(1) It’s Time to Make a Difference, Kathy Suerken
Quote
(3) Alan Kay
Editors’ Notes
(4) Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A.
Edwards
CONNECTIONS
I was in London last
week during the terrorist attack that killed people from 80
nations, many of which
already have had first hand experience with terrorism. So very many problems have been created as a
result of this tragedy--truly, an event with global impact.
How can we utilize the
TOC tools in education to better prepare students for life in this
reality? We know that children are
worried about their own security when they perceive they are living in a
troubled world. I still remember watching Linda Trapnell teach a storybook
lesson through a cloud to an assembly of 200 five to seven year olds when, all
of a sudden, one of the children raised an assumption based on her father's
absence from home due to military service in Kosovo. What a great example of how a teacher can use one process in
teaching content to differentiate instruction to many students—especially to
enable students to think about the relationships between content and their own
lives and to be able to meaningfully express those relationships.
Are students able to relate to the generic economic and social needs in dilemmas governments face in cutting interest rates, giving loans to organizations, sending military troops? Can students be guided to think of similar examples of these dilemmas (and consequences of decisions) in other content areas?
And…would students like
to think they could contribute meaningfully to the way global problems are
solved?
I no longer have a
school classroom to generate the TOC guided discussion requested by Cheryl in
last week's TACTics. Nevertheless, I do
have these kinds of examples to share.
Although written 6 years ago, they are still relevant as is the response
of the parents who learned that their children have the wisdom to think
logically and deeply about global issues.
While teaching at a middle school in the early 1990’s, I sponsored a
middle school International Club, whose motto was “Think Globally, Act
Locally.” By 1995, it had become a TOC
problem-solving club with 60 members.
One evening they gave a
presentation to parents on how they were using the cloud to think through a
variety of problems. The students presented
examples of the cloud on a personal issue (go to a party/don't), a moral issue
(tell a lie/don't) a social studies issue (let the refugees in/don't) and then
there was this cloud… prompted by current world events, and presented by Matt
(then 12 years old and who only learned the cloud during club meetings):
A: Enhanced
International Relationships
B: Get the job done
D: use military force
against other countries
C: nobody gets hurts
D’: don’t use military
force against other countries
Assumptions:
AB: Tensions build
continuously
AC: Anger will surface
BD: that is the only way
to get the job done
CD: military force will
hurt them
He verbally discussed
these assumptions and possible solutions with his audience which included
Marion Oelke. She later wrote Matt
that “as a recently retired Air Force Colonel, I am profound impressed by the
depth of your reasoning. You
demonstrated a wisdom well beyond your years in recognizing that nations
usually have a range of options as they seek to acquire what they need….”
By the way, Matt is now
a university student where, due to a new reality, he is organizing blood drives
as well as establishing a non bigotry student body coalition to ensure that
erroneous assumptions don’t lead to ethnic backlashes on his campus. Matt is still thinking globally while taking
local actions. He is DOING SOMETHING.
Frequently we think we
have no impact on the big picture. And
yet I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t want to. Almost everyone wants TO MAKE A
DIFFERENCE-- to leave behind a better world.
What can WE do? Let’s show the world that children can think
responsibly and effectively about all kinds of decisions that impact them and
others--if given thinking tools that work.
PLEASE send me your students’ TOC work--clouds, branches, PRTs on any
subject to include values-education. I
need class sets of examples—yes I NEED THEM ALL and from every country-- as
well as testimonials of students, parents and educators. For those who have examples in language
other than English, send me the originals and translate, if possible, only one
or two.
I need as well examples
of TOC in counseling, peer mediation etc.
OF COURSE in TOCFE, we will never compromise the means to the end so
rest assured we will use these students' names only with permission.
If you will DO this, I
will forward these examples with a letter of explanation to every high level
authority I can think of—even, if appropriate, the Secretary General of the
United Nation, the President of the World Bank etc.
Who knows, it might just make a world of
difference.
And, in the meantime, our students will become better educated for life.
From Paula Sommer and Dr. Charles
Blanton, Texas, USA
Paula shared the
scope of the work that she and her team were working on in Texas at our June
Conference. After recently visiting the
schools, Paula submits this updated report.
Weatherford ISD
Turning the Campus Improvement
Plan into the Teachers’ Plan for Campus Improvement.
The Campus Improvement Plan (CIP) is
typically a tactical document that the principal completes for district and
state requirements that sits on a shelf. ! Principal Patti Woods* desired for
the CIP to be more than a paper exercise.
She saw the potential for it to be helpful to teachers. But the system’s process typically resulted
in the same document with a few variations added from year to year. There was very little logic to the plan and
the follow through was based on an intensive effort by the principal to fulfill
the paper requirements. This year we
involved the faculty in creating the plan using the Ambitious Target
methodology. Her goal was for the
document to be the teacher’s plan. This
year it is.
The teachers did the entire process
using the Ambitious Target and then presented it to her. They were empowered. Now we are developing a three-tiered
implementation plan for the entire school.
The first tier is training the principal in data-gathering methods and
the tools. This tier includes the principal
and counselor using the tools with students referred to the office. The second tier is training the site-based
team; the third tier is deployment of the entire faculty. Each tier, once trained, will develop the
plan for training the next tier.
*Her school has great
challenges- many kids act out on Friday due to their foster home and/or home
situations; they dread not being at school where there is more order and
safety.
QUOTE
(3) "The best way to predict the
future is to invent it." —Alan Kay
EDITORS’ NOTES
(4) Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A.
Edwards
Have you given students the
opportunity to use the tools to help them process their thinking during this
time? Have you used the tools
lately? If so, why not share the results
with us in next week’s TACTics? Send your responses by
mail to Cheryl Edwards: 2253 S. Hill
Island Rd., Cedarville, MI 49719, USA.
Or, you can send them to us by hyperlink: redwards@sault.com or bucknek@earthlink.net.
To view TACTics in its intended formatting and to
read previous issues, visit the TOCFE website at: www.tocforeducation.com