Promoting Resilience In The Classroom

Use trauma-informed strategies to give students the skills and support they need to succeed in school and life Nearly half of all children have been exposed to at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE), such as poverty, divorce, neglect, homelessness, substance abuse, domestic violence, or parent incarceration. These students often enter school with behaviors that don’t blend well with the typical school environment. How can a school community come together and work as a whole to establish a healthy social-emotional climate for students and the staff who support them? This workbook-style resource shows K-12 educators how to make a whole-school change, where strategies are integrated from curb to classroom. Readers will learn how to integrate trauma-informed strategies into daily instructional practice through expanded focus on: The different experiences and unique challenges of students impacted by ACEs in urban, suburban, and rural schools, including suicidal tendencies, cyberbullying, and drugs Behavior as a form of communication and how to explicitly teach new behaviors How to mitigate trauma and build innate resiliency through a read, reflect, and respond model Let this book be the tool that helps your teams move students away from the school-to-prison pipeline and toward a life rich with educational and career choices. "I cannot think of a book more needed than this one. It gives us the tools to support our students who have the most need while practicing the self-care necessary to continue to serve them." —Lydia Adegbola, Chair of English Department New Rochelle High School, NY "This book highlights the impact of trauma on children and the adults who work with them, while providing relevant and practical strategies to understand and address it through reflective practices." —Marine Avagyan, Director, Curriculum and Instruction Saugus Union School District, Sunland, CA

Resilience is a set of qualities that enable children to adapt and transform, to overcome risk and adversity, and to develop social competence, problem-solving skills, autonomy and a sense of purpose. For children and young people it is as vital to possess these qualities in school environments as in the family and the community at large. This handbook for teachers and educators explores ways of nurturing resilience in vulnerable students. It proposes a new, positive way of thinking about schools as institutions that can foster cognitive and socio-emotional competence in all students. Individual chapters examine effective practices in schools and classrooms, and assess a range of classroom processes, such as engagement, inclusion, collaboration and prosocial behaviour. The author makes use of case studies throughout to bring to life classroom activities and concrete strategies that will promote best practice for enhancing student resilience, and offers a framework that can be adapted to the existing nature, culture and needs of each individual school community and its members. Promoting Resilience in the Classroom is a valuable resource for educational practitioners as well as educational officers and policy makers engaged in school development and educational improvement.

Consistency, connection, and compassion are the cornerstones to helping students choose and practice successful behaviors and coping skills. Bolstering Student Resilience illustrates what this looks like in action. Drawing from classroom experience, the authors demystify the buzzwords to keep you focused on the right work. Explore research that supports the why behind this work, then dive into specific strategies you can use immediately. Create predictable, safe classrooms by establishing clear structures for routines, acknowledgment, and discipline. Set limits and boundaries in the classroom while building skills through relationships. Allow flexibility and emotional space for students--particularly those with pronounced social, emotional, or behavioral needs. Discover an approach to SEL that works across all frameworks and initiatives. Study the supportive discipline framework to replace detrimental behaviors with prosocial skills. Give feedback that supports consistency and builds connections. Provide support that matches a behavior's function. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Understanding Student Risk Factors Chapter 2: Using Universal Practices to Promote Consistency Chapter 3: Giving Feedback to Support Consistency and Build Connection Chapter 4: Creating Classrooms That Support Connection Chapter 5: Employing Discipline That Ensures Consistency Chapter 6: Adjusting Discipline for Compassion Chapter 7: Using Data Effectively to Tie It All Together Chapter 8: Helping Students With Ongoing Needs Epilogue References and Resources Index

The Hugging Tree tells the story of a little tree growing all alone on a cliff, by a vast and mighty sea. Through thundering storms and the cold of winter, the tree holds fast. Sustained by the natural world and the kindness and compassion of one little boy, eventually the tree grows until it can hold and shelter others. A Note to Parents and Caregivers by Elizabeth McCallum, PhD, provides more information about resilience, and guidelines for building resilience in children.

A practical framework to avoid burnout and keep great teachers teaching Onward tackles the problem of educator stress, and provides a practical framework for taking the burnout out of teaching. Stress is part of the job, but when 70 percent of teachers quit within their first five years because the stress is making them physically and mentally ill, things have gone too far. Unsurprisingly, these effects are highest in difficult-to-fill positions such as math, science, and foreign languages, and in urban areas and secondary classrooms—places where we need our teachers to be especially motivated and engaged. This book offers a path to resiliency to help teachers weather the storms and bounce back—and work toward banishing the rain for good. This actionable framework gives you concrete steps toward rediscovering yourself, your energy, and your passion for teaching. You’ll learn how a simple shift in mindset can affect your outlook, and how taking care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally is one of the most important things you can do. The companion workbook helps you put the framework into action, streamlining your way toward renewal and strength. Cultivate resilience with a four-part framework based on 12 key habits Uncover your true self, understand emotions, and use your energy where it counts Adopt a mindful, story-telling approach to communication and community building Keep learning, playing, and creating to create an environment of collective celebration By cultivating resilience in schools, we help ensure that we are working in, teaching in, and leading organizations where every child thrives, and where the potential of every child is recognized and nurtured. Onward provides a step-by-step plan for reigniting that spark.

From the author of Mindfulness for Teachers, a guide to supporting trauma-exposed students. Fully half the students in U.S. schools have experienced trauma, violence, or chronic stress. In the face of this epidemic, it falls increasingly to teachers to provide the adult support these students need to function in school. But most educators have received little training to prepare them for this role. In her new book, Tish Jennings—an internationally recognized leader in the field of social and emotional learning—shares research and experiential knowledge about the practices that support students' healing, build their resilience, and foster compassion in the classroom. In Part I, Jennings describes the effects of trauma on body and mind, and how to recognize them in students' behavior. In Part II, she introduces the trauma-sensitive practices she has implemented in her work with schools. And in Part III, she connects the dots between mindfulness, compassion, and resilience. Each chapter contains easy-to-use, practical activities to hone the skills needed to create a compassionate learning environment.

Investigates the language learning, multiple literacy development, and schooling and community experiences of the Somali population in Minnesota - a community which is Muslim, refugee, and under-schooled Brings together five years of interdisciplinary research, drawing upon theories from the fields of applied linguistics, second language acquisition, education, and sociology Uses a range of epistemological frames to explore central and contemporary problems that tie language learning to racialized, religious, and gendered identities Argues for the centrality of socio-political contexts in language learning and for the integration of advocacy and research

This open access book follows the development of the Building Resilience in Teacher Education (BRiTE) project across Australia and internationally. Drawing on the success of this project and the related research collaborations that have since emerged, it highlights the importance of cultivating resilience at various stages of teachers’ careers. Divided into three sections, the book includes conceptual, empirical and applied chapters, designed to introduce readers to the field of research, provide empirical evidence and showcase innovative applications. The respective chapters illustrate the ways in which teacher resilience can be enhanced in a variety of contexts, and address specific learning activities, case studies, resources and strategies, student feedback and applied outcomes. They also consider future directions including cross-cultural applications and the use of technologies such as augmented reality. The book will appeal to researchers, teacher educators and teachers, as well as those interested in supporting the cultivation and ongoing development of professional resilience for pre-service and practicing teachers.

In eight concise chapters, the authors show how caring people in an educational setting can foster resiliency in themselves, in the classroom, and among individual children. Also provided is a broad range of activities that have been tried in school and community settings, and which provide assessment and evaluations tools with which to monitor the process of changing schools to enhance protective factors in the lives of students and teachers. --foreword, p. ix.