I found a few noteworthy books (The Trauma Informed School and Help for Billy) and kept reading. I learned I was not alone and that this topic was happening world wide. I began to follow feeds on Twitter and join NEA Community groups on the subject of Trauma to learn more. All of this developed a deeper understanding of policies and initiatives that impact teaching and student learning. The resources I read and studied are noted below.
I had a thirst for knowledge about Trauma. I went through a school year with many challenging student behaviors which many of which were a result of trauma. I wanted to find out more in order to be a more effective teacher! I found many resources on the web that I read and read. Through reading, from the context of adult learning/teachers I learned about managing difficult situations and respecting various styles and opinions in relation to how teachers manage behaviors related to trauma. For example during our book study on The Behavior Code I shared examples from my own classroom with others book study teachers on how I reacted to student behavior in the past and how I would change that now. Some teachers reacted to my statements with negativity while others were empathetic. I listened to their statements with empathy and an open mind and later inserted comments about parts of the book that may be a learning moment for negative comments. I learned about managing difficult situations and respecting various styles and opinions in varying books: The Behavior Code, The Trauma Informed School, Research Brief: Addressing Trauma in our Schools. The taped conversations in book club demonstrate evidence of how I redirected conversation and respected various styles and opinions. (See Do page) I engaged in collaborative discussion with colleagues about learning and teaching during our book club meetings. I developed the book club and participated in this professional learning community. The google classroom forum collected data on teaching insights and learning.
Adverse Childhood Experiences
The ACE's Study
Online Communities
Resources on Trauma
Becoming Trauma Informed
More Trauma Research
My personal philosophy of educational equity is that students need different things. We can be equitable without being equal. Not all students need to be treated equally. Children of trauma need equity and an understanding of the culture they come from. They may need more attention, support than the child that is not affected by trauma. The same holds true for communication and relationship with student families. We have to realize that just because they do not communicate with us does not mean they are not invested in their child’s well-being. Other factors may be a play. My current reality is I want to help staff members at my school learn from my own experience. I had a rough year with about half of my students dealing with trauma. I did not have the tools to help them or myself. I managed through with support from colleagues and administration but felt the need to dive into my own personal study and education of Trauma informed schools. I convinced my colleague and friend, Dacia Lackey to join me on this TLI project.
Currently my school has varying perspectives on behavior as it relates to trauma. Some staff understand that many behaviors result from trauma while others do not see the connection or see this venue as a scapegoat or excuse for just “bad behavior” or poor parenting. Although administration has tried numerous trainings, relating to student behavior and childhood trauma, nothing systematic has been fully implemented. This left much of the staff feeling like what was next? "Oh no, another way to document behavior that takes even more time than the last initiative from the previous year."
In order for our school to become a Trauma Informed School, 80% of the staff must buy in to the new approach. Staff needs to stop blaming others and start being proactive and collaborative to fixing the current sometimes toxic environment surrounding behavior at our school. The equity work that needs to happen is a mind-shift on how we deal with children of trauma. There needs to be a systematic approach led by a team of teachers/staff for a successful transformation. Our school staff is good at forming relationships and connections with students. This is already in place and a key component of equity but it needs to go further. Teachers need to feel supported by each other and administration and need the tools through educational about trauma to learn how to effectively deal with everyday trauma students.
Book study is part of the educational process but further education and tools are needed on an ongoing basis to bring staff to a higher level of mastery. We have already implemented one book study and will continue with a second book study come fall. This will help teachers make the mind shift to a more trauma-informed approach. This may be repeated for staff members that did not attend a past book study for continued staff development to this new mindset. During our first book study the group recognized that children experiencing trauma may or may not be in a "socially just" learning environment. In the book club we discussed that many of the children that are dealing with trauma come from a low socio-economic demographic in varying ethnic groups (native american, hispanic) which can impeded their learning with limited access to adult support or technology. We talked about how this could become more socially just for children.
After meeting with the principal, we have a plan in place to implement this plan January 2020 with previous months being educational support through book study and meetings with a leadership team and the current foundations team to discuss planning and rollout. We are thinking that in the future, perhaps mentors/coaches on staff that are most learned on trauma can serve as coaches to help teachers that don’t know how to move forward with interacting with students of trauma and create and maintain a socially just learning environment accounting for the fact that many children do not have access to adult support at home or technology due to lower socio-economic factors affecting diverse groups. Leadership that implements this approach needs to lead with the “why” we are doing this rather than the how and what we are doing. (article: One to Grow On / Leading from "Why",Carol Ann Tomlinson) We started our book club talking about why we are holding this book study: to understand how we can help students with undesirable behaviors succeed in the classroom and why its important to understand that behavior is a way of communicating for them.
Resource connected to philosophy- We should lead by why not how and what.
Competency 1 Group Processes
In working with staff at my school with varying opinions and styles to develop an awareness of a trauma informed approach to behavior.
Staff is all over the place with their comfort level on behavior vs. trauma and how administration deals with it. I have been researching how a trauma informed approach might help.
I would like varying staff members to become informed on trauma induced behaviors and world-wide approaches that have had success. More people need to be informed and on board to implement a Trauma informed school approach.
Competency 2 Reflective Practice
Staff feeling overwhelmed by behavior/trauma students and not knowing what to do.
Many staff members don’t have time to reflect on behavior supports or how to deal with them or improve them as a team.
I would like to help staff with how to develop and implement strategies and policies to promote growth and reflection
Description of Action
I would consult with a behavior specialist or other administrator that has an interest in trauma to get their feedback on steps to get staff interested and involved on a trauma informed approach to behavior and eventually having our school become a “trauma informed school”.
Providing opportunities to address diversity, equity, and cultural competence:
I chose the instructional pathway with facilitating collaborative relationships and explore and challenge inequity for diversity, equity and cultural competence. I feel that I can take what I learned from term 1 and facilitate staff education on our topic of trauma and its effects on student behavior. I feel I can be more empathetic to teachers that may not understand the cycle of poverty and bias’ that exist and students have inadequate access to learning because of their state of trauma.
I struggled about choosing policy pathway or instructional pathway. After reflecting on term 1 I came to realize that our capstone would be closely tied to instructional since staff would need to be educated on trauma sensitive education and strategies.
I learned by our needs assessment that many staff members are keen on a systematic approach to dealing with student behavior. Some as I am told, take a more toxic outlook to dealing with student behavior with the mindset that someone needs to take care of the student and fix it rather than using a more system wide approach or a shifting of mindset. I think they need to learn more about how trauma is connected to much of the behavior we see. Staff needs to be educated on varying approaches to dealing with students of trauma different from punitive approach traditionally used. I learned about this in my needs assessment and powermapping activity. (see Design tab for evidence). My meetings with our principal and superintendent allowed me to have a deeper understanding of policies and initiatives that impact teaching and student learning. Through stakeholder meetings in the needs assessment I engaged in collaborative discussions with colleagues about learning and teaching. I established a data-based structure through google classroom to engage with colleagues about their practice. The book study was developed as a group professional learning community of teachers to discuss student behavior.
My empathy data shows that staff still need to be educated on efficient and useful ways to deal with children of trauma and the culture of poverty they come from. I want to use empathy with staff to support them by listening to their woes and happenings around trauma. I know what it is like and understand. I took the educational approach to educate myself on how to better support children of trauma.
The notes taken in varying discussions/meetings are my sources of information. Stakeholders are administrator, teachers, school psychologist, resource teacher, trauma counselor, school secretary and other staff.
Interviews and discussion were held with varying stakeholders within the school to determine climate in relation to this topic.
The power mapping exercise told me that most of the staff would be supportive of a trauma informed approach if done in a systematic way. There are some on staff that blame administration for not fixing issues with behavioral systems currently in place.
We will need staff and principal support in order to fully implement this program including budget monies necessary for calming room, staff to support it, books for the book study and other professional development. The superintendent was very supportive of our project and would like to pass on information on our project to the new incoming superintendent for continued support as we go through the implementation process. He had voiced support in having us attend a Trauma Conference in the near future which could be included in his budget and our school principal's budget.
I engaged a broad and diverse groups of stakeholders to assess and reflect on their roles.
The needs assessment was done as a serious of private and group interviews of varying stakeholders in our district including:
Stakeholders were asked about their views on Trauma and Behavior and how they are being addressed currently at our school.