Robin J. Athanas, M.Ed.
I have recently connected with another Early Childhood Educator who provides trainings in curriculum, literature, and much more. Her name is Robin J. Athanas, M.Ed., and she is the owner of ASK for Educators. She and I believe that our workshops compliment each other and want to help one another reach more educators and parents. In fact, she is assisting me in my process to become approved to offer continuing education units (CEUs) since she has already completed the process.
In our discussions I mentioned I was focusing a great deal on bullying these past two months. I informed her of my teleseminar, Teach Tots to Teens How to Create a Bully Free World, and told her about my Prevent Bullying at Camp DVD. She informed me that she had done a training on bullying.
When Robin was teaching in Florida as a Special Education teacher in a Behavioral Disorders & Emotional Disturbed (BDED) classroom she saw a great deal of bullying going on, so she took a week-long intensive workshop on bully prevention. Her findings were in sync with the core concepts I teach in both my teleseminar and DVD.
Robin found that the main concept that is key to preventing bullying in the classroom setting boils down to one word: BONDING! A child needs to feel bonded. If a child feels bonded the bullying behavior decreases or extinguishes, and is replaced with more appropriate social interactions. Robin shared two excellent approaches to help build bonding within your classroom: Using names and sharing interests.
Every day you should greet children using their names. In addition, children should greet each other first thing upon arrival, adding onto this that the children need to handshake or high five; some kind of positive touch. Research shows that when a child says another child’s name and handshakes with that child they are less likely to hit or bully that child. The second idea is sharing interests. When children share their interests they feel a connection or bonding to that group. This can be accomplished in conversation at meal or snack times. Circle time is another opportunity for children to share their interests with the group.You can make this a very powerful experience by writing down on chart paper what the child shared with the group. Documenting the ideas makes them very important!
Robin has spent 30 years in the classroom and reported that she sadly saw bullying behavior every year that she taught. She tried many approaches to eliminate the bullying behaviors. Robin confidently confirms from research and from her own teaching experience that these simple but yet excellent ideas are effective in supporting children as they grow in social skills in the early childhood classroom.
Robin clearly understands what it takes to create a bully-free world. You can learn more about her trainings on her website. You can learn more about my Prevent Bullying at Camp DVD here.
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