For: Heart Productions & Publishing, 3061 Greenbrook Ct NE, Salem, OR 97305.
Contact: Mary Reynolds, (800)639-8191, (603)382-8848.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

As Already Tight School Budgets Further Contract,
Book/DVD Set Shows Teachers, Principals and Parents How to
Create a Positive Atmosphere in School With No-Cost Compassion

As teachers and administrators contemplate having to make do with less in the coming school year, a book/DVD from author and filmmaker Mary Robinson Reynolds offers direction and hope. In just 30 seconds, without any special supplies or equipment, a classroom teacher can connect with even the most difficult pupil, embrace possibility and build lasting self-esteem, Reynolds says. The secret lies in the power of compassion.

"When someone is expressing compassion, they can’t also be judgmental or skeptical," says Reynolds, whose full-color paperback book for teachers and parents, Make A Difference with the Power of Connection, packaged with an inspirational DVD, explains why and how a dramatic turnaround can happen so quickly. "When just one person creates a heart connection with another person, it overrides any negativity in that environment and enables both children and adults to concentrate on learning and on the task at hand."

Connecting with compassion is especially crucial for children who are struggling in school, who act out or who bully others. "Using the techniques in the book, parents can reconnect with their children who seem to be lost and teachers can succeed with 100 percent of the students in their classrooms," Reynolds says. "Educators can focus on creating a positive atmosphere and reaching out both to kids and their parents."

Mary Robinson Reynolds holds a masters degree in Educational Psychology, Counseling and Development and spent years working with, and transforming, so-called "at-risk children." Her works include "Make a Difference: The Teddy Stallard Story," a movie that has been viewed online more than 6 million times.

Rooted in scientific findings, Make A Difference with the Power of Connection makes its points through powerful stories, such as one about Jamie Lynne, an angry, hostile little girl whose uncontrollability melted away in response to compassion, and Randy, an emotionally wild seventh grader who calmed down and even made friends after his teacher enlisted the aid of the rest of the class in not responding to his disruptions.

"Compassion produces a positive result 70% of the time, while responding with anger or resentment produces a negative result 100% of the time," Reynolds notes. "So which would you choose?"

Make A Difference with the Power of Connection, by Mary Robinson Reynolds, ISBN 978-09628496-8-8, includes one DVD, " www.Connection Movie.com " which presents the main ideas of the book in pictures and music. Make A Difference with the Power of Connection has 96 pages, is published by Heart Productions & Publishing and is available for $15.95 plus shipping at makeadifference.com/Connection.

Interview Questions:

1) "What were your first years of teaching like?"

2) Can you describe the labels and bell curves that you talk about on your website for behaviorally and academically challenged children? Can you explain why this is detrimental for students?

3) You say that as a sixth grade teacher your students were a year or two behind grade level and by the elimination of labels teamed up with engaging instruction they not only gained back what they had previously lost but achieved an additional two or three years of academic growth. Can you give us a few of the strategies you used?

4) You talk about healing students who are living unhappy lives. Many of our teachers have students like this who are "tuning out" due to their chaotic lives at home. How as teachers can we motivate them to do homework and learn in the classroom when they do not seem to care or are distracted by unstable home lives?

5) Later in your career you started writing continuing educational programs to arm teachers with the tools they needed to deal compassionately and effectively with difficult children. Can you explain to us a couple of these tools?

6) As an educator, who later became a parent, what did you discover about the emotional difference of raising your own VS working with other people's children?

7) If you could narrow it down, what would the 3 most important things you did as a parent to raise your three children to have 4.0 GPA's and succeed in enjoying their lives.

8) Did you ever have to discipline your own children? 

9) Your success as an educator was largely with Youth considered "at-risk" - did you ever kick a student out of class or send them to the Principals office?  If not, why not?

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