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TACTics Journal
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In this issue:
More on the 10th Annual Conference
- Alan’s thoughts on the conference
- “Need has no season” … from Kathy Suerken
- “TOCfE at a British School in Phillipines” … from Katie Powell Burns
- And Finally… from Alan McTavish
Thoughts on the conference from Alan McTavish
As promised, TACTics will continue to provide insights from our 10th International Conference that must, of course, include some from our founder. At this year’s conference we were treated to two sessions of 'Eli'. The first was the keynote lunch entitled 'Freedom of choice' and the second, the following day, was the workshop entitled "An Introduction to the TOC Strategic and Tactic Tree".
At the lunch Eli took us on a colorful journey which would, in other circumstances, have left you wondering about the title of the session. However, in his own inimitable way, Eli guided his enthralled audience through examples and scenarios until concluding with a final comment - "and THAT is freedom of choice!"
On Saturday Eli surprised many when he asked us if we would allow his assistant, Lisa Ferguson, to read the first few chapters of his new book. Whilst still unfinished, Eli wanted early feedback from us. Naturally, we agreed.
I was impressed by the concept of a conversation, whether real or fictitious, between Eli and his daughter Efrat. My overall impression is that TOC, I think, doesn't change but it evolves to accommodate the changing world around it. I get the feeling that Eli is encompassing this evolution with each successive offering.
Finally, the session developed into an awe inspiring synopsis of Strategy and Tactic. Eli made reference to -and praised - the working example being written by Petra and Annemie in Holland on the use of TOC tools to reduce the student drop out rate.
A few important ‘Eli’ insights for me were:
Strategy is the answer to the question "What for?" and Tactic is the answer to the question "How?” In any action we should ask 'what for?' and 'how?'
He also explained that the S&T (Strategy and Tactic Tree) shows the component parts and helps you to understand your place and how you affect what came before and what comes after.
There was a very adept explanation of the concept of relationships. Eli suggested that when we look at good virtues we see that they relate to each other as parts of a face. The eyes, mouth and ears are separate - but together they make up a face. However, when a Gold Nugget is broken down, all the parts look the same!
We spent some time finding a definition of the word 'convince'. We concluded that it could be defined as: ' To intentionally cause a person to take an action that otherwise would probably not have been taken by that person'.
When defining a word, Eli said, you are making a choice. He spoke of the moral ground that we stand on when we try to convince and 'Manipulation' and 'win-lose' and concluded that 'in reality, there are only 2 stands - win/win and loose/loose.
I think that we are all somewhat in awe of Eli. I suppose we expect great wisdom in his words whether written or spoken. I know that I learn something or understand some small aspect of TOC each and every time I listen to him. I hope you do too.
Thank you, Eli, for an inspiring contribution to this year’s conference.
“Need has no season”….from Kathy Suerken
During the December holiday season, members of my Rotary club take turns ‘ringing the bell’ to collect money for the Salvation Army. The message posted above the collection kettle is very significant to me. It reads: “Need has no season.”
Enabling people to meet their own needs through win-win decisions and actions is an Ambitious Target toward which TOCfE strives year round. To me, this AT represents a common denominator that links each one of us whatever holidays we celebrate. Therefore, we are including in this edition (as attachment) a ‘holiday’ power point presentation given by Gila Glatter at the 10th International Conference. It is a delightful example of a special Grandma taking an ordinary school holiday and turning it into an extraordinary celebration through TOC.
“TOCfE at a British School in Philippines” Katie Powell Burns
Hi All,
I teach Year 3 (7-8 year olds) full time at the British School Manila. I am also the Thinking Skills Coordinator for the Primary school, a role that was created for me when I accepted the job 2 years ago in order to make good use of my previous skills (TOC).
I started my work in this role by taking all of Year 3 together (4 classes - about 80 children) and teaching them the tools through Yani's Goal. (I'm also doing the same this year in Year 3 again). The other Year 3 teachers watched in order to learn the tools for themselves. At suitable points along the way, we did other activities that reinforced their learning at each stage. For example, we used the Needs Kingdom cards during the Cloud chapters and also did a unit of literacy work based on writing a postcard from Yani to his friends about what he had learned so far on his journey and so on. The children absolutely loved it and became very good at using the tools altogether. Once we all had this "common language", it became very easy to help these children to solve issues using the cloud as they knew and understood the process.
After they had learned the Ambitious Target, we used it as a group to raise the profile of collecting Tetra Pak cartons - a recycling programme run by Tetra Pak, in which they give money to the school for every kilo recycled and also an equivalent amount to a local school of our choice. This runs every year and many children are good at bringing in their used Paks from home but we thought it was a great opportunity to show to power of the tool for a team target. We started off with a team target of the Y3 children bringing in 3000 Paks by the end of the term - which was very ambitious based on their current rate. We explained the benefits for themselves and for helping a school ho have nothing to have some money to spend on playground equipment etc. and showed photos of some of the poorer local schools so motivate them. The student council representative from each class, who would be involved in the decision in what to spend the money raised for our school on, also told the group what the possibilities were so they could get a little excited about it. We then went through the AT process, being very creative with the stepping stones.
As a result of one of the stepping stones, we wrote a letter to the Year 3 parents, explaining briefly the process their child had gone through, why we were teaching this tool etc. and asking for them to support their child's ideas as best they could. I couldn't believe it when one parent emailed me that same evening to say that her son had come home and asked to write a letter to all their friends and family in Manila to ask them to keep their Tetra Paks at home for him in a bag or box and to tell them that he could collect them every Sunday afternoon from outside their house! She was so amazed that he would think of this for himself and show this kind of initiative hat she fully supported it and sent their driver with her son to collect them every week. He personally brought in over 700 before the end of the term! Along with other children who did similar outstanding initiatives, we soon realised that the target was too low but still not everyone was getting involved. So we had a refresher session and made it an individual target but for a team effort - 100 Paks each by the end of the term. Many children achieved this and there was a huge sense of satisfaction in Year 3 when our school and our nominated school received money from the Tetra Pak company.
We also use the Cloud in stories covered in literacy and topic work - e.g. the Romans, and the logic branch in Science - e.g. showing with cause and effect how if you don't brush your teeth, how you end up with a filling (or worse!). I now need to work on incorporating more of this into the standard curriculum - I usually see lots of opportunities but don't always have chance to build it into the units of work before we teach them.
Whilst in the middle of the Yani programme, I also got agreement from the heads to start a peer mediation programme for Primary. I introduced the idea of being a "Cloud-buster" to the children during a KS2 assembly, using some Year 3 children to act out and demonstrate what they had learned (using the Mossy and Dunkadore example from Yani's Goal where Yani is like a "Cloud-Buster"). I asked for volunteers to sign up outside my room later that day and I would choose 12 children to be trained initially and 12 more for a second group later. About 90 children signed up which was great! We decided that training only the older children would of course be better so 2 groups were formed and I started teaching them Yani's Goal and using other support activities, in order to give them the knowledge. I then spent a few sessions on how to facilitate others in solving their own problems and after some real-life examples practiced together at playtimes, they started their role. I used some of my budget to have a large, colourful Cloud painted onto the upper and lower primary playgrounds so the children could stand in the cloud boxes when answering their questions, and also to have large banners made to hang on the railings next to the painted clouds, so they can follow the steps easily. The banners were made to be eye catching too, to raise the profile of what was now being taught in the school. The facilitators also wore red caps with the logo "Cloud-buster" on them so they could be easily identified in the playground and carried mini prompt cards on a wristband so they could remember how to ask the questions and remain Socratic.
To begin with, there were queues of children waiting to see them (often with problems they didn't really need solving!) and they found it stressful but in a good way. After a while and the novelty wore off, they were not in demand so much and were able to be available to solve real issues. Many times I heard other children of all ages whom hadn't been taught the cloud using the vocab like "I have a cloud" and "what I think you really need is" and "that's not the only way to ...." etc. So it seems that whilst the other children were having help to solve their problems, they were also learning how to do it for themselves which of course is the ultimate goal. The Cloud-busters were actually excellent at this - not taking over and just facilitating the process - in spite of only being 10 and 11 years old.
I also did some one-on-one support work with specific children at break times. In particular, one parent approached me to ask if I could help her daughter as she was having friendship problems and needed more support than she could give her at home alone. We worked on an ambitious target for her being happy at school, wrote the success criteria (how she would know if she was happier) and then started the process. Within a week, after about 4 sessions, she stopped coming and said that all her issues were not a problem anymore, she knew what to do! She's been fine ever since.
The parents in Year 3 this year are over the moon that such a programme is being offered to their children. They only had a flying overview of the TACT from me at the parent's welcome meeting but they can't believe that their child will learn such tools at this age and at school. It just goes to show that the general consensus is that these kinds of life skills are needed and yet they do not appear in the standard curriculum.
I am training another 24 children this year to become Cloud-busters. Staff from the senior school are now coming to ask if they can have the same sessions for their teams and if I can possibly spend time teaching a group of Year 9s to become facilitators in the same way. The head of Geography has asked me to think about how they can teach the Cloud as part of the GCSE Decision-Making unit of work. There are many opportunities but not enough time for them all. We'll see what happens!
The heads have been really pleased with the work done and the results achieved. My husband and I have decided to leave the Philippines in July, when my 2 year contract is up. So my challenge now is to ensure that they continue to teach Yani's Goal in Year 3 (hopefully we will make it a fixed part of the curriculum) and that someone continues to train the Cloud-busters and keeps the peer mediation programme alive. There are plenty of supporters but I'm not sure who will really be willing to take on the extra work!
Best wishes to all!
Katie
And Finally …
We are always looking for articles for the TACTics Journal and welcome any contribution from you the readers. Please send anything that you would like us to consider for publication to the following address.
tactics@mct-ltd.com