March 2019

ANTISTRESS SEMINARS FOR PEDAGOGES AND TEACHERS
OF THE HERZEGOVINA-NERETVA CANTON

"The biggest problem is working with parents," teachers and pedagogues unanimously agreed at seminars held in Mostar on March 28 and March 29, 2019. Snježana Petraš conveyed her positive experience in working with parents and suggested them to involve other parents in school activities and in developing programs that take place in schools. By the end of the semester, all the participants of the seminar in all three cantons; SBK, KS and HNK, will do workshops with parents and children in primary schools by practicing the acquired knowledge and skills at Antistres seminars and using "Emotional Diary". Professor of Pedagogy and Psychology Snježana Petraš emphasized the importance of the style of parental education in the child emotional intelligence formation. She also pointed to the importance of written and oral communication between children and parents. Does the negative assessment affect the motivation of a child is one of the topics that has paid attention to this seminar. Participants of the seminar have presented their experiences about the fact that in most cases a negative rating provokes child's fear because he/she fears of the parents' reaction and freezes. Child's fears are provoked by anger or vicious feelings, disturbing childish thoughts, and thus reducing the capacity of working and short-term memory for processing materials in the learning process.
In this part of the seminar, participants are taught how to teach students the abilities to identify their feelings and succeed in communicating effectively and nonviolently resolving conflicts, making the right decisions, developing empathy, and staying optimistic when encountering obstacles.

In the second part of the seminar Professor Zilka Spahić Šiljak, did the "Who am I?" exercise, with the participants of the seminar, that helped them to realize how little they know, how much they are afraid to be alone with each other, and how they are presenting the image of themselves to others as they want others to see. Those who were present agreed that it was most difficult to be alone with oneself and most often they sought excuses to avoid it. It is also difficult for them to say, "It is enough!", as some bear burdens and disappointments within themselves for years. Professor Zilka Spahić Shiljak has alerted them to the difference between patience and suffering and has introduced mindfulness to show them the importance of time alone and the right now moment without all the masks they put on for others. In addition to the meditations during this part of the seminar, the participants learnt to breathe, to control thoughts, about presence in the present, they also worked on heart-awakening techniques. They have learned that it is not selfish to have time for yourself because it is the only way one can be good for others. "Material things bring about a short-term happiness, and benevolence brings happiness to long-term paths, which is one of the basic principles of mindfulenness," emphasized Professor Zilka Spahić Šiljak.