" Learning Disorder

and

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder"

20 - 26 March 2004

Training Workshops
March 2004

The purpose of this page is to provide information on three "Learning Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder" Training Workshops,  provided by TWI for the Children to professionals in Brcko, Bihac and Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Date

Activity

Remarks  

19 March 2004

Friday

Departed Sarajevo for Belgrade

Overnight Belgrade

Team departed Sarajevo by car at noon and arrived in Belgrade in the evening.  Overnight was spent at an hotel in mid-town Belgrade.  To bed early with great expectations for the next day.   

20 March 2004

Saturday

• Arrived  Belgrade  
  
  

• Toured Belgrade and visited the Palace.

 Overnight Belgrade

21 March 2004

Sunday

• Toured Belgrade
  
• Traveled to Brcko

Overnight at Brcko

22 March 2004

Monday

TRAINING WORKSHOP
BRCKO AND SURROUNDING AREA 

 Workshop Site: Ministry of Education Teacher Center

 Participants: approximately 140

 Participants represented: 1 kindergarten, 21 elementary schools, 4

   high schools, 5 organizations (OSCE, Association of Parents, House

   of Youth, NGO "Kult", Center of Mental Health)

 Trainer: Bonnie Miller

• Following the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brcko was one of the first places to reintegrate their schools and today it has a multi-ethnic school system. There were approximately 140 participants - teachers, mental health providers, caretakers, and parents - at the workshop.

• The TWI for the Children trainer was Bonnie Miller. We were pleased to have members of the local OSCE office come to the workshop and help with the visual aids portion of the program. Bonnie uses various teaching techniques during the workshop. This instructs teachers how to vary their teaching methods in the classroom. These classroom techniques include (1) an informal lecture and (2) handouts. Each participant is given a "Teacher's Manual" and a handout packet that the teacher can use as a follow-up to the workshop. Each school is given a video on the topic of "Learning Disorders and Attention Deficit Disorder" that shows live teaching time in the classroom. This is a valuable tool that the schools use to train teachers who were unable to attend the workshop.

• The main focus of the program was to help teachers identify children with learning disorders and attention deficit disorders.  One teacher who identified her own child as having a learning disorder said, "The workshop certainly helped me as a teacher, but for the first time in my private life I gained information about my own family".

• Most of the participants said this was the first workshop they had attended that dealt with this topic and they were particularly interested in the practical examples given during the lecture time of the program. The lecture provided ample time for questions and this, combined with the video presentation, was an excellent introduction to this topic. "TWI for the Children" was asked to return and follow-up on this program.

•  Evaluation Forms provided topics for future programs. These included:
   
  (1) working with children with learning disorders in the classroom,
  
   (2) how to promote better communication between parents and teachers,
    
  (3) how to work with teenagers, aggressive children, gifted children,
   
  (4) how to help special needs children with their many problems,
  
  (5) how to find the right way to help these children find a place in life; and,
   
  (6) ways to connect teachers and mental health providers so that they work together.

23 March 2004

Tuesday3 2233March

23 March 2004

Tuesday

• Traveled to Plitvitze (lakes)
  

• Traveled to Bihac
  

24 March 2004

Wednesday

TRAINING WORKSHOP:
BIHAC AND SURROUNDING AREA 

 Date: March 24, 2004

 Workshop site: Institute of Social Pedagogical Life

 Participants: approximately 135

 Participants represented: 1 kindergarten, 39 elementary schools,

   1 high school, and 6 other organizations such as the Center for

   Social Work, OSCE.

Trainer: Bonnie Miller

• The Training Workshop in Bihac gave the TWI team the opportunity to see teachers we work with during  summer "TWI Camps for Kids" in this city. There were approximate 135 participants from schools in the Bihac region. The TWI Bosnian Coordinators worked with the Bihac Pedagogical Institute and the Institute of Social Pedagogical Life to organize this workshop.

• The workshop format was the same as it was in Brcko, with ample time for question and answer periods after each topic. According to the Evaluation Form, the things the participants liked most about the presenter was that she was energetic, enthusiastic and presented the information in a clear manner. They appreciated  that she presented a great deal of her instruction in their own language. They also appreciated that she, the mother of a child with Attention Deficit Disorder, shared her own family stories with them.

• The things participants liked the most about the workshop were the use of different styles of teaching that showed the participants how to vary their classroom teaching techniques. This included the use of videos as a visual teaching tool, the expert advise Bonnie shared with them, the use of examples to make the teaching clearer, and the new information they received. The were very pleased to receive the "Teacher's Manual", the "Parents Manual", packet of handouts used in the presentation, and the video provided to each school.

• According to the Evaluation Form, suggestions for future TWI Workshops include:
   
  (1) drug and alcohol prevention,
   
  (2) communicating techniques to bring teachers and parents together,
   
  (3) how parents can help the teacher help their children,
   
  (4) how to work with children with emotional, problems and aggressive behavior,
   
  (5) how to work with teenagers; and,
   
  (6) how to integrate special needs children into the classroom.

 
Overnight Bihac  

Overnight in Bihac

5 March 2004

Thursday

• Traveled to Banja Luka
  

26 March 2004

Friday

TRAINING WORKSHOP:
BANJA LUKA AND SURROUNDING AREA 

 Date: 26 March, 2004

 Workshop site: Pedagogical Institute

 Participants: approximately 148

 Participants represented: 28 elementary school, 2 high schools, 6

   other organizations such as OSCE, Center "Slusno Ostecena Djeca",

   Center "Zastiti me", students from the Faculty of Philosophy,

   Orphanage "Rada Vranjescevic", Center of "Mental Health".

• It was a pleasure to see many of the people "TWI Camps for Children" works with during the summer  "Camps for Children" and many we had met at the previous TWI Workshop in November 2003.

• According to their Evaluation Form, the things they liked best about the trainer was her ability to communicate with the group, how she used examples from her private life, and her love for children.

• One of the biggest problems the participants said they had was finding a successful way to bring about cooperation between parents and teachers. Other problem areas included: 
  
  (1) learning concrete ways to work with special needs children in the classroom, 
  
  (2) how to involve the parents, and 
  
  (3) how to deal with behavior problems in the classroom.

• Topics for future workshops included: 
  
  (1) how to deal with teachers or others who are abusing a child,
  
  (2) drug prevention and  narcotics,
  
  (3) what to do when the child with learning disorders leave this classroom and go to another grade,
   
  (4) how to help children from orphanages and foster homes who have problems different from those of the child who has a home and parents; and,
   
  (5) how to connect typical and special needs children in the classroom.

Overnight Banja Luka

7 March 2004

Saturday

• Departed for Sarajevo