TACTics Journal

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

February 27, 2004

In this week’s issue:

Networking

(1) Special Announcement!, Kathy Suerken

Reader’s Feedback

(2) RE: Danilo’s Delivery Cloud, Matías Birrell

Connections

(3) 8th Annual TOCFE Conference

Editors’ Notes

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

NETWORKING

(1) Special Announcement!

From Kathy Suerken, <suerken@cox.net>

I am very privileged to announce the appointment of Rolando De Silvio as

TOCFE, Director of Mexico and of Mike Round as TOCFE, Director of

USA. They will each serve in a volunteer capacity.

Rolando, a veteran TOC practitioner, recently validated his TOCFE expertise

by convincing a private school to accept the TOC teaching methodologies.

The school has since purchased a site license for Yani.

During my recent visit to Mexico City, Rolando shared, “I want to represent

TOCFE not only as a thank you to Eli Goldratt for all he has given to change

the world, but also because I want to be able to look my 4 year old in his

eyes.”

I am humbled not only by Rolando's determination and vision to MAKE A

DIFFERENCE but also by his commitment to consistently use TOC

processes—especially to create the essential trees to ensure the successful

difference.

These means and ends are also exemplified by Mike Round of Overland Park,

Kansas, USA. Most of you are aware of Mike's profound applications of TOC

to math curriculum. He has been studying TOC for about 10 years and is

using it in every way imaginable and some beyond imagination!

Mike is an Actuary, has an MA in Math and has earned certification as a

Montessori Instructor. He also serves as Curriculum Advisor for South

Dakota State University.

In fall 2004, Mike will open a small private elementary school that will run on

TOC. Mike is already writing the math and science curricula that he hopes

to have published.

Please join me in providing Mike and Rolando all the moral and technical

support possible as they generously take on the Ambitious Target of serving

TOCFE and—along with you—all children of the world. Your collaboration has

never been more needed, valued and appreciated. Mike can be reached:

round12345@aol.com and Rolando at rdisilvio@mfgexcellence.com.

They both will attend the 8th International TOCFE conference in Serbia

where you will be able to collaborate with them in person.

READER’S FEEDBACK

(2) RE: Danilo’s Delivery Cloud

From Matías Birrell, Chile

I want to make my little contribution to the dilemma presented by Danilo

Sirias.

The cloud Danilo presented is:

A: In order to have effective delivery of content

B: I must provide students with a sense of direction

In order to provide students with a sense of direction,

D: I must present the big picture first and then explain the details.

On the other hand…

A: In order to have effective delivery of content,

C: I must create a sense of discovery (be Socratic).

In order to provide students with a sense of discovery (be Socratic),

D’: I must start with a detail and then build up to complete the big

picture.

For our TACTics readers: How would you break this cloud?

BD bothers me most, so here I'll start. From my knowledge of sales and

persuasion, I know that presenting the product and its benefits causes the

raising of objections. Similarly, to present the big picture, all the content,

can lead to diversion to other points than the one the teacher wants to

focus on to start with.

The injection in sales is to build up a prerequisite list for ANY good solution

after agreeing on the problem. Only after that, one can go showing one by

one the features of the product that meet each requisite. Similarly, on

delivering content it is possible that presenting the ambitious target tree

(hopefully built when preparing the class) will show the big picture of the

strategy of learning. As one is not showing the contents but the road map to

cover them, it may satisfy the need of providing a sense of direction as well

as the first detail to start building up the big picture. Does it make sense?

I have a course to teach myself and I planned to start with the big picture...

now I will rethink it! :-) Thank you Danilo.

Best regards to all,

CONNECTIONS

(3) 8th Annual TOCFE Conference

8th Annual TOCFE Conference

Location: Belgrade, Serbia

Dates: Thursday, May 20 - Sunday, May 23, 2004

Conference: Intercontinental Hotel in New Belgrade

Accommodations: Jugoslavija Hotel

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

through the Miross Travel Agency. 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

EDITORS’ NOTES

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

Congratulations, Mike Round and Rolando DeSilvio! You can look forward to

our support during your leadership of serving children through TOCFE. And,

Matias, your response to Danilo’s “Delivery Cloud” was welcomed.

We look forward to 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., Cedarville, Michigan 49719, USA. Or

send hyperlink to cedwards@cedarville.net or kayseal@comcast.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.”