Supporting Our Students
Welcoming Back our Students After Hurricane Matthew
Examples of Trauma
- Community, domestic, and school violence
- Physical and sexual abuse
- Neglect
- Complex trauma (multiple traumatic events and severe impact)
- Early childhood trauma (any traumatic event experienced by children aged 0-6)
- Medical trauma
- Natural disasters
- Terrorism, refugee and war zone trauma
- Poverty (http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2014/06/02/16743/poverty-has-been-found-to-affect-kids-brains-can-o/)
- and Traumatic loss
(https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources/school-safety-and-crisis/trauma)
Trauma...Not always About Severe Abuse or Neglect
When we hear this word, we tend to think of severe neglect or abusive experiences and relationships. This is not necessarily true. A traumatized brain can also be a tired, hungry, worried, rejected, or detached brain expressing feelings of isolation, worry, angst, and fear...(http://www.edutopia.org/blog/brains-in-pain-cannot-learn-lori-desautels)
Brains in Pain Can't Learn
Supporting our Students Upon Their Return to BES--School-Wide Classroom Connections
- Please remember... we are here to help you...call the front office any time during the welcome back activity (or any other time)---we will join you in your class for support
- Relate to your students your feelings of gratitude that we are all back together...that we imagine some of us may still be thinking about what hapened and that is just fine...we are here to help one another feel stronger...one way to help us handle our strong emotions is to talk about and listen to one another's thoughts and feelings...to help each other through challenges
- students facing each other...carpet, reading corner, chairs, whatever works best in your class
- a time for your students to share their experience of what took place during/after the hurricane. How they felt, what they saw, what they heard, their experience
- offer for a student to begin...if no one is ready to begin, you can begin sharing (some) of your experience...less is more here...
- for K and first grade, it may not take the amount of time the older students may take in sharing. Perhaps the kids could draw a picture and share the picture at the circle rather than a strictly verbal experience
- as you help students normalize their strong feelings ("...that sounds scary...you were worried...you didn't know what to do...you had a lot on your mind..." etc...) you are helping to relieve their "anxiety" of that feeling/memory...you are normalizing their feelings and helping to short circuit the cortisol/stress hormones...and get them ready for learning
- as students share and they experience strong feelings, feel free to offer them comfort in word, a hug, a caring touch...listen without showing shock or judgement...
- as students share, if they share something that needs additional support, please take a note so we may reach out later--though if it is an immediate concern, call Mrs. Wanda and she'll send someone to your room
- reframe---after all students have a chance to share (only if they would like), invite them, as a closing piece/reframing opportunity to picture, remember something they experienced that could be a warm side of the hurricane...a positive side. Share that we often experience feelings of relief, gratitude, thankfulness even after a scary or challenging time....a "silver lining" (thank you, Jane!!!)
- ask the students to take some time at their desk, on clip boards, whatever works best to draw their perspective of a silver lining in the experience of Hurricane Matthew. (Play some quiet music in background....something instrumental...if it works for your students)
- after the pictures are complete, table share in small group...then ask the whole group for volunteers to share what others' perceived as a positive, a "silver lining"
- offer the students the choice to keep their pictures of silver linings, or you may want to collect the pictures so they can be added to on another day---which is another great way to remind the students that this is a process...and we will continue to experience a range of feelings...but helping our students focus on positives is invaluable
- remind the students to be extra caring, extra patient, extra helpful, extra inviting and including to one another...we are a team...we are here to build one another up
- thank the students for taking part in the classroom meeting, remind them that they and their families are deeply cared for, and remind them to tell you if they have more they would like to talk about... you will help and/or get another caring adult like Mrs. Dunston, Mrs. Deyo, Mrs. Hager, Mrs. Norman, or Mrs. Adams-Newton to help
Items to Have on Hand...
- tissues
- crayons/markers/pencils
- paper
- soft music
Additional Supports Moving Forward...
- Consider offering a classroom meeting each day/few days a week...an opportunity to give words to feelings (not just about the hurricane), a positive way to deal with strong emotions AND it promotes empathy building and help help decrease negative behaviors
- If a student's strong emotions have about reached the tipping point, invite them (and a partnered student) to run an errand to the office---empty envelope---movement is critical to calming the stress and fear response
- Focused attention practice is another resource to help students regulate...teach students to breath deeply (a minute or two) while focused on their breath...while listening to a chime...while looking at nature..."increases an oxygenated blood and glucose flow to the frontal lobes of the brain where emotional regulation, attention, and problem solving occur." ( from: edutopia)
- Also this edutopia site for additional brain breaks and focused attention activities
- Increase student connections in your classroom (connections calm...)
- Use GoNoodle as a increaser or decreaser in student energy. Or try these GoNoodle videos as a one minute focused attention experience
- Contact family if on-going concerns and/let Susan, Michele, Mrs. Dunston and Mrs. Deyo know if additional student needs and/or family needs...referrals to community resources, etc.
- Let me know if you would like additional supports...I have Mind Up Curriculum (Brain Focused Strategies for learning and living) and many art therapy books.
- BONUS GEM--when you get 20 minutes, check out this TED Talk by Amy Cuddy, social psychologist....how our body language influences OURSELVES. Can we apply this two minute power stance with our students to help them increase new neural pathways toward growth, strength, belief in themselves?
Mind Up Curriculum
A Relationship Between Poverty and Trauma...This impacts 65% of Our Students Each Day --NOT Just because of the Hurricane Aftermath
The Physical Costs and its Impact on Learning
"Kids growing up in poverty are constantly releasing the stress hormone cortisol, which can give them short attention spans and short tempers. Physically, they feel the same kind of heart-pounding stress an adult feels after a car wreck. And they feel it all the time.
If you think about the impact on education, imagine if right after you were in a car crash I walked up to you and said, ‘I need you to take a test.’ Could you do it? Would you perform?"
(http://keranews.org/post/kids-living-poverty-living-chronic-trauma-experts-say)
Susan Hager, M.Ed., NCC, NCSC
Email: susanhager@johnston.k12.nc.us
Location: Benson Elementary School, Benson, NC, United States
Phone: 919-894-4233