TRRE Faculty and Residents Explore Social Emotional Learning

TRRE partner districts are covering social-emotional and trauma informed practice from many different perspectives using a variety of programs. In order to more effectively work with our partner districts, the TRRE management team, faculty and residents are committed to exploring the social-emotional learning (SEL) initiatives happening around New Hampshire. Our goals are to: 1) integrate our understanding of SEL with our partner districts’ needs and priorities in this area to deepen our partnership; and 2) understand SEL initiatives around the state to inform the residents’ experience in their classrooms.

Last summer, TRRE residents began to read Lost at School, by Dr. Ross Greene.¹ Greene offers insight into traditional school discipline with alternative strategies (Collaborative and Proactive Solutions) for working with the most behaviorally challenging students. Faculty on the TRRE management team also read selections from Lost at School, and Helping Children Succeed by Paul Tough.² Helping Children Succeed examines adverse childhood experiences and their impact on children’s development and school performance. These readings facilitated discussion to identify the start of a shared understanding within TRRE about what we mean when we say SEL.

On October 11^th Pittsfield School District (SAU 51) invited TRRE faculty and residents to a day-long professional development on trauma informed care. Presented by the SAU 51 and Riverbend Community Health, residents attended sessions covering the neurobiological aspects of trauma, anxiety in the classroom and de-escalation strategies for teachers. TRRE faculty and residents participated in the morning sessions and spent the latter half of the day reflecting on the material as a group.

Resident Eliza Braunstein reflected on her experience with SEL to date.

The TRRE program has taught me that 'kids do well if they can [do well]' (Dr. Ross Greene). When there is a mismatch between our expectations and their performance, we as teachers can use the Universal Design for Learning guidelines to adjust our expectations to fit their capabilities and/or we can use the Collaborative Proactive Solutions model to identify and boost their lagging skills so that they will have the capacity to meet our expectations.

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At Pittsfield’s Professional Development (PD), we learned that, quite often, children who experience trauma – which is to say, a 'deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope' (Karen Onderko³) – may experience high stress, emotional dysregulation, delayed development, and uncomfortable social conditions that impact their ability to perform at the level of their unaffected peers or to even focus on learning in the classroom. But here’s the good news: we can help.​

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By talking about trauma and recognizing unwanted behaviors or anxieties as the manifestation of an overwhelmed child, we stop thinking about these kids as damaged and start thinking about them as kids who need our help to succeed – just like any other child in the school. And by acknowledging the effects that trauma can have, we can counter those effects by demonstrating acceptance at school; accommodating for cognitive delays; and creating a safe, consistent environment. We can even go further by supporting basic needs for the community (e.g., food, clothing) through school family rooms and by teaching social-emotional coping skills that will help these children self-regulate beyond our walls. During the event at Pittsfield, we learned about the 'low and slow' approach in working with traumatized students and discussed how a calm, centered teacher with a 'ready to help' mindset can truly make all the difference in the world to these kids.​
(Braunstein - December 2019)

Exploration of SEL topics deepened as residents and members of the management team attended the annual Lives in the Balance conference on November 15th in Portland, Maine. Lives in the Balance was founded by Dr. Ross Greene, originator of the Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) approach and author of Lost at School. The Annual Lives in the Balance Summit shares ideas about how behaviorally challenging kids should be understood and about how to treat them in ways that are more compassionate and effective. Residents continue to reference Lost at School in their teaching seminar. Over the next few months the TRRE team will continue to examine our perspectives on social-emotional learning and plans to gather TRRE partner perspectives at the Advisory Board Meeting on January 16, 2020.

References:

¹ Greene, R. W. (2008). Lost at School: Why our kids with behavioral challenges are falling through the cracks and how we can help them. New York: Scribner.

² Tough, P. (2016) Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why. https://paultough.com/helping/pdf/Helping-Children-Succeed-Paul-Tough.pdf?pdf=hcs-pdf-landing

³ Karen Onderko : https://integratedlistening.com/blog/author/karen/