Class Exercises and Content  

• What is a Trauma- Sensitive Learning Environment? 

  • Provide a safe, predictable setting  where students feel comfortable, are able to learn, thrive, students are healthy, engaged, supported, and challenged. 

• 4 Big Ideas:

  • • Self- Awareness 

      • Strategies 

        • • Stay true to your cement shoes

            • core beliefs, integrity, and your life's mission.

          • Stay out of Oz.

            • A child creates a tornado- some sort of disruption to the learning environment- and we get sucked in.

          • It's not about you.

            • Childhood trauma can impact brain development, affect emotional growth, and interfere with academic progress. 

            • Students' actions/behaviors primarily driven by unmet needs. 

    • Relationship:

      • Strategies.

        • Attend to your relationships.

          • Strong relationships are the core of a safe, predictable trauma sensitive environment. 

        •  Forget labels, Remember the influence.

          • Pressure to label and define students be their behavior, which dismisses and explain away actions beyond our control. NOT HELPFUL!

          • We need to recognize what we cannot control and remind ourselves what we can influence to make our students' lives better.

        • Doors and Windows.

          • Situations in which options are limited, choosing path A or path B we lose, during this time we need to remember our goals, mission, and when doors are closed, find a window.

    • Belief:

      • Strategies.

        • Forever changed not forever damaged.

          • It is easy to get lost in the behavior and ignore the cause. 

          • We lose sight of understanding student needs if this occurs. 

          • The KEY is to allow students to know they are safe and can express their needs effectively and still know why the behavior was inappropriate.

        • It's OK to be not OK.

          • Empower students to acknowledge their traumas, heartaches,struggles, and obstacles and help them identify ways to manage them.

          • Help students brainstorm ways to navigate the not OKs in their lives.

        • Don't let fear drive the bus.

          • As people, we tend to make decisions based on bad outcomes.

          • We choose what we do and where we go to avoid a negative consequences. 

          • What if our goals and visions drove the bus instead of fear?

          • Ex. student exhibiting emotional needs, provide them with a safe break/ brain tools.

    • Live, Laugh, Love:

      • Strategies.

        • Show Grace.

          • Sometimes it's best to offer forgiveness, second chance, or a free pass.

          • Sometimes offering Grace instead of proving the mistake may have a better result.

          • Gives students a different  way of seeing you.

          • Fostering connections and safety for others.

          • Receiving grattitude even though some need held accountable, knowing that we are all human and make mistakes.

        • Hand out Cookies

          • Cookies-positive feedback.

          • We give our time, energy, resources, and ALL for students.

          • When we share praise and kindness with ourselves (self-acknowledge) and with our students', we empower and strengthen relationships and self worth.

        • Self-Care

          • Health- exercise.

          • Love-give yourself a cookie once a week.

          • Competence- stretch your boundaries by learning or trying something new.

          • Gratitude-everyday write down something you are grateful for, demonstrate the gratitude. 

What does it mean to be trauma-invested? 

• Agreeing to common definitions, language, cultivating a shared mindset are foundations pieces. 

• Supports and enhances the work being done. 

• Provision of a culture of safety where all can thrive.

Different levels of trauma-invested classrooms:

• Trauma-inducing: setting that lacks safety/ unsafe for students/adults, highlighting the problem.

• Trauma-indifferent: does not take childhood trauma into its practices and policies. 

• Trauma-informed: acquired some knowledge of childhood trauma and are versed in related strategies. Incorporates SEL practices with academics.

• trauma-invested: stakeholders have consented to act on their knowledge, working to enhance safety across the board. Whole child learning, practices/success for all students.

Student Needs:

• Emotional needs.

• Physical needs.

• Relationship needs.

• Need for control.

Behavior:

• Behavior is an expression of a need.

• Do not focus solely on the behavior.

• Kids are showing us ways that they know how to show that they are not okay.

6 Steps to Reaching Students:

• Identify what need a behavior is expressing.

•  See the worth in each student/ build from strengths.

• Remember kids cannot learn if they don't feel safe.

• Work from a team perspective.

• Consider whether a basic need isn't being met.

• Give students Grace. 

 7 Key Things to Remember when Addressing Student Needs:

• All students and staff deserve to feel supported and safe.

• All behavior is an expression of a need.

• Know the systems of meaning for both your staff and students- help identify the best approach.

• Keep in mind the ultimate goal you have for your students.

• All students deserve to be viewed with strength.

• There is no simple solution, and students must be included in the process.

• Solid and strong Tier 1 approaches that whole staff have agreed to will  assist you in your support of student success.

The New Three Rs:

• Relationship

  • "Relationship: a meaningful connecting with another human being-in particular, a student's healthy-enough, safe-enough relationship with a teacher" (Souers with Hall, 2019, p.77).

  • Certain behaviors, actions, attributions by students.

    • • Struggle when you are not in close proximity?

      • Seek you out, often outside of class?

      • Regulate and soothe when you are nearby?

      • Display dramatic mood swings?

      • Respond well to personal acknowledgment?

      • Use personal words (love/hate) that address characteristics about you?

If so, a student has possible Relational needs that are currently being unmet

• • • • Hugs/high fives/handshakes.

      • Check-ins with a champion.

      • Praise, repair, mantra, special spot.

      • Family table/team table, whisper wish, journal prompt.

• Responsibility:

  • "Resonsibility: a sense of self-worth, efficacy, and competence. A student with these characteristics can proceed to the tough business of learning" (Souers with Hall, 2019, p.115).

  • Does the student seek out...

    • Seek out ways to be in control of a situation?

    • Yearn for predictability in schedules and events?

    • Demonstrate low self-esteem?

    • Struggle with interpersonal relationships?

    • Avoid tasks or escape from difficult situations?

    • Rely on others to complete tasks?

If so, the student has control needs that are currently being unmet.. 

• Jobs- in the classroom, ex: handing out papers.

• Use yet/and - embrace the growth mindset, ever negative statement meet with " and you can..."

• Follow through- we must do what we say.

  • Attend to cause and effect.

  • Choice seating.

  • Assigned seating.

  • Teach grit.

  • Forecast changes.

  • Provide clear rubrics/expectations.

• Regulation:

  • "Regulation: the ability to take in stimuli and manage emotional and behavioral responses accordingly. Regualted students can access reasons in their upstairs brain" (Souers with Hall, 2019, p. 151). 

    • Does the student...

      • Struggle with transitions?

      • Fidget constantly?

      • Escape or shut down in challenging situations?

      • Become triggered easily?

      • React emotionally?

      • Demonstrate difficulty processing input? 

If so, then it is possible that student  has emotional needs that are currently being unmet

• Some students struggle with getting into and staying in the upstairs brain.

  • Brain tools- sensory processing or body movement.

  • Regulation station, water/healthy snacks.

  • Brain breaks/brain language.

  • Exercise.

  • Transitions to learning.

    • Mindfulness/meditation/breathing.

    • Laughter.

    • Yoga/stretching.

    • Safe break.

• Discipline: concerns how students behave

  • Explain. explain, state, model and demonstrate the procedure. 

• Procedures: concern how things are done. 

• Discipline: has penalties and rewards.

  • Rehearse. Rehearse and practice the procedure under your supervision (MUST DO!)

• Procedures: have no penalties or rewards.

• Routine: what the students do automatically (habit)

  • Reinforce. Reteach, rehearse, practice, and reinforce the procedure until it becomes a student's habit or routine. Give praise. 

• Students readily accept a uniform set of classroom procedures because it simplifies their task in succeeding in school. Creates a predictable and consistent environment.

• Teaching procedures teach expectations. 

Proactive Strategies:

Expectations:

• Provide structure and guidelines to create a productive learning environment.

• Identify short and long-term goals.

•  State expectations and regulate behavior.

• Entail understanding for all people.

• Include school rules.

• Teacher created, student created, or a partnership.

Routines and Procedures:

• Procedures.

  • Organize your classroom and supplies.

  • Foster student accountability. 

  • Maintain momentum.

  • Manage cooperative learning groups.

  • Manage specific groups. 

  • Safety.

• MUST become routine!

  • Beginning a class.

  • Quieting a class.

  • Student seeking help.

  • Movement of students and papers.

  • End of class.

 Maintaining Appropriate Student Behavior:

• Praise.

  • Effort not traits or achievements, be specific and sincere.

  • Incentive V. reward.

  • Withitness.

  • Consistency. 

Managing Misbehavior:

• Create a structured and comprehensive system built on re teaching and reinforcing the desired or expected behavior before punishing the behavior. 

  • Minor interventions.

  • Moderate interventions.

  • More extensive interventions.

  • Specific problems.

  • Final reminder.

Essential Question: 

• How am I going to grow my thick skin?

Behavior or Operant Conditioning: 

• B. F. Skinner.

• Learning is a function of change in overt behavior.

• Responses to stimuli result in changes in behavior.

• Reward the pattern, future responses will be similar, positive reinforcement.

• Punish the pattern, desire to receive reward, behavior changes, negative reinforcement?

  • Token/symbolic reward.

• Positively reinforced behavior will continue and  become commonplace.

  • Good performances should be pointed out with secondary reinforcements like praise, and good grades.  Vary the types of positive reinforcement to maintain motivation and interests.

Choice Theory:

• William Glasser.

• All we do is behave, all behavior is chosen based on our needs of survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.

• Classroom built on the need for love and belonging. 

• Teachers as managers.

• Relationship building to fill students' needs.

• Active participation and relevant learning experience.

• Students have choice and voices, teachers are there to guide them. Students can't make all choices.

• Allow students to show mastery and success.

• Students misbehave to fill a need.

  • Observe, explain, implement, choice, no excuses. 

• Three common characteristics:

  • Coercion is minimized.

  • Teachers focus on quality. 

  • Self-evaluation is common.

Student Directed Learning Theory :

• Holistic approach.

• Societies based on extrinsic motivations such as competition, become inefficient over time. 

• Positive reinforcement helps students seek out positive enforcement.

• Best managed classrooms emphasizes curiosity and cooperation.

• Standards are kept minimal.

• Standardized testing is criticized.

• Strict curriculum and homework are counterintuitive to student needs.

• Emphasis on the learning process and not the achievement of learning.

• Students learn at different levels.

• Classrooms student-centered.

  • Display student projects.

  • Student exchanging ideas.

  • Respected teacher mingling with students.

  • Students excited about learning and actively asking questions.

Finding what works best for you is essential to classroom management and it can take time!!

What is Understanding By Design (UbD)?

• Curriculum planning framework designed to prepare students to apply their learning to the new opportunities and challenges they will face in a rapidly changing world. 

The Big Ideas of UbD: Six Key Tenets:

1. Framework helps focus curriculum and teaching on development and deepening of student understanding and transfer of learning.

2. Understanding is revealed when students can make sense of, transfer, their learning through authentic performance. 

   1. Capacity to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess.

3. Effective curriculum is planned  "backward" from long term outcomes through three stage process. Helps avoid 3 common education problems: treating the textbook as curriculum rather than  a resource, activity-oriented teaching with no clear properties and purposes apparent, "test-prep".

4. Teachers are coaches of understanding.

5. Regular reviews of curriculum against design standards enhance quality, lead to deeper learning. 

6. Teachers, schools, and districts can "work smarter" and more effectively by sharing the curriculum.

3 Stages of Backward Design:

1. Identify Desired Results.

   1. Long- term goals focused on transfer.

      1. What kinds of long term accomplishments are desired? What should students be able to do with their learning in the long run?

   2. Understanding and open ended essential questions that will require students to make meaning.

      1. What specifically do you want students to come to understand? What big ideas should they grasp? What thought-provoking questions will foster inquiry, meaning-making, and transfer?

   3. Knowledge and skills that student should acquire

      1. What facts and basic concepts should students know and be able to recall? What discrete skills and processes should students be able to draw upon and use?

2. Determine Acceptable Evidence 

   1. Application - use learning effectively in a new situation-transfer.

   2. Explanation - explain in own words, represent in a different form, etc-.

   3. Perspective - recognize different points of view, see the big picture- .

   4. Self-knowledge - self assess ones' strengths and weaknesses, recognize limits of ones' own understanding-.

   5. Empathy - get "inside" another persons' feelings and experiences, and recognize merit in odd, unorthodox, unfamiliar ideas- .

   6. Interpretation - recognize a pattern, make a reasonable inference- . 

3. Plan Learning Experience and Instruction

   1. When the learning goal focuses on....

   2. The teacher's goal is too...

   3. The teacher's role is best described as...

   4. Recommended instructional strategies include...

      1. WHERETO: A tool for creating effective and engaging instruction.

         1. Where are we going?why? what is expected?

         2. How will we hook the students?

         3. How will we equip students for expected performance?

         4. How will we help students rethink or revise?

         5. How wil students self-evaluate and reflect on their learning?

         6. How will we tailor learning to varied needs, interests, and learning performances?

         7. How will we organize and sequence the learning plan?

Teaching With Clarity  How to Prioritize and Do Less So Students Understand More by Tony Frontier 

This book allows readers, educators, administrators,  and more to see intentionally focused and prioritized efforts that can be put in place in schools to help teachers teach with clarity and declutter. Sometimes doing less, can lead to students doing more and feeling less overwhelmed. There are three fundamental questions that are posed throughout the book to help individuals embrace clarity and become curricularly organized. 

• What does it mean to understand?

• What is most important in understanding?

• How do we prioritize our strategic-effort to help students understand what is most important?

• What is a valid reference?

• What is a reliable reference?

• Why is it essential that success criteria describe the most important assessment evidence? 

• Teach students to use feedback in meaningful ways. 

• Give meaningful judgemental feedback. 

• Give meaningful developmental feedback. 

SOLO Taxonomy:

• Consists of two phases: quantitative and qualitive. 

  • 5 levels of understanding:

    • Prestructural, unistrucutural, multistructural, relational, and extended abstract. 

  • Basic awareness of content to sophisticated transfer of knowledge and skills across disciplines and outside of the classroom. 

  • Helps students clarify skills and the most important ideas in success criteria. 

  • Aligns with the metacognition (internal voice that guides/inhibits strategic efforts to learn) levels. 

Depth of Knowledge:

• Are students going further than the unistructural -basis- layer of skills, knowledge, and meaning?

  • Students need to explain and justify their thinking, reasoning, or modify their assessments to infer their true understanding of a concept.

    •  I have seen students in practicum go past the unistructural level of their quality of work. 

    • Students have  been able to do simple steps in assessments and then pull that together to combine terms. 

      • EX: Weathering and Erosion while providing evidence of each function. 

As educators we need to support our students by creating assessments that are rich in context yet don't clutter the students understanding. 

• As educators we also need to ensure that the assessment contains alignments to the standards, evidence, and success criteria to make sure we are giving valid and reliable feedback, and inferences. 

  • In the classroom during practicum, I have noticed assessments directly align to Indianas Departments of Education for sixth grade. 

  • I have seen an assessment rubric that clearly defines expectations that are measurable, without distorting inferences over students' quality of work related to the success criteria.   

    • Students' modeled surface level knowledge and that inference can be  made by the multiple choice test students' were given, does not show the deepest of understanding pertaining the content. 

Feedback:

• How have I given judgemental feedback thus far?

  • During students projects, several times I clarified for students what evidence -landforms, restating what they are, how many the need- because it is part of the main success criteria

• How have I given developmental feedback thus far? 

  • I would not only tell students what they neededto fix or what was still  needed to be added, I would let students know that in order to produce higher quality work that changes needed to be made in order to be aligned closer to the success criteria.

• Four Areas of Feedback: 

  • Within the four areas of compliance, I reflect and realize that my mentor teacher often used the compliance factor in feedback which is just having students comply to rules and push out results. 

  • I noticed especially during students projects that I focused on praise and the student's feelings of worth. 

    • With some students, this encouraged them to work because their work was being recognized, but I can see now how then it would encourage students to disregard critical feedback if evidence in their assessment was ineffective/incorrecet/ not of high quality. 

      • I see how this is not conducive of feedback for transferable information for students to receive. 

Stage 1: Desired Results

• What long term transfer goals are targeted? 

• What meanings should students make?

• What essential questions will students explore?

• What knowledge and skill will students acquire?

Stage 2: Evidence

• What performance and products will reveal  evidence of meaning- making and transfer? 

• What additional evidence will be collected for other Desired Results?

Stage 3: Learning Plan

• What activities, experiences, and lessons will lead to achievement of the desired results and success at the assessment? 

• How will the learning plan help students of Acquisition, Meaning Making, and Transfer?

• How will the unit be sequenced and differentiated to optimize achievements for all learners?