Christy W. Bryce – Trauma-Informed Schools and Adverse Childhood Experiences Training

Outline

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES): The Hidden Public Health Emergency Affecting Schools

• The neurological and physiological impacts of toxic stress
• Trauma’s impact on kids’ development and futures
• Escalation cycle, toxic stress, and emotional dysregulation

Spot the Warning Signs of Trauma in Students

• How trauma impairs learning and impacts behavior
• How fight, flight, freeze looks in the classroom
• Physical symptoms to watch for
• Identify the “silent sufferer”

Trauma-Informed Practices for Schools and Classrooms: Establish Safety, Trust, Choice, Collaboration, and Empowerment

5 Ways to Build a Psychologically Safe Classroom

• Create calming areas in the classroom
• Build a classroom community
• Emotional check-ins, worksheets and activities
• How to offer choices so kids feel in control
• Schedules and routines that establish safety and normalcy

Challenging Behaviors Intervention Toolbox: Better Outcomes for Overreactive, Aggressive, and Avoidant Students

• What sets kids off? How to be a trigger detective
• Check in/check out for structure and accountability
• Better break interventions for avoidant students
• Executive functioning skills training for overreactive students
• Social stories to use when kids aren’t grasping expectations

Culturally Responsive Practices and Techniques: Support Sensitivity and Strengthen the School-Family Alliance

• Recognize our biases to better support cultural sensitivity
• Strategies for working with parents who’ve experienced trauma
• Strengthen the school-family alliance – support with families instead of to families

Trauma-Sensitive Approaches to Discipline and Corrective Action

• Building resilience – our kids can overcome!
• Leadership jobs that built competence and connectedness
• Discipline is a system: preventative, supportive, corrective
• Alternatives to suspension – keep kids in school and learning

Supports for Educators and Staff Who Experience Secondary Traumatic Stress

• Staff wellness – tap in/tap out
• Restorative circles for educators