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Alexandra, I agree that this is a wonderful article. I also agree that many educators are not properly trained in how to respond to trauma or the students who has experienced trauma. This training takes years to attain, not one hour in PD. Thank you for bringing this information to light.

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What an excellent article! A traumatic experience plays an important role in a student's education. It can hinder a student's success and educating teachers on trauma in education is necessary to help students be successful. Forming relationships with students gives the majority of them what they're lacking at home such as love and attention.

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I agree that educators should be trained more on how to deal with students with trauma. The amount of trauma students have to deal with nowadays comes from various angles. Not only is the trauma inflicted by school situations, but also through home life. Learning ways to help students address the trauma they experience could be the difference between success and failure, and sadly even life and death.

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This is an awesome article. I work with children who have experienced extreme trauma in their lives. I absolutely feel like we aren't properly educated in ways to help these kids as well as how to teach them. It's so hard for them to learn when they have all of their trauma already weighing on them everyday. In some of our kiddos, it seems as though there isn't anymore room in their brains for education.

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This was a very interesting article to read. Training is going to become a necessary factor when it comes to trauma. Students are dealing with things I could have never even dreamed up at that age and they deserve all the support they can get from teachers.

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Alexandra, this is an excellent article, schools are full of children with adult issues that I could not have comprehended at the same age. Teacher training is a must, district need encouragement to pay for it. Great Padlet

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I too agree that when there are traumas in a students life we as teachers and staff need to be there for them. When a student feels safe and secure and accepted they tend to open up and are also more open to learning. All students need a safe environment to be and school is definitely the one place they should be receiving this care.

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Great article, thank you very much for sharing it with us. I too, believe that educators need better training on how to appropriately deal with trauma in the classroom. I'm very glad to see legislation arguing for it. After all, our students are going to be bringing in whatever is going on at home with them, everyday to class and that could present a barrier to them getting the best education. We as educators can help be these students advocates and knock that barrier down!

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The topic of trauma is important for all professionals in education, especially in the world of elementary education where a teacher can have a significant impact on the students future in school. For me, this topic is important because I have faced and will be faced with students who have undergone many forms of trauma. After watching the documentary "Paper Tigers" last semester I realized that trauma is a major issue in education and that more students than we would expect are dealing with some form of it. It is important for me to have the necessary skills to not only recognize the warning signs but to aid the student in getting the help they need to work through their emotions. I also see the importance of a child having a healthy adult relationship, that they may be lacking in their home life, and want to be able to create one with my students. I believe that having these skills will help me become a better educator and understand that trauma isn't always easy to see. Trauma comes in many different forms and we need to be prepared to help our students process their emotions and stay focused on their education.

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This article is relevant to the world of education today as many students are dealing with trauma in their homes. This trauma affects a students ability to learn and their future success in school. Many teachers lack the necessary skills to recognize the signs of trauma and the skills to build a relationship with these students. In the blog the author mentions recent changes to legislation that surround the topic of trauma, as future educators we must keep up with changes in our own states legislation and understand what may have lead to these changes.

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In this blog post the author, Gretchen Cruden, writes about the recent legislation that was passed in Washington State, where she is an educator, that addresses the needs of students dealing with trauma as well as the need for teachers to become more educated on how to take on these challenges.  She also discusses why there is a need for such legislation, as trauma can create many difficulties for the student in their educational journey.  Trauma is a topic of much interest in the world of education right now and many teachers are finding that they do not have enough education in the area to properly care for their students who may being dealing with trauma, or they may not even be able to recognize when a student is undergoing such trauma.  She explains that she believes now is the best time to become an educator due to the fact that states are starting to recognize the need to educate teachers as well as supply students with education on how to handle their emotions.  In the blog post she explains how much impact a healthy relationship with an adult can have on the success of the student throughout their lifetime and how this relationship is often with a teacher due to the fact that many times the trauma is coming from one or both parents.  Meaning that now is the best time to be a teacher because there are now many ways to become educated on trauma and make an impact in a student’s life!

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Trauma is a beast with multiple personalities. It can slink in the classroom, with downcast eyes and arms crossed; hoping to be unseen. It can also fling itself through the door, announcing its energy in bubbly, overly helpful behaviors that cross the border frequently into bossy and inflexible, resulting in a lonely child bewildered by her lack of friends. Trauma can be tired, unfocused, quick to be red-faced angry, fidgety and/or slack-bodied. All within a single day! Trauma is exhausting and confusing, not only for children, but for teachers too. That is why I am thrilled that our state is taking a proactive approach to helping BOTH teachers and students to address many of the behaviors that students of trauma present with in our classrooms.

There are very few certainties when talking trauma. But one defining feature is that research has shown untreated childhood trauma has very clear consequences for adult outcomes and these outcomes not good. The Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) study strongly links traumatizing events from childhood with negative adult outcomes, including: higher rates of dropping out of high school; incarceration; alcoholism; obesity; and heart disease, to name a few. For children, traumatizing events translate into more disciplinary action, emotional strife, and decreased learning.

Yet, there is hope. Research also shows the effects of trauma can be mitigated. The most powerful factor supporting this resiliency is a healthy relationship with one adult who cares. This adult does not have to be the parent. Actually, it is often not a parent, for reasons inherent in the trauma itself. In fact, one of the most common individuals to impact students of trauma in a positive way are...teachers!

This is why it is so exciting our state has taken to heart the impact social-emotional learning has on student learning. This direct correlation seems so obvious, but is so underappreciated in the field of education! We are quite literally putting our money where our heart is and allocating resources to help schools better address these needs. In 2013, Washington State passed the Strengthening Student Educational Act. This act aligns Learning Assistance Program (LAP) students with services to address emotional learning. More excitingly, it engages educators in promising practices designed to increase their skills in addressing the emotional and behavioral needs of students and increase student learning. Remember, a caring adult in the life of a child can quite literally affect the life outcome of that child. Imagine the impact a caring AND informed adult could have! I do not know of a greater, more noble and important reason to be in the field of education.

Want to know more about the ACE study? About the impact of trauma on learning? Curious how one school has worked hard to become trauma-informed to overcome these impacts? Check out Paper Tigers. This is a game-changing documentary filmed in Washington's own Lincoln Alternative High School in the rural community of Walla Walla. This film examines the process an entire school undertook to become trauma-informed and how they went the extra mile to help students move past their own trauma in a cognitive manner.

It is movements like these in the field of education that make me realize there has never been a better time to be a teacher.

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Trauma is a beast with multiple personalities. It can slink in the classroom, with downcast eyes and arms crossed; hoping to be unseen. It can also fling itself through the door, announcing its energy in bubbly, overly helpful behaviors that cross the border frequently into bossy and inflexible, resulting in a lonely child bewildered by her lack of friends.