Tagged With "Workshop Presenters"
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Mindfulness practices help students deal with stress, behavior (post-gazette.com)
A focus on breathing is one of the first steps in yoga and mindfulness classes being taught among children and teens and their teachers in schools throughout the Pittsburgh area. “It’s empowering, using your own body and your own breath,” says Yoga in the Schools founder Joanne Spence. Explaining how something so simple can be helpful, she said, “Practice allows us to be present and accountable … in the midst of ups and downs in life.” Indeed, the class aims to help students focus, control...
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New Guidance on Trauma Screening in Schools
In partnership with the Defending Childhood State Policy Initiative and the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, new guidance has been released on trauma screening in schools. Importantly, this document lays out a series of important considerations when determining whether trauma screening is indicated in each context, and how to go about collecting and utilizing the data generated from the process. Please feel free to share input.
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New Resource Guide for Child Sexual Abuse/Exploitation Prevention
Greetings, ACN Community! I wanted to share this fantastic new resource guide developed by one of the work groups from the Georgia Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force. This guide provides background on best practice, principles of prevention, identifying resources for the classroom, developing a prevention plan, age appropriate teaching suggestions, analysis of specific programs, and guidelines for implementation and evaluation. It is really quite thorough and is full of excellent ideas...
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Next "A Better Normal" community discussion series: May 7, 2020 — Education Upended, continued
Joel Heller Thursday, May 7, 2020 Education Upended, continued. Please join us for the ongoing discussion of "A Better Normal — Education Upended". We are going to bring our focus back to the future. Using our breakout session format, we will identify the strategies and lessons learned from the past three weeks on regulation, relationships, and family connections that we want to bring into the future of school and ways in which we might do that. Our current capacity is 100 participants, so...
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Now available: recording of Chris Blodgett's talk on trauma-informed communities
Dr. Chris Blodgett spoke on Thursday, Nov 3rd at the Anchorage Loussac Library to a room of nearly 140 people and 60 more online. His talk "From ACEs to Action: How Communities Can Improve Well-Being and Resilience" was approximately two hours long. Access the webinar video, audio file, and slides here.
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Be the Spark: Igniting trauma-informed change within our communities
Authors note: This piece is co-authored by @Lara Kain and @Christine Cissy White. Though we had never worked together or met, we were asked to co-present on creating t rauma-informed changes in communities by the Attachment Trauma Network for the first national (now annual) Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Summit in Washington, DC. This article is an expanded essay version of that presentation). Be the Spark Oprah Winfrey helped mainstream discussion about...
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Beyond Paper Tigers
By now, many of us in the ACEs movement have seen, or at least heard of, the documentary film, Paper Tigers . The film captures the lives of students, teachers, and administrators at Lincoln High School, and ultimately the entire community of Walla Walla, WA. I saw the movie for the second time this week, and was reminded of the spirit of collaboration and unconditional love that is ever present throughout the film. The entire school community -- administrators, teachers, health...
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Bringing Independence to the Classroom
As we celebrate July 4 th , Independence Day, a day typically filled with cookouts, fireworks, parades, and honor of past sacrifices made, my thoughts are drawn to the 1,000’s of classrooms filled with students seeking their own personal independence. Unfortunately, due to the interruption of trauma in childhood, they have become dependent on the maladaptive responses they have acquired in order to mitigate, compensate, cope and survive the impact of the adversity dealt them. Dysregulated...
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California lawmakers pass limits on restraint and seclusion in schools (edsource.org)
California school staff would be barred from physically restraining K-12 students or isolating them in “seclusion rooms” unless the student’s behavior creates an imminent physical threat under a bill approved by the Legislature this week. The bill, which now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, also reinstates a requirement that school districts report data on the use of restraints and seclusion to the California Department of Education. And it prohibits certain restraint techniques that are considered...
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Closing the Empathy Gap in Education
In the Hechinger Report, Amanda Wahlstedt wrote about the empathy gap she experienced as a poor student with a disconnected privileged teacher. She wrote: As a young girl in rural southeastern Kentucky, I remember distinctly hearing my teacher talk about “first of the month-ers,” or people who were out and in the grocery stores at the first of the month, typically with shopping “buggies” overloaded with preserved food. When I looked around the classroom I noticed many of my friends either...
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journal article: Responding to Students with PTSD in Schools
Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am . 2012 January Responding to Students with PTSD in Schools Sheryl Kataoka, MD, MSHS, Audra Langley, PhD, Marleen Wong, PhD, Shilpa Baweja, MA, and Bradley Stein, MD, PhD The prevalence of trauma exposure among youth is a major public health concern, with a third of adolescents nationally reporting that they have been in a physical fight in the past twelve months and 9% having been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property. Studies have...
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Kids at Hope in the NW
When I joined the Franklin Pierce Early Learning Center a year ago, I was immediately struck by the positive and hopeful atmosphere. I would quickly learn that the school is a Kids at Hope school - believing and practicing that "All Children are Capable of Success, No Exceptions!" Adults at a Kids at Hope school are Treasure Hunters - seeking out the strengths of both the children and adults in the building, as well as within themselves. I soon was connected with Wally Endicott as I prepared...
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Master of Mindfulness (By Laurie Grossman; Mr. Musumeci’s 5th grade class; Angelina Alvarez)
Do you ever feel angry, disappointed, or stressed out about family problems, school, bullies, or trouble with friends? If so, mindfulness can help. Master of Mindfulness is a unique and empowering book written for kids by kids , with cool illustrations and tips that show you how to be confident, get focused, stay calm, and tap into your own inner strength so that you can be your own superhero—no matter what life throws your way! Written by Laurie Grossman, cofounder of Mindful Schools and...
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The Relentless School Nurse: Grieving Alongside my Student
I usually love the fall, anticipation of cooler days, the beauty of the leaves changing, back to school excitement and all that comes with a new season. That was true until the fall of 2009. There are events that mark before and after periods when life is irrevocably changed. In September of 2009, that moment came via the most unwanted phone call. My father had experienced, what the doctor called a “life-ending event”. The days leading up to and following his death are a blur, the impact...
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The Relentless School Nurse: Pediatricians + School Nurses = Powerful Partners
Pediatricians and school nurses are powerful partners when we intentionally collaborate to improve the continuity of care in the populations we serve. It is the intentionality of relationship building that can bear the most fruitful outcomes to improve the health and well-being of our most vulnerable population, our children. We are far more effective working in concert than in our silos. School communities are looking for guidance, answers, and action to address the explosion of...
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The Relentless School Nurse: When the Health Office Pass Includes Emotions
The collaboration between school counselors and school nurses creates safe spaces for students at school. Building a coalition between school counselors and school nurses creates a safety net for our most complex and challenging students while benefiting the whole school community. Promoting connections through intentional relationship building, and ensuring a school environment that is physically, emotionally and psychologically safe changes the culture and climate. Read about an amazing...
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The Trauma-Informed School 2.0: Training for the "Now What?"
This fall, Lara Kain and I will co-present a 3 night / 4 day retreat-style training - The Trauma-Informed School 2.0 - in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire. The format and content of this training promises to be unlike most. Lara and I purposely embedded in the training format experiences that reflect the principles of trauma-informed care (i.e. exercises and activities that cultivate psychological safety, connection among participants, and emotional regulation). Participants will learn...
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Rebuilding Lives while Building Homes: Tony McGuire's Resilience-Building Carpentry Class
Tony McGuire is a great carpenter. He ran his own construction business for years. Then he wanted to get into teaching. He became a Tenured Faculty member at a local community college, and landed in the state penitentiary as a Basic Skills Carpentry instructor. So how could that be connected to saving lives with a 20 buck investment? Tony got touched by CRI’s trauma-informed training. He saw himself past and present and knew somehow that, “with this information comes the responsibility to...
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Reports: Stationing police in Philly schools costly, causes trauma for students of color [The Philadelphia Tribune]
The Advancement Project and the Alliance for Educational Justice want police out of schools, according to their new report . The advocacy groups believe school police officers create a hostile environment for Black and Brown students and contribute to the trauma many experience outside of school. Philadelphia was among the cities featured in the report, but the idea of removing school police for some city parents is just unthinkable. Terri Seward, whose daughter attends Bartram High School...
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Resource List - Research & Reports
Reports and research about how ACEs affect schoolchildren, or about how schools become trauma-informed, or the outcomes of integrating trauma-informed and resilience-building practices in schools. If you recommend any others besides those listed here, please leave a comment with a link and/or information.
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School-based health bill passes committee [Lake County Record -Bee]
In California, AB 254 authored by Assemblymember Tony Thurmond (D-Richmond) will ensure access to health and mental health services for all students. The bill passed the Assembly Health Committee this afternoon. “We cannot continue to allow children that suffer from health conditions to fall behind in school and slip between the cracks,” said Thurmond. “All students, regardless of economic circumstances, deserve an opportunity to pursue an education and get the healthcare they need to remain...
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School Discipline Practices: An Issue Brief on a Public Health Crisis and Opportunities for Reform [changelabsolutions.org]
Early childhood education sets the foundation for a student’s future well-being and success. However, the widespread use of exclusionary school discipline (ESD) aggravates pre-existing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and deprives students of essential opportunities for learning and growth. Examples of harmful and counterproductive ESD practices include suspensions, expulsions, referrals to law enforcement, and corporal punishment. These practices can compound feelings of isolation and...
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Re: Students seeking mental health help kicked out of colleges to prevent ‘bad PR’ [RawStory.com]
There is so much political talk about the need for mental health services and support, but many institutions do not know how to respond to mental health needs in a truly compassionate and healing way. I think schools may be especially challenged in this area. Not just related to bad PR, but punishing and shaming rather than having a focus on healing mental health disorders that present themselves at school, which just intensifies the student's struggle.
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Re: schools/classrooms using trauma-informed practices?
Hi, Jane: Hope you're stories turned out for you. Loved the links you provided me here. Thanks so much. I've forwarded them already many times. If you have access to any other videos of school-based programs, I'd love to take a look at them. The Lincoln Alternative School looks incredible. Would love to visit it one day. Another question, Jane: do you know of anyone in the Lancaster, PA area who would be willing to present on ACEs? Philadelphia is only about 1:20 away. Harrisburg is about 40...
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Re: Stressed? This Dog May Help
As an Special Education Director I had a situation where a student with a very legitimate but non-traditional need required a service dog to be present in the school. It was ground breaking in a number of ways as this was a situation/condition that staff struggled to understand (ie, it was not due to loss of vision). The dog was a "therapy dog" and was prescribed as a result of a condition where anxiety triggered a number of symptoms for the child. Suffice it to say, external observations by...
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Re: "Gots" and "Wants" from NE Michigan's Trauma-Informed Schools
Tina, we'd love to have you involved. Our plan is to invite anyone who is doing this work around the country to present. Should be a marvelous forum where we can all learn from each other. We're also asking people if they would like to be part of the planning committee. Lou
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Re: "Gots" and "Wants" from NE Michigan's Trauma-Informed Schools
Originally Posted by Louise Godbold: Tina, we'd love to have you involved. Our plan is to invite anyone who is doing this work around the country to present. Should be a marvelous forum where we can all learn from each other. We're also asking people if they would like to be part of the planning committee. Lou Hi Lou, LAEP would love to help out since we are neighbors!
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Re: Teaching Kids To Bounce Back at 'Last-Chance High' [KPLU.org]
I believe that we can build caring, supportive, empowering classrooms and school communities that respond to student behavior with compassion, sensitivity and patience and a high regard for building student safety, self regulation skills and respect, without asking the ACES questions of every student. These questions can be extremely intrusive and sometimes re-traumatizing to the student. In addition to the effect on the student, many school cultures do not have high standards of...
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Re: How are schools incorporating trauma informed practices, if they are at all?
I have been working within the SDP for the past several years as a school-based outpatient clinician, as well as a school-based clinician within an STS program. As I establish relationships with teachers and administrators , I use language that introduces them to trauma-informed concepts (safety plans, triggers, de-escalation techniques, viewing the child as "injured," not "bad." I then offer to present in-service trainings for teachers about the impact of trauma on learning, where...
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Re: Has anyone surveyed teacher attitudes about trauma-informed care as a way to collect some baseline data?
Does your survey consider teacher self-care from the trauma experienced via workplace bullying in education? Does your district have a workplace bullying policy? A year ago, the AFT and Badass Teachers Association conducted an unscientific, national survey ("Quality of Work life Survey") which indicated teachers were deeply stressed... That survey lef to an amendment in ESSA (co-authored by Senators Booker and Baker) so that school district communities can apply for Title II funding in order...
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To prevent trauma in our youth, we must discuss structural inequalities [Generocity.org]
Thanks to the ever-present media and and rise in social media use, people across the economic spectrum are seeing dramatic examples of racism in our society in clear video. We’re talking about Black men shot for no reason, youth sentenced to disproportionate sentences and customers being arrested for sitting in a coffee shop, to name a few. Similarly, we are beginning to hear and understand the dramatic stories of our most vulnerable young people, young people who have been victimized,...
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Trauma education and mindfulness help youth living amid gun violence
Armon Hurst, 2nd from left, first row, Teens on Target, courtesy of YouthAlive! Eighteen-year-old Armon Hurst serves as vice president of the student body at Castlemont High School in Oakland, Calif. He has a 4.0 grade point average, is an avid baseball player, and is slated to go to college next year. But until a few years ago, Hurst would find himself waking from nightmares in the middle of the night. It was difficult to concentrate at school, and he wasn’t eating well. Armon Hurst “There...
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Trauma Informed 21st Century Learning
The truth is children have and are experiencing adversity, parents have experienced and are experiencing adversity and teachers and staff have and are experiencing adversity.
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Trauma Informed Care -- Workforce training framework
A colleague of mine -- here in New Zealand!! -- recently passed the attached PDF, from Scotland, onto me. It concerns a relatively recent, and still developing, proposed trauma training framework. This might be helpful to others wishing to go further in introducing TIC in their own services. It includes a consideration of ACEs. Naturally, it needs to incorporate culture-specific additions or modifications to suit your local conditions. The document as it is likely has broad application.
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Trauma-informed Schools: What Can YOU Do?
There are tools to promote healing and growth and you can foster them within your school!
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Trauma is Messy
I will always remember the day that, as a student teacher, I watched as a student entered my second-grade room covered in blood. After quickly establishing that he was not injured, we learned that the blood was that of his brother who had been shot the night before. No parents were around that night, so this second grader became the sole caregiver of his bleeding brother. My student would never be the same. We didn’t care about grades or test scores. We just knew that this moment would...
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Turnaround for Children releases new paper and announces hiring for key positions
Michael Lamb, Executive Director, Washington D.C., Turnaround for Children sent the following message about a new paper, Building Blocks for Learning, just released by Turnaround and three new positions it is seeking to fill. Take a look: "Hi friends and colleagues, it’s an exciting time for Turnaround in Washington, D.C. as we work towards our vision that one day all children in the US attend schools that prepare them for the lives they choose. In addition to our exciting work in schools,...
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Using Big Data with a Warm Hand-off to Help Students
This piece is about how big data can be a service provider -- and there can be a warm handoff. We can use data and technology to improve education and healthcare and many other fields.
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Values for a Trauma-Informed Care Culture in Your Classroom and School
Five core values for establishing a trauma-informed culture in your classroom and/or school. An emphasis on these values lead to a relationship-based culture.
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We Need the WHOLE to Create Trauma-Informed Systems
Sometimes I think I have PTSD from failed change efforts. I am not kidding. I have developed symptoms from living through nearly twenty years of failed education reform efforts. When I reflect on the many change efforts I participated in, I shudder. I try to block it out. I avoid discussing it. There is an "activating" body memory (SE™ talk) for me that is associated with prescriptive change efforts. When I encounter a stimulus or trigger, like someone talking about a new protocol intended...
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WEBINAR: Using a Mindfulness-based Social Emotional Learning Program with K-2 Students, Teachers, and Parents in Chicago Public Schools
WEBINAR: Using a Mindfulness-based Social Emotional Learning Program with K-2 Students, Teachers, and Parents in Chicago Public Schools Tuesday, February 28 1:30pm-2:30pm The Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative is pleased to present this exciting webinar illustrating ways to build resiliency within the educational system. Dr. Amanda Moreno and Erikson Institute doctoral student Kandace Thomas will present features of the Calm Classroom K-2 project, a large randomized controlled trial of...
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Wellness and Resiliency Toolkit for Kids with Trauma
I'm excited to share a booklet created for youth in Oregon foster care at a Wellness camp this summer. Youth were provided with these quick, easy and effective (and evidence based) "Mindful Moments" exercises in their Wellness Toolkits and they were practiced throughout the day at camp so that they could be remembered in times of stress and dysregulation. The exercised are designed to quickly bring them back to a state of calm. The youth really enjoyed them, and found them easy and...
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What Lies Beneath Behavior? Introducing Echo's New Infographic!
Every novelist, psychologist, anthropologist and your Aunt Jane have wanted to know this. What motivates people and what’s going on when their behavior is irritating or just plain doesn’t make sense? At Echo, we encourage adults to look beneath the behavior of children and to understand ‘behavior as communication.’ It may be that the child is choosing a way of communicating that is hard for you to deal with but that doesn’t diminish the fact that the behavior is driven by some deep need or...
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When the Whole Family Goes to Pre-K [TheAtlantic.com]
A meaningful pre-kindergarten experience is increasingly seen as a critical part of a child’s education, and parents are expected to play a much more significant role. In this city, like many around the country, poorer families must first overcome powerful hurdles to be more present in their children’s education. That’s why Pre-K for San Antonio was designed to support and engage parents and extended families in ways that bolster their pre-schoolers’ chances to excel. While students are...
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Why Mindfulness And Trauma-Informed Teaching Don't Always Go Together [kqed.org]
Mindfulness is a fast growing trend both in the world generally and in schools. Teachers are turning to the practice as a simple way to restore calm to the classroom , help students find some quiet space, and build self-regulation skills. Some teachers say their personal mindfulness practice has helped them respond more calmly to students and helps them keep perspective. But it’s also important to realize that some of the ways mindfulness is practiced -- sitting still, eyes closed, in...
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Youth ask San Diego Gang Commission to stay the course on human and sex trafficking issues
Four student leaders from Youth Voice told twelve Commissioners of San Diego’s Commission on Gang Prevention and Intervention last month how important it is that they raise awareness, educate the community, and encourage other youth and adults to become involved in eliminating human and sex trafficking in San Diego. The FBI states that among children and teens living on the streets in the United States, involvement in commercial sex activity is a problem of epidemic proportion. California...