacher’s class. When we started writing the Negative Branch,
I just asked, “Why were you sent here?”
At first, the student said, typically: “I didn’t do anything.” I gave him some thinking time and then in a
few minutes he said, “Well, I made some noises in class and then the teacher
got mad.”
“And then what happened?” I continued, and
he gave me a few more effects, which I was writing down for him just in little
circles and connecting them with arrows to indicate that one circle was leading
to the next circle. Meanwhile, my 7th
grade English class had been working on an assignment and I had to stop and
give them some instructions. I put the
pen down to wait until I had dealt with the needs of my classroom. When I returned, I found that he had picked up
the pen and finished the Negative Branch all by himself!
We discussed what could
he do to prevent the final outcome and he wrote down some suggestions that were
not new ideas. What was new in this
case was that this time they were his ideas This Negative Branch was written in October and this student had
already been referred to the office 40 times by the other teacher! He never got in trouble again with this
teacher for the rest of the school year.
If: I make noises in class,
Then:
·
Another student gets mad.
·
Teacher gets mad.
·
I get mad.
• Don’t listen.
• Don’t do assignment.
• I get an F.
• I fail the class.
• (I get) furious.
I will try not to
disrupt the class.
A note from Kathy
Suerken:
Belinda Small is the
first known teacher to have used the Negative Branch with children. Teachers all over the world are now using
her simple, yet powerful, application.
CONNECTIONS
(2) News from
Russia
From
Zarechniy Pensenskaya ,Region of (Central) Russia
• In
September the students and staff of Didakt Gymnasium participated in seminars
on Communication in Business. We
discussed many problems and learned how to resolve conflicts and make decisions
using a method, which satisfied the needs of all seminar participants. We used the technology of TOC TAKT.
The leaders of the seminar were students: Masha Denisova; Olya Komarova and Ilya Shilitsin. They were trained in this technology at the
Eureka seminar in April 2001 by Galina Dolya and David Higgins.
• The following trainer of trainers sessions are scheduled to take
place in the upcoming months:
Location: Moscow,
Russia
Date: Nov
1-5, 2001
Host: Eureka
University
Instructors: Galina
Dolya and David Higgins
(3) TACT, ETC in Michigan
Are you
interested in training educators to use TOC for: School improvement,
instruction and curriculum design, conflict resolution and self-discipline
including classroom management?
Are you
interested in the TACT, ETC training as an up-grade? Anyone who has not attended a conference or upgrade in the last
year is required to attend an upgrade to keep a TOCFE Trainers status.
TOCFE
Training for Trainers
Location: Metropolitan Detroit, Michigan, USA
Date: January
28-30, 2002
Host: Michigan
Institute for Nonviolence Education, Alicia Renee’ Farris, Executive Director
Prerequisites:
• TOC “TACT” training or equivalent
• Examples of each of the TOC tools you have used in an educational
setting
• Read, The
Goal, It ’s Not Luck and Critical Chain by E. Goldratt
• Have a group
of educators eager to be trained.
If you are
interested, contact Cheryl Edwards:
E-mail: redwards@sault.com, Phone: 906.484.6808
(4) "In theory, there is no difference between theory
and practice. But, in practice, there is.
" —Jan
L.A. van de Snepscheut
(5) Kay Buckner-Seal
The
TOCFE Anthology, compiled by Kathy Suerken is a powerful
collection of case experiences using the tools in the educational setting. In “The Case of the Disruptive Student,”
Belinda Small, modeled how to use the negative branch for the disruptive
student. She gave us an explicit
example of scaffolding, giving a student the support needed to be
successful. The beauty of it all is
that the tools are so easily adapted by students. Within a matter of minutes, the disruptive student was able to
use the tools to modify his behavior.
And, he was able to apply it again, successfully; “he never got in
trouble again with his teacher!” Logic
is so appealing! Belinda Small, thanks
for writing up a fine example of the tools in use. If you have other experiences to share, we welcome the input!
Thanks, for the “News from Russia.” We did not include your name in this
article, because we did not know who sent the correspondence. Please let us know so that we may share this
information with the TOCFE family.
Send in your experiences using the TOC tools to
TACTics. We can all learn from each
other. Send your responses,
applications of the thinking processes, lessons, announcements, and etc. by
mail to: Cheryl A. Edwards, 2253 S. Hill Island Rd.,
Cedarville, Michigan 49719, USA. Or
send hyperlink to: redwards@sault.com,
or bucknek@earthlink.net.
To
view TACTics in its intended formatting, visit our website at
www.tocforeducation.com
and click on “What’s New.”