Melanie's Corner

Last week, I attended the #VetoViolence Twitter Chat. It was hosted by the CDC Injury Center and attended by a lot of experts in the field, practitioners in schools and youth centers as well as parents. (Many of us fall into at least one, if not more, of those categories.)  The discussion was informative and hopeful; I won’t try to reiterate it here – but I did want to share some of the resources that came up during the discussion:

• StopBullying.gov – a great resources for schools, parents, kids and people who care for kids. Starts with warning signs of bullying and provides a wide range of helpful resources.
• Keenan West – Never End – video appealing to kids, calling for kids to unite and stand up for each other
• Bullying (52 Brilliant Ideas) – a free Kindle book for parents
• Anti-Defamation League – Policy and Program Recommendations on Confronting Bullying and Cyberbullyinig
• Cyberbullying Toolkit for Educators: Standup, Don’t Stand By – a video
• Summary of Findings: CSN Bullying Prevention Environmental Scan – they asked 5 questions about anti-bullying policies and procedures and present their findings

Learning ZoneXpress had a few items to add to the list:

• 7 Ways to Block a Cyberbully DVD – details seven effective strategies for dealing with a digital bully. (Includes video for students and adults)
• Teen Cyberbullying Investigated Book –a guide to help young people understand what cyberbullying is and is not, recognize when they may be its victims or perpetrators, and learn tactics for successfully dealing with it.

If you have a resource to share, please let us know or consider submitting it to the StopBullying.gov database of resources.

We have been having a blast here in Florida at the NAEYC Annual Conference (National Association for the Education of Young Children) – and we’ve let LANA the Iguana lead the way. I think there may be 10,000 attendees at the conference – and it is a really great group.

We particularly enjoyed the concert for kids on Wednesday morning. We’ve heard wonderful things about the speakers. Mostly we’ve just been energized by so much attention spent on teaching for young kids. It’s inspiring to hear about how people appreciate our efforts to promote healthy eating and health choices. Nourishing the body and brain make it so much easier for kids to learn – and teaching them to enjoy a healthy diet sets a habit that last a long, long lifetime!

We hope you enjoy a peek at what we’ve been seeing from our colorful booth in a busy conference floor! One more day of fun – if you’re out here, please stop by our booth and say hello.

We’ll be exhibiting at the California Association for Health, PE, Recreation and Dance conference today-Saturday in Ontario, California. If you’re attending, stop by the booth and say “hi” to Angela. She has a bunch of new health and PE products to show you including the Physical Activity Bulletin Board Kit, the Physical Activity Bingo, and new stickers!

Join Angela during her presentation as she gives you great ideas to incorporate nutrition into your PE class. They’ll be playing nutrition Jeopardy!

We will be attending an early childhood conference today, which is hosted by the Minnesota Association for the Education of Young Children and the Minnesota School-Age Care Alliance (MnAEYC/MnSACA).

Stop by our booth at the St. Paul RiverCentre  for conference specials and 20% off coupons! We can’t wait to share our new mini color posters and Hand Washing Stickers with you!

Fore more information about the conference, click here.

Attending the Texas AHPERD conference today in Arlington? We’ll be exhibiting until Friday, so stop by and say hi to Angela! She’ll be giving out 20% off coupons and showcasing new posters!