TACTics Journal

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

November 8, 2002

In this week’s issue:

Connections

(1) Creating Thinking Schools, Linda Trapnell

(2) TOCFE Ecuador, Sandra Fierro

(3) TOCFE Ecuador (English Translation)

Editor’s Notes

(4) Kay Buckner-Seal

CONNECTIONS

(1) Creating Thinking Schools

From Linda Trapnell, Head Teacher, United Kingdom

Hi Cheryl!

Is there anything going on over here? Well yes there is!

I've done two presentations to schools in Yorkshire and one school is

adopting clouds as their way of resolving conflict. They are very keen to get

into the curriculum areas; so, I'm going to do some demonstration lessons

and a school assembly there later this month.

Tomorrow I'm doing a full day Cloud training for a whole school staff.

Two weeks ago I was asked to do a keynote speech at the National

Association for Head Teachers Primary Conference in Warwick and that

went very well (250 Head Teachers) with excellent feedback. Some schools

in a difficult area of Sheffield want me to do some work on TOC with them.

My talk was entitled, "Creating the Thinking School."

As a result of the Warwick Conference, I've been asked to contribute an

article under the same title for the NAHT magazine, which is distributed

nationwide to schools. I've also been devising training programmes for the

midday supervisors in schools who have supervised lunchtimes and these are

proving very popular.

The segment of this course, which is causing the most interest, is… the

Cloud! Many schools are asking for more details.

I hope to visit a Secondary school in the Spring term to look at working with

older children in Curriculum areas. You can see things are moving, hence the

reason why I've not been in touch—I'm so busy. Is there a cloud in that?

I'll try and keep you up to date.

(2) TOCFE Ecuador

From Sandra Fierro, Ecuador

Queridos Amigos,

Tengo la necesidad de agradecer de manera profunda y sincera los

conocimientos adquiridos en el seminario de Bogotá. Creo que muchas dudas

que tenía se evaporaron y se transformaron en objetivos intermedios para mi

experiencia vital con las herramientas de TOCFE. Aparte de que la

organización del equipo coordinador fue excelente y con resultados

efectivos, la participación de l@s compañer@s que asistieron fue muy

motivante y motivadora. Hubo espacios en que las preguntas del público y las

experiencias que compartieron con nosotros quienes ya están más

familiarizados con TOC contribuyeron a ampliar nuestra visión de todo lo que

se puede hacer. Yo he sentido de manera personal los beneficios en mi

trabajo de aula, tanto en los contenidos curriculares como en los

comportamientos de mis alumnos, y ello me impulsó a hacer un primer taller

con los profesores de mi colegio (Antares, de San Rafael, Quito, Ecuador)

para compartir mis experiencias y lo que aprendí. Pronto enviaré la noticia y

algunos de los trabajos que están haciendo los profesores de distintos

niveles con las herramientas.

Con cariño

Sandra Fierro

TOCFE Ecuador

(3) TOCFE Ecuador (English Translation).From http://babel.altavista.com/tr

Dear Friends,

I have the necessity to thank in a deep and sincere way the knowledge

acquired in the seminary of Bogota. I believe that many clouds were

evaporated and were transformed into intermediate objectives as a result of

my important experience with the TOCFE tools. Aside from which, the

coordinator was excellent and had effective results. The participation of

Las Compañeas that attended was very motivating. There were times in

which the questions from the public and the experiences that they shared

with us, who already are more familiar with TOC, contributed to extending

our vision of everything that it is possible. I have personally felt the

benefits in my classroom, as much in the curricular contents as well as in the

behaviors of my students, and it compelled me to contact the professors at

my school (Antares of San Rafael, Quito, Ecuador) to share my experiences

and what I have learned. Soon I will send the news and some of the works

that the professors are doing at different levels with the tools.

With affection,

Sandra Fierro

TOCFE Ecuador

EDITOR’S NOTES

(4) Kay Buckner-Seal

We would like to thank Linda Trapnell and Sandra Fierro for contributing to

this week’s TACTics for it is the interests and experiences of our TOCFE

practitioners that make our newsletter.

With the help of the website: http://babel.altavista.com/tr, I made an

humble attempt to create an accurate translation of Sandra Fierro’s article

for our English speaking readers. Sandra, if the translation is no where near

your intent of meaning, please feel free to send the more exact translation

to me, which we will publish in next week’s TACTics.

We encourage all 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 cedwards@cedarville.net or bucknek@earthlink.net.