Experience: Up Close and Personal!

Lately I've had a number of things working in my mind. Yesterday they seemed to be adding up more. This morning after a short but good sleep, I still was feeling the affects. Being the persistent person that I am, I have pushed forward, rather than take my own advice to take a few minutes to do some Brain Gym.

Finally, at school this morning when I went to put my lunch in the frige in the faculty lunchroom. yet found myself in the workroom ready to put my lunch in my mail box, I immediately said. "It's time for Brain Gym!"

So I came back to my room, did some Cross Crawls, Hook-Ups, Lazy 8s, and Positive Points. Now it's easier to focus and to be in the present.

Brain Gym Helps Keep Us on Our Learning Track

Throughout our lives, we are learning new information, skills, behaviors, jobs, etc.. We often think of children or young people when we think of learning. In reality each of us is learning our entire lifetime.

As I have been asked to come into classrooms to teach children about Brain Gym, I often begin by drawing a 8 on it's side (infinity sign or in Brain Gym a "lazy 8") on the board. I ask them what they think it is. I hope that they will think of a track (race track). I call it a learning track. Then I ask them to think of a time when they learned something hard and how they felt as they tried to master it. They usually identify their feelings as sad, mad, frustrated, want to quit, etc. When I ask if they like having those feelings, they tell me the don't, because they aren't happy and don't do well. Then I tell them that doing Brain Gym Activities can help them to get back on the "learning track" and away from those feelings. As I ask them if they still find the task they thought was hard to be hard for them now. They say it isn't.

When we are on our "learning track", the tasks that were hard can become easier. In fact, in time, we don't think about them being hard. Life is like that. We are always encountering new things that may seem hard at first. When we learn to do them, they are easy and we move on to learning something else. As we make sure we have water and do Brain Gym Activities like Brain Buttons, Cross Crawls, Hook-ups, Lazy 8s, Thinking Caps, Positive Points, etc., they help us stay on our "Learning Track" and we can learn easier and with less stress.

Brain Gym® In Classrooms

• Last week I went to my daughter's classroom to do some Dominance Profiles. I was in for a treat when I arrived at the beginning of the day. After the Pledge to the flag, they immediately did Hook-Ups-parts 1 and 2. Then she asked them what other Brain Gym Activity they felt they should do that day. They said Cross Crawls. After doing them, they sat down and began their work. It was easy to see that Brain Gym Activities are a part of their daily routine. It only took a few minutes-maybe 2 or 3-to help them find their own unique learning timing. She had told me earlier that she has seen some of them doing Brain Gym on their own at various times during the day.
• As the counselor at an elementary school, one of my duties is to have children come to my room when they are having difficulty following directions and/or staying on task. This morning I had such a visitor, a first grader. He worked a few minutes, then said he needed to do brain exercises. He then stood up and began doing Cross Crawls. He continued to tell me that this would help his brain and him to work because his teacher had them do them in class. After doing about 10 on both sides, he said that he had done enough and was ready to work. He sat down and began to write again.
• It is exciting to see 6 and 10 year olds learning to take care of their well-being.

Reducing Bullying in Schools/ Empowering Our Children

Dr, Ken Rigby, an authority on bullying and peer victimization, believes one of the ways in which school bullying can be reduced is by inducing children who observe bullying taking place at school to discourage it by the way they act. He believes it is a promising strategy for several of the following reasons:

1. Most bullying takes place when bystanders are present

2. When a bystander acts to discourage bullying there is a good chance (50%) the bullying will stop

3. Teachers and parents typically are not present nor are told about the bullying, so do not have the opportunity to take action.

4. A large proportion of children would like to see bullying stopped

Dr. Rigby believes that a good starting point for promoting positive bystander action by children lies in teachers and parents seeking to understand bystander situations from the children’s point of view and facilitating informed discussions about what they think should be done and how.

In these discussions teachers and parents can empower children in situations where they witness bullying or are being bullied. When the children have talked about bullying and being bullied, have some knowledge of bullies and their behaviors, and have possible responses for these situations, they are more confident and make better decisions.

Ways we can empower children to action when they are bystanders are:

• Help them see that their silence makes aggressive students more powerful and contributes to the harm done to the target

• Model positive behavior for them through our own actions

• Protect them from retaliation

• Discourage them from confronting aggressive youth directly about their behavior in most situations, but instead, help them find a wide range of safer and more effective interventions to use

• Encourage them to tell adults about the cruel behavior they see

• Help them find ways to reach out in friendship to targets of bullying and isolated peers

Ways we can empower children who are targets for bullies are:

• Mentor them and connect with them

• Increase supervision to protect them from future verbal and physical aggression and make sure adults welcome and act on their reports of future bad treatment

• Help them develop an answer to the question: “Why did he/she do that to me?” It should not be one that encourages them to blame themselves. One such answer is “ Some people like to being mean to others.”

• Involve them in expressive education/therapy where they can act, write, draw, and talk about their experiences

• Help they get support from others with similar histories

• Help them connect with a network of peer support and friendship

These things can be done in classroom meetings, school assemblies, and conversations with individuals. Parent can play a major role as they listen to and discuss these things with their children'

http://www.stopbullyingnow.com/bystanders.htm

October is Anti-Bullying Month: Facts About Bullying and Symptoms of Bully Victims

October is Anti-Bullying Month. While the information I am sharing is focused on schools and school aged children, it applies to a far broader spectrum. It is a topic that constantly needs to be addressed and evaluated.

If we would enter “bullying in schools” into google search, we might be surprised to find the amazing number of sites that would be there. When Dr. Ken Rigby, an authority on bullying and peer victimization, entered “bullying in schools” into his google search engine in November 2006, he learned there were approximately 2,760,000 sites on the topic. So much information can be overwhelming. However, as he has researched, he has found seven points of consensus in this information. They are:

• Bullying has been reported as occurring in every school k-12 which has been investigated

• Bullying can be direct or indirect and also physical, verbal, and gestural.

• There is no consistent evidence that bullying overall is increasing, however cyber bullying is an area of growing concern, especially among older students.

• Boys are bullied physically more often than girls. Girls are generally involved with indirect bullying.

• Bullying with younger children is generally more physical, while older children use more indirect and subtle forms of bullying which tend to occur more often.

• Children typically report being bullied less often as they get older, even though being victimized tends to increase when children enter secondary school.

• Being bullied at school typically has a negative effect on the physical and psychological well-being of children who are frequently and severely targeted.

Children don't always tell parents and/or adults in their lives that they are being bullied. How can we know if this is happening in their lives? Some symptoms that a child might be a victim of bullying are:

• acts moody, sullen, or withdraws from family interaction
• becomes depressed
• loses interest in school work, or grades drop
• loses appetite or has difficulty getting to sleep
• waits to use the bathroom at home (doesn’t use it at school)
• arrives at home or at school with torn clothes, unexplained bruises
• asks for extra money for school lunch or supplies, extra allowance
• refuses to go to school (15 percent of all school absenteeism is directly elated to fears of being bullied at school)
• wants to carry a protection item, such as a knife

Talk with your children and listen carefully. Bullying is very real and scary to the victim. They need a safe place where they know they are cared about, heard. and supported.