TACTics Journal
A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners
November  2007

 

In this issue:

 

-         An announcement by the President

-         Kathy on the conference

-         Greetings from Malaysia – Nor Zamani

-         TOC4ICD – Zana  Borisavljevic

-         Comments – Alan McTavish

 

            TACTics Announcement  from Kathy Suerken

 

As President, I would like to take this opportunity to express appreciation to Zana for editing TACTics the last 12 months.   With TOCfE practitioners spread so far, wide and sometimes so remotely, TOCfE needs a mode of communication to connect, encourage and inspire them.   Thank you Zana for contributing your talent and time as volunteer editor to so effectively help TOCfE achieve those objectives.    Zana has decided to pass the editor baton and will be sharing later in the newsletter the exciting initiative toward which her energies are now focused.    Best wishes, Zana.

 

Starting with this edition, Alan McTavish will be our volunteer editor for the next 12 months.  He will also continue to volunteer as the person who both manages our list serve and uses it to distribute out TOCfE publications—a time consuming IT task.  Alan is a TOCfE  TACT, Etc. facilitator, a community college teacher in computer and programming, and writes poetry.  Perhaps you will remember his inspiring TOCfE poems presented at the Seattle and Leon conferences.  Welcome,  Alan.

 

 

 

                  The 10th TOCfE International Conference

                                    as created by all of you and reported by Kathy Suerken

 

 

Imagine while looking at the beautiful white beaches and emerald waters of the Gulf of Mexico, you suddenly see a large marquee that reads:  “Welcome to the 10th TOC for Education International Conference!”    Imagination comes to life October 11-14, 2007 in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida for TOCfE champions from 17 countries and 14 states within the USA.

 

Within this reality is something much more powerful than a cast of characters in a beautiful setting.  It is the realistic reflection of a better world as seen in substantial, positive life changes such as those modeled by inmates of Singapore jails and students considered to be ‘at-risk’ in Leon, Mexico.  It is the promise of more to come through developing projects, budding ideas and deepening analyses that yield endless possibilities as shared through conference presentations, late night discussions and now through TACTics--as we attempt to bring the conference and its ongoing effects to you now and in the future.

 

Maybe a good place to start is with the opening keynote --a synergistic presentation of (not just) TOCfE constraints and possibilities:  past, present & future.   Representing a Polish team of 8 conference attendees, Dr. Marta Bogdanowicz is Vice President of the European Dyslexia Association, a Professor and Chairman of the Psychology Institute at University of Gdansk.  Her presentation effectively guides us to how and why the study of the phenomenon known as dyslexia was identified as a learning obstacle and passed to educators to address.  Can we relate to this reality?  Can we also generalize her conclusions in her compatibility model (attached) with the TOC tools? 

 

The synergy within this model is evident in the research of Dr. Bogdanowicz’s doctoral student, Edyta Sinacka-Kubik, who presented her hypothesis on the use of TOC to support children’s psychosocial development at the 2006 Leon conference.    Edyta’s research during the last year reveals statistically significant findings as noted in her full Powerpoint conference presentation (attached) and she plans to expand the scope of this research in the future. 

 

No wonder the Polish presentation baton is next passed to Maciek Winiarek, Director for TOCfE Poland and Director for Transfer Learning, an educational organization that specializes in the publication of cutting edge education materials.   His presentation is focused on how to leverage Edyta’s research “to create a big scale impact on Polish schools”-- particularly to improve student performance.  This project will require partnership among:

v     Transfer Learning to plan the project, source funding and publish materials

v     TOCfE to create new workbooks for curriculum applications, provide initial training, and ensure quality control, and

v      University of Gdansk to conduct and document qualitative academic research on the project. 

 

 But wait!  Something is missing!  Are materials, funding and research sufficient to achieve the target?  Do we need another partner that not only is vested in TOCfE and our core values but also that can connect us to students?

 

The Director of the highly respected * Mazovian In-Service Teacher Training Centre* (MSCDN), Jaroslaw Zaroή now steps to the microphone.   He explains MSCDN’s idealistic mission toward which it strives through services provided to more than 50,000 teachers every year.

 

As he speaks, it occurs to me that each conference speaker represents links in a  TOCfE chain—links that are connected through our  core values and purpose, as envisioned by our founder,  Eli Goldratt.   These links are the people of TOCfE—our champions who are synergistically contributing toward our goal.   Contributions take many forms:  research; process examples; workbooks; ideas; projects; mentoring; and even seemingly mundane tasks.   Robert Greenleaf puts this thought to eloquent words: “I believe that it [hope] is awakened, revived, nourished by millions of solitary individuals whose deeds and works every day negate frontiers.  As a result there shines forth the truth that each and every man….builds for them all.”  

 

Thus, as I hear Mr. Zaroή  speak my name in connection with an invitation,  I step forward and accept it on behalf of all of you who are building something meaningful on behalf of all of us.  Therefore, it is with great privilege that I announce the next TOCfE International Conference, co-sponsored by MSCDN, will be held in Warsaw, Poland October 3-6, 2008. 

 

 

 

Greetings from Malaysia from Nor Zamani

 

Dear Kathy and Alan,

 

Happy and grateful to receive all the updates regarding the Conference. I must say, BIG thank you to Kathy for her invitation for the conference and as well as to my Malaysian students. We are so happy and excited to go and join again this year conference but due to some unavoidable reasons and circumstances, we are sorry that we can’t make this year. The children just finished with their important examination which needed them to prepare. On top of that, the Ministry do not allow them to go as they had to complete few projects and assignments. The Muslims are celebrating their Eid Fitri which will fall on the 13th of October.

 

But as much as the others, we are looking forward to join the 2008 conference. Please do include us in your plans.

 

Thank you and hope to meet all the TOCfE family members in the 2008 conference.

 

Warmest regards,

Nor Zamani bt Abd. Hamid

Director for Malaysia

 

 

TOC for Intercultural Dialogue Initiative Zana Borisavljevic, Serbia

 

 

For a few years now I have been involved in programs for inter-ethnic dialogue in Kosovo, working with young Serbs and Albanians, and using TOC tools in this work. I find working in this field very fulfilling and I have thought a lot about how TOC tools can be very helpful for people to overcome the barriers that sometimes exist between different cultures.

 

During the last decade, intercultural dialogue (ICD) has become an important issue in the EU. The European Commission has declared 2008 the year of Intercultural Dialogue and intercultural learning has become a key work area in European youth training. So, Ean from Malaysia, Linda from UK and I decided to put our minds together and start an initiative for using TOC tools to facilitate ICD. We now have a new organization on the TOC scene – TOC for ICD.  We also decided to use the opportunity presented to us by the fact that the next Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Belgrade, Serbia in May 2008. We are organizing a parallel event to the Eurovision Song Contest – the EuroYouthVision: Intercultural Dialogue of the European Youth that will gather young activists in the ICD field from all the countries participating in the Eurovision Song Contest (40+).  We are very excited about the opportunity to work together to build this new TOC based program. 

 

 

New Editors comments – Alan McTavish, UK

 

There follows a brief comment which I had hoped to submit to this issue of TACTics in any case but, with the developments, I would first like to thank Zana for what is, in fact, a year of editing the newsletter.  ‘Education’ comes in many guises and Zana, it seems, has found an area where the methodology can be put to good use and which interests her. 

 

Any new venture is time consuming and this one is likely to take up a lot of her time.  I wish her and her team good luck and best wishes for a successful venture.  I am proud to follow her into the editor’s chair….

 

I know I’ve said it before but WOW, what a conference!  I can’t help but compare it to other business conferences that I’ve attended.  It’s amazing how Kathy can be so flexible with the time allowed for peoples presentations and yet still fit everyone in.

 

This year was a real gem with Julie (Wright) speaking over lunch and Don Lemon, bless him, doing a ‘dinner speech’.

 

And what a speech it was!  I mean, for a self confessed ‘novice’ in the TOCfE fraternity to pour out his heart in such a meaningful and humorous way was wonderful.  There are few organizations in which members will admit, in front of everyone, not to ‘failure’ but at least to limited success – to not having achieved their target.  This is so refreshing.

 

As I said at the very end of the proceedings, the TOCfE conference is not the Oscars.  We don’t attend it to confer prizes, we attend to admire other peoples work and aspire to their commitment and their achievement.

 

And, of course, to be proud to be associated with someone who, later in life, has so clearly made the paradigm shift and is so keen to share his beliefs and experiences with others.

 

Well done all and, in particular, well done Don!

 

Alan …

 

 

And Finally …

 

Those of you who saw Annemie van Dijck and Petra Pouw present an albeit unfinished S&T at the conference and asked for a copy of the slides should email me.  Annemie has kindly made their work (still ongoing) available for distribution.  There are enough attachments this month so, if you want it, just ask.

 

tactics@mct-ltd.com