By Joyce Whitby Our students’ first teachers in life are inarguably their parents. As educators,…
Everything you need to know about Trauma Informed Practices*
Everything you need to know about
Trauma Informed Practices*
*but were afraid to ask
We support #SELDAY 2021 – March 26, 2021 – https://selday.org/
On any other day, any other week, any other year … posing a challenge to your students to study for an upcoming test, or to meet a deadline for a team research project might be met with moans and groans. But on this day, on this week, in this most unusual year of 2020, the well intentioned urgings of a teacher trying to set the bar high for her students, might just be the veritable “straw that breaks the camel’s back”. If you have found yourself wondering why a normally amicable student just had a total meltdown because of a simple everyday academic situation, you should read on.
* Disclaimer – This blog post may NOT ANSWER ‘Everything you need to know’, but hopefully it will lead you on the path to finding answers and methods that will work for you and help better understand how to deal with the unprecedented levels of stress now encountered in students, parents,colleagues and even yourself and your family.
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT STRESS AND TRAUMA?
We are a very different America than we were just twelve months ago. Daily reports of rising COVID 19 rates clearly dominate headlines, and dwarf the news of typical “run of the mill” traumatic events. Events, which in and of themselves, can be devastating, include: physical or mental abuse, poverty, hunger, natural disaster, and violence of all sorts. Even the national election this year, and nationwide unrest regarding systemic racism and inequality, all contribute to what now amounts to daily trauma, which more and more people are sharing in 2020.
Stress triggers the body’s natural defense systems against predators and danger. It causes the body to flood with hormones that prepare its systems to evade or confront danger. People commonly refer to this as the “fight-or-flight mechanism”. Stress can be a motivator, and it can even be essential to
survival. However, when the body becomes triggered too easily, or and there are too many stressors at one time, it can undermine a person’s mental and physical health and become harmful. The impact is traumatic.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO LOOK OUT FOR?
Students, and adults who are suffering from these different forms of trauma, present with an array of symptoms. Oftentimes symptoms are masked by the individual. Furthermore, the “detective work” that needs to happen in order to isolate and define stressors in any given situation takes time. Yet, as time passes, the process for assessing and intervening becomes more complicated.
Learning how to recognize the varying signs of these trauma is essential for every educator and administrator. It is no longer optional. Knowing more about the brain and how it reacts to trauma can exponentially improve effectiveness for identification and management of the impact of trauma.
Teachers need skills to identify and refer more difficult cases for additional support from mental health professionals, all while providing ample empathy, and creating a safe place to learn. Whew! That’s a tall order. For many educators, this is their reality and is especially true in this COVID 19 era.
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Thus, the big question for educators is no longer “Has this student experienced trauma?” Rather the questioning should be along the line of “In addition to COVID 19, what other trauma has this student experienced? How is he or she dealing with it? Is it impacting their ability to learn? How can we best intervene to assist?” Here are just a couple of suggestions for comprehensive resources and strategies that can lead to building a culture and ecosystem of understanding, where healing can begin.
The National Dropout Prevention Center (NDPC) has an amazing model for certifying schools and districts as “Trauma-Skilled Schools” (TSS). A two year commitment to immerse all school site personnel in a five-step process. Just recently, they awarded Greenville SC a certification as a “Trauma Skilled School District.” This is an amazing accomplishment, and should yield great data that we can all learn from. Certainly something to aspire to and learn from.
LEARN MORE about the NDPC TSS program:
The Social Express produces a suite of award winning social emotional learning tools, and now also offers customized professional development to build both awareness and strategies for managing stress in our schools. The goal is to prepare educators with the ability to identify students who need more help. A major part of this training is to provide practical and applicable skills for teachers. For instance how to use language that will help students feel they are in a trusted and safe environment. The company offers a short 30 minute video which addresses some of these basics, and gives a good setup for the full 2.5 hour course.
LEARN MORE about Trauma Informed Practices Professional Development:
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- Click here to request a 30 minute overview video
- Click here to learn more about how to order this training
This is not easy stuff. It is not necessarily intuitive. It is time for everyone to learn more together, and lead all members of the learning community down a path of greater understanding, empathy and informed intervention.