TACTics
Journal
A Publication for and by TOC
for Education Practitioners
September 20, 2002
In this week’s issue:
Elementary/Secondary TACTics
(1) Who Is In Control?, Denise Meyer
Connections
(2) Facilitator Training Course
in Bogotá, Colombia, Rafael
Conde
Editors’ Notes
(3) Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A.
Edwards
ELEMENTARY/SECONDARY
TACTICS
(1) Who Is In Control? —Using A Negative
Branch to Solve a
Problem and Accept Responsibility.
From TOCFE L.A., Reflections:
August 2002
By Editor Denise Meyer, CA USA
This week a little boy came to
complain that “Javier was trying to kick me.”
I discovered that the boy was
trying to stick up for his sister. In further
investigating, I found out that
the sister had hit Javier earlier. The sister
looked angry before I even spoke
to her. When I suggested she had started
this chain of events with her
behavior, she began to cry. Her tears seemed
a mixture of anger and pain. I
brought her to my office and we talked.
She said she was always blamed
for stuff at home. Her mom yells at her. I
started to draw a branch in the
box that said, “I hit him.” I asked her what
happened after she hit him. She
gave me the boxes that followed up the
branch to when her mom yelled
at her. Then I asked her what made her hit
him. She said he made her mad.
I asked how. She answered that he was
always messing around with her
computer. We also clarified that he hit her
because he got mad. Then I
pointed to each box and asked her if she had
any control over it, starting
at the top. “ Do you have any control over you
mom yelling?” I asked.
“No,” she answered.
“How about him telling lies on
you?”.“No, “ she said.
“How about you hitting him?” I
asked.
“No, ummm, I mean, yeah,”
We marked it with a star. “What
could you have done?”
“Told my mom.”
I continued, “Do you have any
control over getting mad?”
“Yeah,” she answered.
“Are you sure?” I told her that
sometimes it’s really hard to control these
kinds of feelings.
We ended the discussion by
talking about why the boy messed with the
computer. She said he probably
wanted to use it but didn’t know how. I
asked her if there was any way
to solve that problem. We talked about
teaching him how to use it and
taking turns. I wasn’t sure how the discussion
affected her. She still seemed
quite sullen as I walked her back to class.
That afternoon at dismissal
time, the girl came to chat with me all smiles
like we were old buddies. About
two weeks after the original incident, her
brother came to tell me that he
and Javier are now good friends.
The Negative Branch is very effective
in pointing out to children where and
how they can control their own
destiny.
CONNECTIONS
(2) Facilitator Training Course in Bogotá,
Colombia
From Rafael Conde, TOCFE Latin
America
This is to inform you that we
are going to hold a Facilitator Training Course
in Bogotá, Colombia, South
America Oct 2-4, 2002. Within the framework
of the First TOC Latin American
Congress, our organization, Piensalo Latin
America organized the LA TOCFE
CONGRESS. The first day will be a big
session for 350 teachers with the
attendance of the Bogota´s mayor and
our educative authorities from
the Secretary of Education of Bogota and
from the Ministry of Education
of Colombia. The key speakers will be Eli
Goldratt and Kathy Suerken..Our
objective is to launch the new marketing
strategy on TOCFE with the Latin
American educative authorities and to
train 35 teachers from Chile, Venezuela,
Costa Rica, Ecuador and Colombia
as TOCFE facilitators.
Our TOCFE team is very proud to
conduct this training and to have the
presence of Kathy and Eli in
our first day session.
EDITORS’ NOTES
(3) Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A.
Edwards
Thanks to all for sharing with
us this week. Denise shared an example of
how the Negative Branch, a very
appealing tool to young children, helped a
student to discover the power
of logic. Perhaps some of you would like to
share a similar experience. If
so, 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
cedwards@cedarville.net or bucknek@earthlink.net.