Trauma Sensitive Schools
Trauma Informed Practices Benefit All Students
How do I know if a student has experienced trauma, so I can teach in a trauma informed way? It can be important to identify students who might need extra support, but it is more important that we use trauma sensitive strategies with every single student because they will benefit all students.
Supporting All Students:
We can never know which students in our class or school has experienced trauma, and which haven't. Some have experienced trauma and have not told anyone, or experienced something that they won't label as trauma until years later. Some students are living in traumatic situations but they can't or won't share this for their own safety. So when our schools are trauma sensitive for all students, we ensure that the students who can't ask for support are still getting it.
We can never know which students in our class or school has experienced trauma, and which haven't. Some have experienced trauma and have not told anyone, or experienced something that they won't label as trauma until years later. Some students are living in traumatic situations but they can't or won't share this for their own safety. So when our schools are trauma sensitive for all students, we ensure that the students who can't ask for support are still getting it.
Building Strategies:
A trauma sensitive school helps build our student's protective factors such as teaching coping skills, helping the students develop a healthy self image, and providing opportunities to practice stress management in a safe environment. While not all students will experience trauma in life, all of us will experience loss, stress and challenges. By building up our students' resilience, we will help them through these experiences in their lives.
A trauma sensitive school helps build our student's protective factors such as teaching coping skills, helping the students develop a healthy self image, and providing opportunities to practice stress management in a safe environment. While not all students will experience trauma in life, all of us will experience loss, stress and challenges. By building up our students' resilience, we will help them through these experiences in their lives.
Self Care:
When all of the adults in a school are committed to creating a safe, and caring environment, it increases the chances that children will feel safe asking for help. A very important element of this initiative is a focus on wellness and self care for teachers. As Kristin Souers put in the book Fostering Resilient Learners, "It's crucial...that teachters not brush aside self-care as an unnecessary luxury; on the contrary, taking care of ourselves is what enables us to take care of our students."
When all of the adults in a school are committed to creating a safe, and caring environment, it increases the chances that children will feel safe asking for help. A very important element of this initiative is a focus on wellness and self care for teachers. As Kristin Souers put in the book Fostering Resilient Learners, "It's crucial...that teachters not brush aside self-care as an unnecessary luxury; on the contrary, taking care of ourselves is what enables us to take care of our students."
Being a trauma sensitive school will be worth it if one student can ask for or access support who thought they couldn't ask before. For that one student, it will be worth our caring and thoughtful approach.
This information is based on a Edutopia article Trauma Informed Practices Benefit All Students
by Alex Shevrin Venet
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.