TACTics Journal
A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners
In this week’s issue:
Connections
(1) How Lucky Can You Get, Kathy Suerken
Editors’ Notes
(2)
CONNECTIONS
(1) How Lucky Can You Get?
By Kathy Suerken <suerken@cox.net>
I am such a lucky person! One reason is that, every once in a
while, I am
privileged to travel into your world.
My recent such journey began with a
mere twenty-four hours in
champions who so much want to bring
TOCFE to
by Haruyuki
Uchiyama, who along with Sasaki Toshio, will be our business
TOCFE liaisons. Saggio
drove five hours to attend our meetings and
provided a Japanese hard copy of my
overview presentation to about twelve
TOC businessmen.
One of the attendees, Satoru Murakami, has since written:
"I strongly hope
your step will become very beautiful fruits. As you know we are a consulting
firm
in industry. But I can help and
would like to do my first step. If I may use your materials, I will try to
give presentation to real school
teachers."
TOCFE champions have a lot of commitment, determination and
stamina, all
of which is so well modeled by
Christina Cheng, TOCFE Director,
who has brought TOCFE to life
there in a very short time. Her highly
successful meeting in the Ministry of
Education last July led within a month
to the first MOE sponsored
seminar that was facilitated by Rami Goldratt.
Rami also gave a presentation to
the MOE Sports Council that was so well
received they want to train one
thousand sports coaches within the next
year!
While in
three-day intro course to forty
teachers from eight schools along with
several leaders of the Girl's
Brigade Organization—two of whom are from
This seminar would not have been possible without the servant
leadership of
Ms. Hee Piang
Chin, Assistant Director of Staff Training in the MOE and
International Director of Girl's Brigade. It is most inspiring to listen to her
vision of spreading the TOC tools
throughout
Girl's Brigade Organization.
In the meantime, she is a practical-visionary educational leader
who enabled
me to leave with forty-three
letters documenting our attendees'
enthusiastic endorsement of TOC. To
ensure honest assessment, she gave
participants the option to submit it
anonymously. What a gift! Keep
watching the web page for the
publication of these wonderful testimonials.
As we know, putting commitments into writing encourages
follow-through but
it is actions that are the true
measurement. Such as the actions reported
within a week by Choy Wai Fann, who is already
spreading TOCFE like wild
fire both through school
counseling and to other brigade leaders. She wrote
also of a school principal who
attended our seminar (along with 10 of his
teachers) and who told her,
"I've been using TOC on all the students sent to
me."
Speaking of TOC wildfires and spark plugs J, my next stop was
where Ean
had planned my agenda for a short two-day visit. Ean
retired
from government service last
June, which means she had more time to
squash a week's worth of
multi-tasks into a mere forty-eight hours.
Therefore, first day alone consisted of: meeting with the Director
of
national newspaper, followed by
extensive meetings and dinner with a
Malaysian software company (who is
mega-interested in acquiring
distribution rights to Yani along with potential future development of our
materials.)
The newspaper article will be published later this month as a
feature story
and, to do justice to the way
TOCFE began in
included Ean
as well as the person initially responsible for my introductory
presentation to the CDC—Dr. Shameem Rafik-Galea, who uses TOC
extensively in her work as Department
Chair at University Putra.
Speaking of founding TOCFE champs, in
Rotarians Father Tony Ranada and Mar
Gatus, who, along with his Rotary
Club, hosted this visit into the world of our Philippines TOCFE
family. Due
to communication
technicalities, TOCFE Philippine Director, Dr. Cora
The obstacle? As we know,
their primary techno-medium of
communication, not e-mail. However, Kathy
doesn't have a cell phone and, as we
all know, is technologically challenged
(with oak leaf clusters.) A potential IO? Well, we all know that Ean
is the
TOCFE gadget-techno lady extraordinaire. What should be the "tactical"
connection?
Apparently, Ean had already connected
her scheduling strategies to Mar who
presented an agenda upon my arrival
that would put even Ean on a stamina
POOGI. Implementation merely
required tactics of: take shorter breaths,
walk faster…and, well, who needs
sleep anyway?
The agenda referenced a get-together next day for TOCFE
leadership,
organized by Cora and Dr. Vicky
Fuentes and originally was intended for a
small group of around ten people.
When Mar arrived to provide escort
service the next day, he announced,
"The event is bigger than we thought
and has been moved to a larger
venue. They're expecting about ninety
people!" Turns out it was a
BREATH-TAKING audience of one hundred and
sixty-five educators for a day long
"mini-conference." Is there a message
here? YES!
Despite so many seeming communication/geographical obstacles in
providing
support to TOCFE Philippines, the
message is a stand-out IO and it is: A
visionary passion to MAKE A DIFFERENCE
combined with the substantive,
realistic tools of TOC to ensure it.
This IO not only has provided the foundation of a sustainable
TOCFE training program, but also needed supportive documentation
such as
that being created by Dr. Nora Uy and her team of researchers. They have
written a comprehensive action
research paper for the DECS on "THE USE
OF TACT/TOCFE IN IMPROVING THE BEHAVIOR AND ACADEMIC
PERFORMANCE OF PUPILS-AT-RISK IN THE DIVISION OF
Jenelyn Corpuz based on the effects of TOCFE as intervention
strategies in
Technology and Livelihood Education.
Cora is retiring next June and will remain active with TOCFE but,
like all
great leaders, is ensuring the
TOCFE, DECS, (Dept. of Ed.) baton is
effectively passed to a great, practical
visionary, Dr. Vicky Fuentes,
Superintendent of Schools in
children).
Vicky attended our meeting with the Undersecretary of Education,
package into the
a gift of two school site
licenses from my Florida Rotary Club to the
WHEW! What a wonderful chain of events!!!! As I began a 30-hour
journey
home, I knew I was leaving TOCFE
in many exceptional hands. Now more
than ever as Ean
is now working full time for TOCFE as director of
Therefore, I can very contently reflect on some of the memorable
souvenirs
of this journey into your
world. Whoever said, "The best things in life are
not things," understands as
well my souvenirs:
· The awesome sight of the
Japanese translation of TOCFE Overview.
Don't you just love seeing the TOC language of civility translated
to
so many native tongues:
Spanish, Hebrew, Tagalong, Malay, Dutch,
Russian, Chinese, English and …er, yes,
according to our
also "American," J
· Listening to Ariff Salahi
Amiruddin of
five hour journey to tell me of
his experiences in bringing TOC Peer
Mediation to his school,
· The knowledge that the Undersecretary of Education,
Director of the CDC, MOE,
Staff Training and Director of Girl's Brigade will all be sharing
their
stories with you in
· The possibility of two new TOCFE locations in the makings, and
· A farewell serenade—led by Ding Vasaya from the Philippine
leadership team in whose eyes you can
see the FIRE so envisioned by
our founder, Eli Goldratt.
WOW…how lucky can you get?
EDITORS’ NOTES
(2)
Kathy, thank you so much for sharing! We always love hearing from
you;
send your responses, applications
of the thinking processes, lessons,
announcements, and etc. by mail to: Cheryl
A. Edwards, 2253 S. Hill Island
Rd.,
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