The Inside Scoop Week of Oct. 15
Important Information for LEE staff
Mask up!
Carol Ann Tomlinson on Working with Students Experiencing Trauma
In this article in Educational Leadership, Carol Ann Tomlinson (University of Virginia) says that as a K-12 teacher, she had a number of students who were dealing with abuse, the death of a parent, war-related incidents, bullying, or other forms of trauma. “Those were the stressors I know existed and could label,” says Tomlinson. “There were doubtless others my students faced that never surfaced but were no less real and damaging.” She describes three particularly vivid stories, and what she learned:
• Reading a story to her primary-grade class, Tomlinson walked around the room, paused briefly behind four-year-old Franklin, and rested her arm on the back of his chair. Suddenly he started screaming and running around the room, arms flailing. Tomlinson left the class in the care of her teaching assistant and took the boy outside, and he gradually calmed down and took her hand. Back in the classroom, she got students working on a free-choice activity and made a point of checking in with each child. A four-year-old girl looked her in the eye and said, “Ms. T, you shoulda figured out by now, ya can’t sneak up on Franklin!” That was his trigger.
• The mother of an eighth grader about to enroll in Tomlinson’s class described how every summer the boy put on plays to the delight of audiences in their neighborhood, doing casting, costumes, and directing. But he had a serious learning disability, constantly failed spelling and writing in school, and felt worthless. One more year of failure, said his mother, and he would be lost. “Trauma often accompanies long struggles with disabilities,” says Tomlinson. Determined to avoid setting him up for failure with conventional spelling instruction and tests, she told herself, “No academic goal is worth the soul of a child.” She worked around his disability, got other students to help him with spelling, and gave him opportunities to create stories and cartoons with advanced vocabulary. The class was transformational for him, and years later the student earned a master’s degree.
• One morning Tomlinson found a note on her desk that one of her best-behaved and highest-achieving students had left on her desk the afternoon before: I wanted you to know I won’t be in class tomorrow. I thought you might worry. As Tomlinson read the note, she looked up and saw a police officer standing in the door. It turned out the girl had run away from home; her mother was in the hospital with a terminal illness, and her father was abusing her every night. “I should have known more than I did,” says Tomlinson, “or should at least have been more watchful than I was.” The girl was located, spent time with a foster family, and returned to the class. Soon afterward Tomlinson found her in the hallway in tears; she had learned by chance (not from her estranged father) that her mother had died.
Thinking back on these three students, and others with different forms of trauma, Tomlinson wishes that as a young teacher she’d had professional development and done more reading on trauma. As it was, she learned on the job, with students her most important teachers. “Here’s the most powerful lesson I took from them,” she says: “Empathy is the great healer. To the degree that we were able, together, to take steps forward, empathy was the reason.” Her other takeaways:
- There’s wide variation in how young people respond to trauma, “from almost complete withdrawal to atomic explosion.”
- Teachers need to know more about kids than their grades and attendance records.
- A teacher can’t always figure out how to make things better, but should be able to avoid making them worse.
- There’s almost always someone who can help – perhaps last year’s teacher, a counselor, a family member – and a teacher should never try to deal with a crisis alone.
- Students need to know that their worth as humans is not tied up in academic skills and grades.
“Don’t ever assume that a student’s behavior is about you,” Tomlinson concludes. “As long as that’s your frame, a student’s worth is somehow an indication of your own worth.”
“Learning from Kids Who Hurt” by Carol Ann Tomlinson in Educational Leadership, October 2020 (Vol. 78, #2, pp. 28-33);
Halloween
Staff Shout Outs!
- Jessica- Thanks for allowing me to borrow books. Alice
- Jessicca-Thanks for covering the class I was supposed to be covering. -Traci
- Tara and Linda - You two are the best, and I am forever grateful for both of you!!! Marcy
- Thank you to Linda, Tara, and Marcy for helping with all of the parent calls and helping to fix my boo-boo!-Traci
- Kingsbury--Thank you for your flexibility during your plan time this week! You're doing great :-). --Jessicca
- Tara, Maria, Linda, Marcy--Thanks for helping me this week, especially for your patience while I figured out the fire drill buttons!--Jessicca
- Thank you to everyone who pitched in while I was out. I appreciate all of you-Traci
- Vicki - Thank you for working so hard at keeping us fed! - Bettina
- David - Welcoming me back into the Eagles Nest team. - Bettina
- The whole LEE Staff - Thank you for being such an awesome group to come back to. It truly feels like coming home. - Bettina
- David - Welcoming me back into the Eagles Nest team. - Bettina
- Karen ~ Thank you for always doing such a fantastic job in all the different roles you've played over the years. We are so lucky to have you here! ~ Camilla
- Rosie and Annette-Thank you for the special birthday treat! -Tami
- Traci, Tara, Stephanie, David, Jessicca and Emilee- Thank you so much for covering for me while I attempt to teach hybrid! -Laura
- Vicki thank you for saving me with the water bottle, being the best kitchen manager and friend ever, and always being so patient with us!!-Stacey
- Traci -- I am proud of my little note that was left on my car last Friday. It makes me smile every morning. - Linda
- Karen-Your flexibility and adaptability have been so helpful! Thank you!-Traci
- Bussard - Thanks for coming to my rescue with essential oils! - Linda
- Tara - Thank you for helping with the parent letter! -Linda
- Maryann & Emilee - Thanks for the help with the Kinders and 2nd graders at lunch. -Linda
- Karen--Thank you so much for jumping in and supporting me! You are amazing! I am so blessed to have had you these past few days! And Thank you for the teas!--Krystyna
- Tara Thank you for helping with our lunches this week and for all the little things in between! We appreciate you so much!!!-Stacey