“I am now challenging you to look beyond the behavior and focus on motive. If we can identify what may be motivating students to react, we can redirect them by providing alternative options for them to manage their stress.” (Souers & Hall, 2016, pp. 32)

What is Trauma?

Before we talk about the importance of a trauma-sensitive classroom, we first must define trauma and ACEs. 

According to Souers and Hall, trauma is “an exceptional experience in which powerful and dangerous events overwhelm a person’s capacity to cope.” (Souers & Hall, 2016, pp. 15).

ACEs are adverse childhood experiences (Souers & Hall, 2016, pp. 2) or trauma events that occur in an individual’s childhood. There are a multitude of ACEs, some of which are shown below.

Why is creating a trauma sensitive classroom and aiding students on their journeys to becoming resilient science learners so important?

“Quite plainly, I believe that if our students aren’t in the learning mode – a term coined by Pete’s mentor, Frank C. Garrity, that refers to mental, physical, spiritual, and psychological readiness to learn – they simply will not learn. And students suffering from the effects of trauma are definitely not in the learning mode.” (Souers & Hall, 2016, pp. 26-27)

Students who are continually suffering from trauma are not in “learning mode.” And as many of us know, in school we learn more than the difference between precipitate vs redox reactions, it is also about learning problem-solving skills and how to work with others. Students will be shut off to ALL of these learning opportunities because of trauma if it is not given the care by the educators that it deserves. This can deprive students of valuable skills that can help them as they enter into every facet of society.

How can we foster resiliency in our science students and create a trauma-sensitive classroom?

Looking at the different strategies that are outlined in the book, Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom by Kristin Souers and Pete Hall, there are so many strategies that I would employ in my future classroom and I would urge you to look into. Here, I will highlight a few different strategies!

Defining and Standing in our Cement Shoes

Souers and Hall describe cement shoes as our core beliefs and key aspects of who we are (Souers & Hall, 2016, pp. 45-46). Although we can think about what our cement shoes might be, it is important to write these down. We need to create cement shoes statements – or a mission statement for our classroom. Being rooted in who we are and how we want to act as an educator serves as a powerful model for our students and provides extra stability in the environment.

Having our cement shoes, or a mission statement, as an educator, not only helps you, but models to your students a strong sense of self and provides invaluable stability! #EDT432 #scienceteaching #thebestaccessoryiscementshoes

— Colleen Jaycox (@Miss_Jaycox) April 28, 2021

Student Activity: Mission Statements

Cement shoes are not only for educators. We can and should encourage our students to create mission statements, a.k.a. cement shoes, of their own. These can be kept private, but it would be a powerful exercise for the students to begin thinking about what this means to them.

• This could be a first-day or week activity.
• Students could be prompted to think about who they are as individuals, how they would like to be as students, and what aspects of their lives, in and out of the classroom, they find important. 
• After students are given ample time to complete their individual mission statements, everyone should be brought together to create a classroom mission statement.

“Having the Patience Not to Eat the Chocolate”

Souers & Hall, 2016, pp. 126

Teaching requires patience. It would be ridiculous to expect that students will understand the material after hearing it once. It requires patience in teaching students the momentum. Sometimes students might “get” the concept right away. Other times, it may take many days with different instructional methods for students to understand. The same can be said about guiding students to become resilient learners.

We must meet students where they are in their journey. We cannot eat the chocolate too quickly, or in other words, try to force a quick fix of the trauma upon the student. As Souers and Hall discuss, “This requires us to be flexible in our teaching methods, discipline approaches, and interactions with individual students.” (Souers & Hall, 2016, pp. 128)

Student Activity: Formative Assessments or Student Check-Ins

Students should be given the opportunity to, anonymously or identifiably, be given formative assessments, or as I like to call them, Student Check-ins, where they are able self reflect and discuss their feelings in an individual and non-judgemental way. 

• Students should be given these unit specific Check-ins to reflect on their feelings about their learning and classroom environment. 
• Students should be given a larger Check-in several times throughout the to discuss their feelings about themselves as learners, how they are feeling about the classroom, how they are feeling about the school environment and themselves, and if they would like to schedule a meeting with the teacher to discuss things further.

I would highly recommend reading Resilient Learners for further discussion of strategies that Souers and Hall recommend. Although this book is an excellent resource, I have included some other resources to help foster resiliency and foster a trauma-sensitive classroom!

• https://www.edutopia.org/article/helping-students-trauma-tragedy-grief-resources
• https://thetraumainformedteacher.com/blog-posts/ 
• https://studentbehaviorblog.org/supporting-students-experiencing-trauma-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/ 

Souers, K. & Hall, P. (2016) Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom. ASCD.