Strategies for Ameliorating the Effects of Trauma in the Classroom

Prepared by Karen Gross

Overview:

Person-made and nature-made disasters are affecting our nation (including Puerto Rico and surrounding islands) in profound ways (“Big T trauma”). From floods to fires to hurricanes to tornados, shootings to intentional car/truck crashes into crowds, families have lost loved ones, individuals have been injured; there have also been both personal and real property destruction/damage. Schools have been closed and school supplies have been destroyed.

In addition to Big T trauma, many young people (and adults too) experience trauma, toxic stress and abuse in their day-to-day lives (“small t trauma). The label “small t trauma” does not mean the impact of negative events in one’s home or community (alcoholism; physical harm; rape; incest; drug abuse; shootings; depression or other psychological disorder) is small or unimportant. Indeed, small t trauma is profound and continuous and its effects affect the brain hard wiring of infants and children.

We can add to both defined Big and small t trauma the tensions we see in the media today regarding our nation and its leadership: incivility, sexual abuse, threats of war, risks of deportation, misuse of funds, unusual behaviors involving other people and other nations.

Here’s the more positive news: there are strategies that can improve the lives of those affected by Big T and small t trauma and to diminish stress and harm they cause. And, given the plasticity of our brains (and the growing developments and awareness in the fields of neurobiology and neuropsychology), we can and do emerge from trauma with quality “work-arounds” and those affected develop positive qualities – often displayed in classrooms -- that are often unseen or ignored or mischaracterized by school personnel.

The eight strategies presented here are designed to enable the teachers and administrators of K-12 schools (colleges too can benefit from these approaches) to improve the likelihood of success of students who have experienced or are experiencing the undeniable threats of trauma, toxic stress and abuse. Following these strategies are a set of readings that can assist educators in understanding responses to trauma (including Adverse Childhood Experience Scores – ACEs) and the rationale for moving from a deficit to a strength based-model for educating our students. This list is not all-inclusive but instead, is akin to a “starter-set” for educators in many locations across our nation.

Both the strategies and accompanying links are designed to emphasize that young people did not ask to be born into troubled families; nor are they responsible for the person-made and natural disasters affecting them. It is our job as teachers and educators to help these students navigate difficult waters and emerge with the potential for both personal and academic success. We need to move away from a focus on deficits and instead focus on strengths. We need to build “lasticity” – a new term that enables the suggestions below to be animated within schools and colleges.

Eight Specific Activities, Actions and Strategies (not ranked in order of importance):

  • When schools first re-open following a tragedy, one cannot and should not just “pick up” from where classrooms were before the shutdown. We cannot be messaging, “Please open your book to Chapter 4, page 22, where we were before we were so rudely interrupted two weeks ago.” Instead, we need to acknowledge Big T trauma and not hide from it. Disaster effects don’t disappear through silence.

How we re-open schools and how we handle the transition from closure to opening is not a one-size fits all approach. (it is worth recognizing that we handle transitions poorly generally – transitions from school-to-school; from vacation to re-opening; from tragedy to recovery).

Consider these possibilities: teachers can say something about the pleasure they (the teachers) feel about welcoming students back and the joy that can come from learning together; teachers can share that the entire class will be covering different material from that which they were covering pre-disaster and present the new materials; teachers can create a pre-announced time later in the day for student private reflections (whether through writing or music or art).

  • When teachers see/feel tension in the classroom, they can try activities that adjust (re-set) the autonomic nervous system of their students. Oft-times without awareness, students (teachers too!) who have experienced trauma (Big or small t) can feel the trauma bodily (tightening in chest; stomach upsets; shortness of breath; headaches; appetite changes; moodiness). Activities include: playing music and having students write on paper with both hands; have students each hold an ice-cube on a paper towel resting in their hands with the message to watch the cube melt, focusing on how it feels and looks and even sounds; have students get up from their seats and move their bodies (ideally to music) up and down, left and right and stretching toward sky; have students trace each of their hands (with their opposite hand) and then look at their hand drawings and decorating them with crayons or stars or sparkles.
  • Produce a bowl (large) filled with Kimochis (emotion labeled stuffed structures – linked here: or other evidence of emotions (stones with words; sea glass with words; polished metal pieces with emotions etched on them). Let students select emotions or find emotions that match their own, recognizing explicitly that they can change their choices later in the day or the next day. For the record, kimochis benefit students of all ages and stages. And there is a value to the tactile nature of any of these items – so it is both emotional recognition and tactile relaxation.

The theory: there is value in allowing students to see both the importance of emotions (and that teachers value them too by creating the bowl filled with “tangible emotions” so to speak) and the fact that emotions do not need to be hidden from within themselves or perhaps, if ready, from others who can be trusted.

  • In the context of Big T trauma, teachers can create activities that are “outside” community directed, enabling the students in their class to do something for others, including those affected by a disaster. That can be a card, collection of food and clothing, baking, rebuilding effort (literally helping rebuild), creating a shared art project that engages community members – paint a wall, create a tapestry or a quilt. It is worth recognizing that “outer” directed activity has a mirror neuron benefit – by helping others one helps oneself.
  • Also in the context of Big T trauma, teachers can conduct shared class or school activities that bond folks within an institution together in the face of a disaster/tragedy. These can vary but they can include publishing students, teacher and administrator writings or drawings; creation of a song or dance (or both combined) including use of instruments that are handheld like sticks or castanets or drums; use of video to create an oral history of reactions and responses. All of these internal efforts can then be shared with the “outside” world – whether in person or via social media.
  • Also in the context of Big T trauma, there can be the creation of some permanent memorial within the school that reflects the disaster and the losses. The Pentagon did this post 9/11 and it is stunning. It can be tiles that are put on a wall or a planting of trees or the painting of events and reactions. The point is not to hide the disaster but to recognize it and identify pathways forward.
  • For small t trauma, a needed step is reciprocity: engaging students with adults who understand them and who they are and what they are experiencing. To this end, teachers and administrators need to know who their students are beyond test scores and rumors within a school or reports within a student’s permanent record. Initially, reciprocity may be one-sided (reciprocity with silence or inaction on one side) – with the teacher or administrator creating a comfortable, non-anxiety based approach that is a permanent “open door” for students in need.
  • Educational institutions need to change their disciplinary approaches, many of which are punitive in nature and uniformly applied. I get the value of consistency and fairness. But, for students who have experienced trauma (Big and small t) punishment is often not the preferred approach; instead, we need to turn bad actions that “normally” would require punishment into teachable moments – understanding why the student acting as s/he did and then crafting a resolution that moves the student forward. This involves enabling a changed choice architecture for affected students

Selected Bibliography:

Breakeaway Learners(defining lasticity and its component parts and implementation steps)by Karen Gross (Columbia Teachers College Press 2017) See too: where lasticity is defined.

Afterwar (dealing with moral injury and recovery) by Nancy Sherman (Oxford University Press 2015)