TACTics Journal

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

October 19, 2001

 

In this week’s issue:

Connections

   (1)   TOCFE on the Move in Russia!, Kathy Suerken

(2)         News from Israel, Gila Glatter

(3)         The 6th Annual TOC for Education International Conference

Quote

  (4)  Charles Franklin Kettering

Editors’ Notes

  (5)   Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards

 

 

CONNECTIONS

(1)        TOCFE on the Move in Russia!

From Kathy Suerken

 

Galina Dolya and David Higgins will teach the following TOC seminars in Russia:

Oct 25-28:  A TACT seminar will be taught in Krasnodar, Russia, a new Russian location for TOCFE.  Krasnodar is located on the Black Sea about 1000 kilometers from Moscow.  Over 100 teachers are registered for this seminar!!

 

Nov 1-5:  A TACT, ETC seminar (facilitator training) will be taught in Moscow Russia.  The seminar is hosted through Eureka University (by the way, ETC stands for Empowered To Change)

 

Nov 5-9:  TACT seminar in Moscow, Russia hosted through Eureka University.

 

TOCFE comes to the Ukraine (new country for us)!

December 20-22:  Galina will teach the first TACT seminar (sessions 1, 2 and 4) in her native homeland.

 

(2)        News from Israel

Gila Glatter, Israel

 

Shalom to My TOCFE Friends,

Last Thursday, our TOCFE Members Club, gathered in Kefar-Hamakabia in Ramt-Gan, Israel for the first meeting on the new educational year.  In September, we have our holidays, therefore we have just started regular formal studies.

 

There were about 35 participants from kindergarten teachers through university teachers, from senior members (who have been with us for 2-3 years, doing great jobs in their educational milieu), to new members (who just finished the basic course last summer).  We meet every 6 weeks in order to achieve our target, which is: Deepen our understanding of using TOC tools in our classes.  We believe that we can learn from each other by sharing personal success stories, or personal failures stories, offering new ideas and new materials to assess and test among professional friends.

 

At this first meeting, Ariela Licterman and Vardit Weisbuom, who participated in the Detroit conference last June, lead a professional workshop with the main subject: A new way to plan a curriculum with the cloud tool.  They succeeded in activating us to find a common denominator, in various texts and in various areas of knowledge.  They did it very clearly and very systematically, with a lot of logic, which we call common sense.

 

We were working very cooperatively, in 5 groups.  Each group had 3 or 4 content texts that we had to go over, find the specific Udes, put them in a cloud scheme, and at last try to generalize 3 clouds to a generic cloud.  Although the time was late in the evening, we all were very self- motivated, acting with interest and joy.

 

Our findings were amazing.  Through the generic cloud we were able to see the key and basic words in the subject with which we were dealing.  And even more interesting, we could see the same key words in some other subject areas.  Vardit & Ariela brought to the class texts in geography, Bible, literature and education.  We have come to the conclusion that by this procedure, we can make up our mind what texts we should choose for our students in order to enrich their knowledge.  They must be very clear and focused in recognizing the problem in a specific subject as well as the solution that follows.  I would like to bring one example making it a bit clearer:

 

I was in a group that was reading a geography text; the subject was ecological environment.  Through reading, we found the key words: prosperity, welfare, comfortable, pollution, wastage, damage, change, and conservation.

The generic cloud we developed in our group was:

 

A:         Have quality life

B:         Be comfortable

D:         Change the environment

C:            Prevent damage

D':        Do not change; watch the environment

 

We were very pleased and proud of the clear and simple theme we came to with out of the long and complicated texts.  This cloud is the whole story... so simple and so clear.  The solutions that were followed in the text like: recycle or desalination were understood and discussed accordingly with a connected insight to the two needs that we identified in our cloud.

 

Vardit and Ariela have shown us how we can change our TACTICS in building a specific curriculum- to a great STRATEGY, for many subjects.  Furthermore, we were involved and responsible for creating a good and powerful learning plan.

 

We felt, once again, that the cloud diagram is our "silver bullet" and we must practice it according to our class syllabus and spread it in our schools and classes.  Next time we’ll discuss how we can use Danilo's procedure in building a curriculum.

 

Best Wishes,

Gila Glatter

Succeeding in stopping terror, all over the world, keeping innocent people alive!

 

 

(3)        The 6th Annual TOC for Education International Conference

 

University of Nottingham

Nottingham, United Kingdom

July 8-11, 2002

See TACTics, October 12, 2001 for details at www.tocforeducation.com.

 

 

QUOTE

(4)        A problem well stated is a problem half solved." —Charles Franklin Kettering (1876-1958)

 

 

EDITORS’ NOTES

(5)           Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards

 

Feel free to share with us.  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.

 

 

 

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