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

 

In this issue:

 

-  A Welcome Note by the Editor

-  Important Updates to Recent 10th TOCfE Conference Announcement

                                                                                                Kathy Suerken 

- A Gift to TOCfE reported by  Kathy Suerken

- “Success… an Adventure” is out in English  Z.B.               

- TOC tools in Saudi Arabia Isabelle Cottenden

  

A Welcome Note by the Editor

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I am sorry that this April issue of TACTics is reaching you in May but I have been travelling a lot last month and the time just flew by…

If you remember, in the last issue I asked you to suggest answers to the question “How many TOC practitioners are needed to change a bulb?” Well, the one and winning answer came from the USA and goes like this: “Depends on how dim a bulb he is ;-)”

Well, thank you Don Lemon! You saved me from making up TOC crosswords, which I am sure is much more challenging than I imagine it to be!

In this issue we have some information from Kathy regarding the 10th TOCFE Conference and a donation recently given to TOCFE. Also an update on the English translation of the book we discussed a couple of months ago and a letter from Isabelle Cottenden about her experience in teaching TOC tools to 5/6 year-olds in Saudi Arabia.

As a preview to the May TACTics I would like to share a bit about the training I held for a group of education consultants in Poland. This was the second part of the training which had started in January when we introduced the three TOC tools in a five day seminar. Between the January training and the second part in April, the participants had some homework – to practice the tools and send in three examples of each of the tools from the Polish curriculum. I was soooo impressed! They had some wonderful examples to share and have shown such skill in finding the examples that can easily be used for dealing with important issues in different phases of child development.

One of my favourite examples was from Greek mythology, the story of Dedalus and Icarus, the cloud of Icarus’ interior conflict : to fly higher or not to fly higher. (Dedalus and Icarus found themselves imprisoned in Crete and in order to escape, Dedalus built two pairs of wings for himself and his son using wax and feathers. He advised his son not to fly too high in order to avoid the wax melting because of the heat of the sun.)

The cloud read: In order for Icarus to feel happy, he needed to experience a strong positive sensation such as thrill and that’s why he wanted to fly higher than his father had suggested. On the other hand, in order for Icarus to feel happy, he needed to be safe, as well as to honour his father’s authority, and that’s why he didn’t want to fly higher than his father had suggested. We then looked at how this cloud could be generalized and tried to replace the wants with something more relevant to today’s teenagers. So instead of “fly higher” we came up with “drive fast”, “get drunk”, “take drugs” etc. A wonderful conversation followed. The branch was used to explore it all further. More about it all in the next issue.

See, I had a dilemma of my own: I didn’t have time to write a proper report on the training and yet I so much wanted to share with you my enthusiasm after working with this wonderful and creative group of Polish colleagues. This did it for me. I hope you are now looking forward to reading more soon J

 

Zana Borisavljevic  jana.b@talk21.com 

 

Important Updates to Recent 10th TOCfE Conference Announcement

Kathy Suerken        suerken@cox.net

 

Although I proofed the final copy of the recent TOCfE Conference multiple times, I did not catch the typo on the airport code.  Thank you SO much Bernie Kean for not only catching it but also letting us know.   The correct airport code is:  VPS

Correcting my mistake provides a wonderful opportunity to share as well the most recent addition to a phenomenal list of conference presenters: 

Alan Barnard, past President of TOCICO from Republic of South Africa, who will present:   “How to SEE and UNLOCK inherent potential within each of ourselves and others”

 

A Gift to TOCfE reported by Kathy Suerken        suerken@cox.net

        The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.”    Ralph Waldo Emerson


Eli Goldratt has said that on one’s birthday one should give gifts to others.  As many of you know, Eli turned a young 60 on March 31.  Knowing how important TOCfE is to Eli Goldratt and wanting to honor him with something meaningful for his birthday, REALIZATION Technologies, Inc. gave TOCfE a significant donation.  Realization is an international company (based in
USA) that uses TOC. 

In addition to the gift, we received the following message from Sanjeev Gupta, “Thank you for the work you are doing. We at Realization appreciate and admire the achievements of TOCfE very much.”

What an inspiring example of cause and effect that reads something like ‘if” Eli (creating the organization to encapsulate our dreams and giving us the processes to achieve them) and YOU (using these means to create the achievements noted by Sanjeev) and Realization  (providing essential resources and words of support)…  "then?"   What  HAS to be the unavoidable outcome?  Think about it and WATCH THIS SPACE (more and more)

Meanwhile THANK YOU ALL for giving a ‘portion of thyself.’

Kathy

 

“Success… an Adventure” is out in English  Z.B.

In the January edition of the TACTics  journal we talked about a book for teenagers in Spanish that introduces TOC tools. The authors are Alejandrina Gonzalez, Danilo Sirias, Aurora Guerra, Marina Rodriguez and Evangelina Salazar. Well the book has been translated into English under the title “Success… an Adventure” and is available at www.lulu.com/content/742045 You can preview the book on line.               

 

- TOC tools in Saudi Arabia Isabelle Cottenden isacottenden@hotmail.com

Isabelle is from UK and is teaching at a British school in Riyadh

Hello from sunny Riyadh, Saudi Arabia!

I am using the tools in my new teaching job here so much that, when sudying the three little pigs with my 5/6 year-olds  and I said that I wanted them to retell the main events chronologically, they said that I wanted the logic tree that we have on our wall!

We have used Yani for the ambitious target as when studying "The three Billy Goats Gruff" and to create a great Ambitious Target to get the wolf into the 3rd little pig's house. I'll attach that one for you to look at.

The examples of the ambitious target in Yani practice session have been very useful. The children loved the ones of tidying up the room and the treasure map too. My daughter is still using Yani whenever she can.

Today we used Yani to plan a  fairy tale and looked at the Ambitious Target as they all remembered the crossing of the gorge in Yani. The problem is really the use of words as my kids are not English and their English is limited. Outcome, achieve, stepping-stones, ambitious and target for instance are difficult words.  The children are from Syria, Egypt,  Lebonan, China and Jordan.

We do internal training and I am keen to introduce TOC more. I have taught some of my colleagues already.

All the best,
Isabelle

Yr 1 Saudi     

            How to get into the brick house.

Obstacles                             Objectives

Too strong                              Shoot the window

Too clever                              Push the door

Burnt my tail                           Put some food out to attract them

                                                Hide inside a picnic basket

                                                Ask nicely