Trauma Informed Education

Catalog description

This course is vital for all educators. Whether we are aware or not, students are living with trauma, violence and chronic stress. In addition, educators are also living with trauma, violence and/or chronic stress in their own lives. It seems almost impossible to escape some level of trauma in our own lives or to experience it vicariously through the lives of our students. This course will focus on creating an in-depth understanding of trauma, violence and chronic stress in general. This course will then move to focus on how trauma, violence and chronic stress specifically impact our schools, and most importantly our students. We will acknowledge the diverse populations we work with and how trauma is not one size fits all. Developing a clear understanding of the diverse learners we work with is a key component of educating traumatized students. This course will explore the strengths based approach, as a vital component to teaching our most vulnerable students. We will focus on proactive strategies by learning the signs and symptoms of trauma. The course will conclude with the opportunity for class participants to walk away having created their own robust toolkits filled with rich materials for creating a trauma informed classroom