TACTics Journal

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

January 16, 2004

In this week’s issue:

Connections

(1) Conference Update: Belgrade, Serbia, Zana Borisavljevic

(2) Best Wishes for a New Year!, Sandra Fierro

Editors’ Notes

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

CONNECTIONS

(1) Conference Update: Belgrade, Serbia

From Zana Borisavljevic, Belgrade Serbia

Our TOC team in Serbia has recently started spending more time focusing

on the upcoming TOCFE International Conference, which will be held in

Belgrade in May of this year. Therefore, we decided that I should write

something about Belgrade for the TACTics journal. My aim is to give some

helpful information to those of you will be coming to the conference and to

inspire those of you who are not yet sure whether you would be coming to

decide to join us here!

Thinking about what to write has made me realize how much I have grown to

love Belgrade in the last couple of years. I had never lived in Belgrade

before I returned to Serbia from the UK three years ago. I grew up in a

small Serbian town, went to university in Nis, the second largest town in

Serbia, and then moved to the UK thinking I was never going to return to

live in Serbia. Thirteen years later, it seemed the most meaningful thing to

come back here to share what I had learned abroad. Given that I wanted to

make a contribution on a larger scale to bringing about positive changes in

the education system and life long learning in Serbia, Belgrade was the best

place to start.

But, it wasn’t easy. In the first weeks upon my return, I was terrified of

crossing the streets because drivers would very rarely stop for you at the

pedestrian crossing unless you go for it. I hated going to post offices,

waiting in the queues for paying electricity and telephone bills etc. My

experience was that it was always crowded, people were pushing, and

everything took a long time.

I am not quite sure when and how the change happened. I remember a year

ago returning from a trip, sitting on a coach and looking through the window

as we were entering the city on a hazy afternoon and I felt my heart well up

with love. I guess it was to do with my commitment to this city. I had made

a decision to live here and to give my best to it and Belgrade responded. I

met so many wonderful people here, discovered so many beautiful places,

enjoyed the walks in sunlit streets or sitting in one of many coffee shops and

watching the life in the streets of the city unfold.

Belgrade is a city of contrasts. You will see it in architecture, culture, and

people’s behaviour. There is something both raw and sophisticated about it.

It is also a city of intensity. It challenges you to discover who you are and

forces you to make daily choices about how you want to live your life.

If you would like to see some photos of Belgrade, you can go to

http://www.belgradetourism.org.yu/english/razgled/index.html.

There is also a list of web site addresses that give general information for

transportation, car rentals, currency, and weather to international dialing

instructions: http://www.budgettravel.com/serbia.htm.

An official city of Belgrade site is:

http://www.beograd.org.yu/english/grad/index.htm and another interesting

site is: http://www.geocities.com/milorad_pavlovic/Paintings2.html.

And, for those who want to stay longer and see a little bit more of the

country: http://www.biztravel.com/TRAVEL/SIT/top_pages/2486.html.

The conference will be held in the Intercontinental Hotel in New Belgrade

and the accommodation will be offered in the Jugoslavija Hotel located on

the Danube and not very far from the conference venue. (Transportation

will be arranged between the two hotels in the morning and the afternoon)

If you would like to book rooms at the Jugoslavija Hotel, you can do that

through the Miross Travel Agency, who is helping us organize the

conference. The person to contact is:

Ms. Dobrila Puzic

dobrila@miross.co.yu

Miross Travel Agency

Svetogorska 4, Beograd 11000

Serbia

Tel/Fax: +381 11 33 44 945

+381 11 33 44 510

+381 11 33 44 529

I hope to see you here in May!

Zana Borisavljevic

(2) Best Wishes for a New Year!

From Sandra Fierro

Dear Cheryl,

Hi! I want to send you a big hug and the best wishes for this New Year. In

what concerns to TOCFE, I did the workshop on Dec. 4, with important

results, yet with great constraints. I will write longer as soon as I find the

time. This is to thank deeply the interest you put in what the rest of the

team members are doing all over the world. I want to thank Mr. Michael

Round for his enormous help and Zana from Serbia. I want them to receive

my very profound feelings of gratefulness and tell them that this is the kind

of help we need. Thank you for your support. Some teachers told me they

are beginning to use the tool in behavior aspects. If this mail gets to the

rest of the world, I want you to know that I think of you constantly and I

want to send my best wishes to all the wonderful people I met.

Hope to see you again.

Sandra

EDITORS’ NOTES

(3) 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 cedwards@cedarville.net or bucknek@earthlink.net.

Please note that the pdf version of TACTics is attached. You must have

Acrobat Reader to open the file. It is freely available for download from:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html. If you have the

Reader installed but still can't open the file, drag it from this e-mail to your

desktop, launch the Reader, and open from the FILE menu.

You may also view TACTics in its intended formatting, by visiting our web

site at www.tocforeducation.com. Click on “What’s New.”