One thing we know for sure: the pandemic is a shared cultural trauma that has affected every single one of us in varying ways. But for many of our students, it is a trauma that they've had to add to an already heavy emotional load. If you have never done a professional development on trauma in your school, now is definitely the time to start.
If you're looking for an engaging and informative way to discuss trauma-informed services in your school, this presentation is for you! It incorporates activities, videos, and discussion prompts throughout and can be presented in person or online via Zoom with breakout rooms for the group work.
The "How to Create Trauma-Sensitive Classrooms" training is organized into four parts:
What is Trauma?
What are Trauma-Sensitive Schools?
What Can I Do for my Students?
How Can I Care for Myself?
Depending on how large your group is and how chatty the participants are, this training could last anywhere from four hours to a whole day. It is fully editable as well.
The download is a Google doc that contains links to the Google Slides presentation and all activities used.
At the end of the slide presentation is a references page. I compiled and curated this info from many different free resources (including my own experiences as a counselor).
My goal with all my presentations is to make difficult topics as engaging, interesting, and accessible as possible. PDs like this can be polarizing depending on the group you are working with. As we say in counseling, begin where the client is at! For this presentation, I wanted to recognize the experience, expertise, and instincts of teachers and staff by starting with the student scenario activity and referring back to it throughout the day. This ensures that knowledge is being created within the presentation by the teachers and staff themselves, a dynamic that is essential if we want to prepare the way for true change to happen. Beginning the presentation with that intention will hopefully create an open, authentic, and respectful learning experience for everyone. Good luck to you and please let me know how your training goes!
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