School: Mariano Azuela Elementary School “Boundless Readers”
Text: The Trauma-Sensitive Classroom: Building Resilience with Compassionate Teaching By Patricia A. Jennings
Study Group Leaders: Maria Cintora, Dawn Meyer
Study Group Members: Barbara Krupa, Lucina Rangel
Goal: To create a compassionate and learning environment using trauma sensitive practices to build mindfulness, compassion, and resilience.
The text was divided into 3 sections: Understanding Trauma in Schools, Addressing Trauma in Schools, and Building Resilience with Mindful Compassion. Our group spent time reading and discussing the book. The book talked about ways to better support our students when they are facing trauma or are having problems. We learned to have compassion for our students. We showed students how to be mindful and to be able to build their own resilience. Being in the study group helped us understand that building trust relationships is important to address trauma. It also helped us practice with children who are exposed to trauma.
This book made us more understanding of our students’ feelings. This study group also made us aware of how to support other teachers that have trauma. Our goal evolved to creating a safe environment for our students. We want our students to know that they can trust us. We want our students to know that while they are with us they will be ok and that they will not be judged. Instead they will be supported, learn to be resilient, and not to let one event make them feel as if they cannot achieve their goals.
We had a teacher from 4th grade, one from 7th grade , an 8th grade Diverse learner teacher and a computer teacher in our group.
