Season 8 Episode 123
Check out this episode to strengthen your understanding and implementation of trauma informed practices in the classroom.
Show Notes:
Episode Summary:
Today we are diving into an import topic, trauma informed practices. There are a lot of misunderstandings about this topic, and about what trauma informed practices actually are (and are not). We are not experts in this area, so we called in someone who is. Our guest, Lee Johnson will share his knowledge and experiences in helping others in this work, which he calls, “doing right by others.”
Whether you have had a lot of training in this area, and your experiences both personally and professionally are deep and wide, or whether you are new to learning about trauma informed practices or just muddling through trying to figure it all out, today’s episode will give you some new insights. We also know that if your district is working on trauma informed practices, this is an episode you will want to share with others.
In this episode:
In this episode, we provide a summary of the conversation and a list of related resources. For the best experience, we recommend listening to the episode.
Introduction:
Welcome, we’re glad you are joining us today. Our guest today is Lee Johnson.
Lee is driven to help educators and organizations create environments and interactions that meet the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of all in the educational setting. Lee draws from a wide variety of experiences and perspectives. Lee has worked with children and their families in the juvenile and family courts, a residential treatment and private special education school setting, and in public schools. Prior to working in higher education his path in education has included being a paraeducator, special educator, behavior strategist, and strategist teacher leader. Lee is currently pursuing his doctorate in trauma-informed educational practices to fuel his work of doing right by humans.
Opening:
Lee opens up by sharing his experience in moving from being a para-educator to being a teacher. He was working in a residential school system. At his interview, he was asked what he knew about trauma informed practices and he realized he knew nothing. That was the beginning of his learning about trauma informed principals. From there he went into special education and was able to build a behavioral education program from the ground up. It was a success and the district decided to implement the program system wide.
In the midst of this work, his doctor accidentally found that he had a brain aneurism. He had open brain surgery. This led to introspection about his life and meaningful work.
He discovered a quote by Picasso, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away,” He was determined to positively impact as many people as possible in doing work that matters. This became is focus and he became intentional about trauma informed practices. He was put in positions to help others understand these practices as well, and that continues to be his focus today.
The Inspired Life
Lee’s experience comes from the same place as something we often talk about on the podcast and a goal for us, to live an inspired life. It means being very intentional about what we do and why we do it. it is also about understanding our values and working with intention to live and work with our values. His work in intentionally focusing on trauma informed practices is connected to his ” inspired life”.
What is trauma informed practice?
Lee shares the definition of trauma informed care by sharing the definition from SAMHSA, which we link to below.
Trauma affects physical, mental, social, emotional, or spiritual well being.
It is important to remember that trauma is subjective to the individual. It is how the person and their body experiences trauma. It also affects learning and school behavior because of the neurological changes caused by the trauma.
4 assumptions
- Program organization or system that is trauma informed, realizes the widespread impact and understands paths for recovery
- Recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families and staff- and others involved with the system, it includes everyone involved
- Responds by fully integrating the response to trauma into policies, procedures, and practices, it is with a universal approach, an entire school setting, not just identified by a special teacher or room.
- Seeks to actively resist re-traumatization, this included understanding which practices are detrimental to trauma recovery
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network suggests 1 in 4 students have experienced trauma.
Follett and Harris 5 values
- Safety: Safety may be physical, social, and emotional.
- Trustworthiness: Build trust with students, families, and coworkers. Follow through with what you say, and build consistency.
- Collaboration: Have a student centered focus, understand students perspective, and use discipline within relationships.
- Choice: Offer students choices, for example giving some autonomy about work, seating etc.
- Empowerment: Teach them to advocate for themselves, teach SEL skills, culture and gender, and embed student voices. Power has often been taken away, think about ways to give them back some power.
Consider those values and compare them to your own values and the values or mission statement of your school or district. You can see how they do or do not align.
Understand how students get their needs met. It is a relationship approach, bringing your values into your interactions.
What do you think people misunderstand most about trauma-informed practices?
Misconceptions live in the gaps of knowledge.
Misconception: We should identify students who experience trauma and then give them programs. This is incorrect, we need to go back to the universal support idea. In educational terms, think of this a Tier 1 process. It is not just a discipline issue. Many times, students with trauma withdraw, they are not acting out or causing behavioral issues. They may have learned to become very compliant to survive. A disciplinary program will not meet the needs all students with trauma.
Instead, we should approach everyone with “do no harm” skills. We don’t start with a discipline program. We start with understanding.
Misconception: “Students have no consequences.” This response from people is often about punishment. Punishment and accountability are different. There are different forms of accountability. Skill building is a part of the accountability. When students feel safe in their environment, they may not move to negative behavior patterns.
We aren’t looking to excuse behavior or lower academic standards. We are looking to understand where students are. Students can recognize that something was wrong and work to make it right. That is learning of a skill that is a form of accountability, not just punishment. Schools who have found success with trauma informed practices do not have excessive behavioral issues.
We can’t lower expectations, because students will feel that they are not worthy and not capable. Students with trauma may already feel unworthy or uncapable. We can’t reinforce that idea. Students need to know that we have high expectations for them.
Your Own Assessment Around Trauma Informed Practices
We always talk about work life and home life on this podcast.
Assess how this conversation aligns with you. What kind of human to you want to be? Assess your own trauma. Assess your SEL skills and your own personal values and align them the ideas of trauma informed practices.
There are many activities to do personal values assessments. It is valuable to do a value assessment first, and then realign your practices with your values. When your practices are not aligned with your values, there is often stress. Many of our recent guests on the podcasts have talked about the importance of values alignment.
Conclusion:
Lee, if people would walk away with one main idea from today, what would you want that idea to be?
It is really important to understand how trauma informed practices are defined and that there are principles that drive it. Misconceptions live in the gaps in knowledge. When they are shared, it can promote incorrect ideas and practices.
Focusing on the values of safety, trustworthiness, collaboration, choice and empowerment is always a good focus. Understand how those things align with your values.
Recap:
We hope our conversation today has clarified some of your ideas around trauma informed practices. We know that this is a deep topic and that we barely touched the surface. We are diving this conversation into two episodes, so stay tuned next week for trauma informed practices Part 2.
See the notes below about Lee’s recommended resources!
Quote:
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
Picasso
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Connect with Lee at leejohnson.net
Website: https:www.inspiredtogetherteachers.com
Instagram: Inspired-Together-Teachers
Facebook: Inspired Together Teachers
Inspired Together Teachers Network Facebook Group
Linked In: Inspired Together Learning
More About Inspired Together Teachers:
Are you a teacher struggling to balance your best work with your best life?
If you are dedicated and caring but often overwhelmed and exhausted, join us at Inspired Together Teachers. We’ll give you inspiration, strategies and tips that help you navigate life’s challenges as a stronger, more confident, and more joy filled person, both in and out of the classroom.
Inspired Together Teachers will give you practical tools to experience more of what matters most in your life.
Co-hosts Paula Schmidt and Michele Vosberg are award winning educators with the experience and skills to help teachers thrive in life and work. They’ve taught at all levels, worked with thousands of teachers, and conducted workshops around the world. They are also the authors of the #1 best-selling book The Inspired Teachers Journal: A Weekly Guide to Becoming Your Best Self.
Paula and Michele would love to have you to join them on their quest to live inspired lives.
