Sitting in our classrooms is dozens and dozens of students with a variety of backgrounds. We don’t always know what kinds of homes they come from or what their family life is like. For some, home is a place of comfort and love. For others, being away from school is a nightmare. What is the cause of this discourse? Trauma.
But what is trauma?
The definition of trauma is pretty straightforward: “An exceptional experience in which powerful and dangerous events overwhelm a person’s capacity to cope.”
This means that any number of events in a student’s life can have a major impact on how they react or behave to situations. Events such as:
- Abuse
- Divorce
- Incarceration of parents
- Substance abuse
- Death in family
- Mental illness
- Moving
These can all have a significant impact on how student’s perform in the classroom and how they act outside of school.
What does this mean for teachers?
For us teachers, we need to acknowledge where our students come from.
“Educators have long known that what happens outside of school can have a profound effect on what happens in school.” (Souers, 2016)
We know what is happening outside of school in our student’s lives. But if we don’t do anything about it… are we contributing to our student’s trauma?
What can we do?
- Allow a welcoming safe space with a judgment-free zone
- Provide additional resources to students
- Be friend and a mentor
- LISTEN TO THEM
- Don’t shame them
- Be cool and calm
There are so many things we, as teachers, can do to help students with their learning in school, but we can also help them through the hardships of life.
Be an advocate and a teacher for your students. LISTEN to what they are saying. Trauma is nothing to brush under the rug, but rather something to acknowledge and help with. @AnnMacKenzie #resilience #EDT432 #FosterYourStudents
— Mr. Seballos (@mr_seballos) April 24, 2019
Michael!
Great post! I especially love the ideas you posted about how to help these students without needing to solve their issues. What are some resources in a general school or community do you think would be beneficial to a student with a high rating on the ACE scale?
Wyatt
Hey Michael,
I like that you emphasized listening to students. I think simply and truly just listening to students talk about their lives, interests, problems, whatever is often times enough. I also like that you pointed out that ignoring students’ trauma only makes the problem worse – just like with a lot of other real world/social problems. Action has to happen for things to change. You mentioned providing additional resources for students, what are some of those resources??
Great post!
Michael, thanks for your post! I appreciate that you included some simple advice on how to handle a student with trauma. Even though we all know its important to listen to students, it can be easy to forget things like that when we are faced with an uncomfortable or hectic situation.
I liked the TEDTalk a lot as well. The metaphor of building up a student with things like hope is incredibly powerful and I think it really gets at the theme of this blog in that we are meant to be “fostering resilience”.
Pete
Hi Michael! This was an awesome post! I really liked how you focused on how we need to respond calmly and cooly to our students! We will always encounter those who have led hard lives, and we need to be able to properly teach them! Amazing job!
Thank you Bryce! Focusing on a cool, calm response to our students who have experienced trauma. Everyone leads a difficult life and we need to be fully aware of it! By properly approaching and assessing the situation is vital to getting to our students and how we teach them.
Michael, wonderful blog! I want to focus a bit on the situations you stated that could cause a students to be traumatized. I will be totally honest, I never really thought of “moving” to be a source of trauma for someone. However, after reading Fostering Resilient Learners, I have come to look at events in one’s childhood quite differently. Moving can definitely be traumatic. Students can feel lonely, confused, and lost in a super strange place with strange people. I moved to Oxford when I was 13 which is already a difficult age. I remember being scared to talk to people and be forward in class because I didn’t know a single person. Why would I want to participate in class if I was scared to talk in front of strangers? It totally makes sense. How would you as a teacher address new students to make them feel comfortable around both you and other students in the class?
Thank you Kate! I really appreciate the comment. And yes, moving could definitely be a factor of trauma for students. I moved 7 times before the age of 16 and it hindered a lot of my abilities in school and life. There are always different sources of trauma for different students, some may not be in our own book. Acknowledging these is important. But for my new students, I want to make sure they are comfortable in this new environment. I will encourage conversation and foster a relationship with them. I can encourage other classmates to participate in activities with them because it’s a scary feeling to be in a completely new place.