As students (and educators) return to school, they bring their emotions and experiences with them. Many students have experienced trauma as a result of school closure and/or the impacts of COVID-19 on their families and will benefit from educational approaches that keep this in mind. Sara LaHayne, in her Edutopia article Helping Students Process Their Feelings During Remote Learning, reminds us that "it's ok not to feel ok", and that teachers can provide help to students with identifying and processing their feelings (highly recommended article!).
Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools provides the following guidance in their document 10 Tips for Teaching the Psychological First Aid Model. The five steps are formulated to "help teachers reduce distress and facilitate students and peers’ return to the classroom. The steps are based on a model of cognitive learning that helps people put their experiences and feelings into words, provides support and encouragement, engages users in practical problem solving, models calm and optimistic behavior, and teaches others about how traumatic stress affects human behavior."
Listen
School staff should provide peers and students with an opportunity to share their experiences and express feelings of worry, anxiety, fear, or other concerns about their safety. It’s important to establish rapport and trust as quickly as possible. Convey your interest and empathy.
Protect
To avoid any possibility of re-traumatization, school staff members should try to re-establish feelings of both physical and emotional safety. This can be done in many ways, including providing a calm routine or offering information about events surrounding the emergency event, such as what is being done in the community and the school to keep everyone safe.
Connect
One of the most common reactions to trauma or fear is emotional and social isolation and the sense of loss of social supports. Restoring and building connections promotes stability, recovery, and predictability in people’s lives.
Model
Teachers and other school personnel who are affected by an emergency event may not know exactly how they will navigate the process of recovery, but they can acknowledge the distress and needs of others and demonstrate a positive and optimistic approach. Through their example, they demonstrate that adults can effectively cope with the stress, despite the fear or loss they experience.
Teach
School counselors, nurses, psychologists, or social workers can teach faculty students, staff, families, and volunteers about common reactions to the emergency event or disaster, such as the fact that children and youth may have more difficulty with learning after the specific event. They can help educators and students become familiar with the range of normal reactions that can occur immediately after a traumatic event or disaster.
Trauma-Informed Practices in Schools and Beyond: Trauma 101
Learn the history and context of the science behind Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the biological/neurobiological effects of toxic stress. This is a basic overview of what and how ACEs affect children and adults. By understanding what is happening within our bodies, we can use and choose trauma informed strategies (to be covered in parts 2 and 3) to best serve our students and ourselves.
Trauma-Informed Practices in Schools and Beyond: Skills and Practices for Educators
“Children have impeccable reasons for behaving exactly as they do.” Learn about how trauma manifests in external AND internalized behaviors, and learn some simple ways to implement a trauma informed approach within your classrooms and interactions with the children.
Trauma-Informed Practices in Schools and Beyond: Creating a Trauma-Informed School Community
Trauma exists within systems because our systems are created and maintained by people. During this session, we will begin to explore approaches and ways to take our awareness of trauma to inform change at a systemic level. Through an appreciative inquiry approach, you will learn where you can invite systemic evolution.