3/5/2020

1

Creating Trauma Informed Classrooms: Practical

Strategies for Educators

Presented by:

Elena Jimenez, LCSW School Mental Health

&

Laura Zeff, BCBA Positive Behavior Interventions and

Supports/Restorative Practices

Student Health and Human ServicesLos Angeles Unified School District

• Understand the impact of trauma on brain development and how it manifests in the classroom.

• Enhance knowledge and skills in prevention and response strategies.

• Develop personalized action plans, including strategies and resources, to use in their classrooms and schools.

3/5/2020

2

Los Angeles Unified School District

• 1386 Schools & Centers• 710 square miles

• 673,849 Students PreK-Adult• 8500 Foster Care

• 19,500+ Homeless

• 80% Free/Reduced Lunch

• 66,523 Employees

• 6 Local Districts

LAUSD

3/5/2020

3

LAUSD School Experience Survey Results

Staff responses:

• Disruptive student behavior is not a problem at this school.

• Strongly disagree and disagree

• Elementary School 32%

• Middle School 35%• High School 39%

Prevalence of Traumain LAUSD

3/5/2020

4

What is Trauma?

• Experiences or situations that:

• are overwhelming

• threaten one’s physical/ mental well-being

• leave one feeling helpless and fearful

• impact one’s relationships and belief systems

Three Types of Stress

Social emotional buffering, parental resilience, early detection, and/or effective intervention

Intense, prolonged, repeated & unaddressed

3/5/2020

5

Adverse Childhood

Experiences (ACEs)

3/5/2020

6

Impact on Learning, Behavior, and Relationships

• development of language & communication skills

• ability to organize & remember new information

• creative play

• paying attention to & following classroom tasks & instructions

• ability to process social clues

• labeling and talking about feelings in an appropriate way

• self-regulating behaviors, including increased aggressive and impulsive behaviors

• feeling safe and trusting others

• building secure relationships with adults and classmates in school

• initiating and cultivating healthy relationships with others

Trauma Exposure & The Brain

3/5/2020

7

Changing Our Lens

• Trauma-informed practice is a paradigm shift – shifting away from the deficit/blaming model to “acknowledging that early adversity has played a role in neural development.” (Craig, 2016)

• When we don’t recognize the underlying trauma, we tend to punish people who offend against our sense of what is ‘right’ or we stigmatize and exclude them. (Echo Parenting)

Perspective…

• When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change…

3/5/2020

8

The Paradigm Shift

• Adults become trauma and resiliency informed.

• A shift in perspective where a cooperative and collaborative approach is adopted.

• Behavior is seen as both a symptom and vehicle to communicate.

• Students’ needs are addressed in a holistic manner.

Practice saying it differently…

DONT’s DO’sWhat is wrong with you? What happened to you?

Why don’t you care about others? Do you feel like others don’t care about you?

Do you want to end up in jail? Where do you see yourself in the future?

You can’t be mad about that! I am curious about what you are feeling/thinking right now?

What were you thinking? Tell me what happened?

3/5/2020

9

Six Big Ideas to Foster Resilience in the Classroom

1. Trust – Building genuine and authentic relationships

2. Safety – Creating physical, emotional and psychological safe environments

3. Predictability – Establishing and maintaining structures, routines and transitions

4. Choices – Offering multiple options

5. Regulation – Teaching and modeling the ability to calm self

6. Support – Teaching and modeling, not punishing

3/5/2020

10

Trust – Building genuine and authentic relationships

• Follow through with your promises

• Be transparent especially when you cannot avoid changes in a situation

• Build and maintain positive, healthy relationships • Be that healthy adult in the life of a

student• Learn about the student’s interests• Respond to requests in a timely manner;

follow through• Validate concerns, even if you don’t agree• Acknowledge positive efforts made by

student• Suspend judgement

1

Is about

by understanding

by employing

by understandingby recognizing

& avoiding

by interpreting

by building

relationships

through

Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving instruction, Jim Knight, 2007

Strategies we

can use to

reduce the gap

between

people

Partnership

communication

The

communication

process

Authentic

listening

Audience Interference

Non verbal

communication

and facial

expressions

Emotional

connections

3/5/2020

11

Safety – Creating physical, emotional and psychological safe environments

• Build relationships

• Every member feels respected, validated, and heard

• 3-5 positively stated clear expectations (safe, respectful, responsible)

• Taught, modeled, reinforced and corrected

• Set the environment for success

• Structure the space

• Establish routines

• Model and teach your expectations

• Positively interact will ALL students

• Correct behavioral errors

• Observe and make decisions based on data

2

Predictability – Establishing and maintaining structures, routines and transitions

• Class schedule/individual student schedule

• Regular check-ins

• Planning for transitions (play music, begin a rhythmic clapping pattern, call and response cheers, visual timer, etc. )

• Brain breaks

3

3/5/2020

12

Choices – Offering multiple options

• Maximize choice• Allow the student to choose which task to

complete• The sequence of tasks to be completed (1st,

2nd, 3rd…)• Which materials to use• Where to complete the task• When to complete the task• With whom to complete the task

4

Regulation – Teaching and modeling the ability to calm selfSupport students (and yourself) in the learning and use self-regulation strategies5

3/5/2020

13

Support – Teaching and modeling, not punishing6

Six Big Ideas to Foster Resilience in the Classroom

1. Trust – Building genuine and authentic relationships

2. Safety – Creating physical, emotional and psychological safe environments

3. Predictability – Establishing and maintaining structures, routines and transitions

4. Choices – Offering multiple options

5. Regulation – Teaching and modeling the ability to calm self

6. Support – Teaching and modeling, not punishing

3/5/2020

14

For additional information, please contact:

Elena Jimenezelena.jimenez@lausd.net

Laura Zefflaura.zeff@lausd.net