Trauma Informed Teachers

Trauma informed schools is the hot topic this year in my school, as it should be. We recently had a building day to learn more about the trauma our students are experiencing and just how many adverse childhood experiences (ACES) they are starting their young lives with. Some examples include:

I couldn't help but wonder why our teacher preparation programs do not have whole classes dedicated to preparing teachers for this? Not just a few days but a whole class. I think back to my own preparation classes and only being required to take one special education class and can't help but think what a disservice that was because I needed more. I think the same now with trauma informed practices. The study that made these landmark discoveries began in the mid 90's so I find it hard to believe we haven't started to try and inform teachers from the start of their preparation programs. After all these ACES have a high impact on or student's health.

I currently have a student with so many ACES that she is constantly interrupting my teaching with tantrums that include screaming, crying, and physical violence. I have been in a constant process of trying to learn more and research to help her. So far no luck getting some behaviors to stop or improve. Being a teacher with literally no ACES I can't relate to her. I have only just started receiving more in depth training around this. Not that trauma is new it is just finally opening and widely being discussed now.  I wish I could click that click bait add above and find out all of the answers. We need to start preparing our teachers for this reality. 

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 12, 2018 at 3:12 PM

    Yes, trauma informed teaching and ACES is an incredibly important aspect of education that deserves much more attention. In my experience, this seems to be a fairly new area of focus (I don't think I even heard of either term until my 5th or 6th year of teaching). While we learn in teaching programs about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, most people are unaware about what is actually preventing students from progressing past the basic safety and security needs. I know that WSASCD provides quite a few resources and Kristin Souers seems to a lot of work on the subject as well. Overall, this is a huge issue that deserves much more attention and allocation of resources.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 12, 2018 at 3:14 PM

    Sorry, it didn't register who the last comment was from.

    - Dan/dejoyofteaching

    ReplyDelete

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