The Importance of Trauma-Informed Teaching
In a trauma-informed school, the adults in the school community are prepared to recognize and respond to those who have been impacted by traumatic stress. Those adults include administrators, teachers, staff, and parents. In addition, students are provided with clear expectations and communication strategies to guide them through stressful situations. The goal is to not only provide tools to cope with extreme situations but to create an underlying culture of respect and support.
Becoming a trauma-informed school requires a layered approach to create an environment with clear behavior expectations for everyone, open communication, and sensitivity to the feelings and emotions of others.
Mary Crnobori, PhD, BCBA, is the Coordinator of Trauma-Informed Schools for the Metro Nashville Public Schools. In this video, she discusses the importance of Trauma-Informed Schools.
Dr. Meredith Fox is a passionate educator with 17 years of experience in public education. She discusses Trauma Informed Teaching.
The Center for Partnership Studies presented Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Shifting to Partnership in Education and Society —a timely online dialogue with Dr. Mary Crnobori, BCBA, Khayree Bey, BBSc, M.Ed. and Dr. Riane Eisler.
Mary and Khayree shared on-the-ground stories about their work implementing effective, compassionate, trauma-sensitive practices at all levels in public school systems, from whole-district initiatives to classroom-based strategies. They shared resources to help you join the trauma-informed movement in your classroom, school or district. Riane Eisler showed how the emerging field of trauma-sensitive practices in schools is a crucial way to ignite broader societal shifts that move us away from domination systems and toward partnership systems that support equity, peace, and well-being.
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