This past Friday I went to an amazing workshop. I had a pro D day at school. She was phenomenal. I’ve taken a lot of work shops in truama and I know a lot about this topic. I continue to go so that I can be the best person in my classroom. So I know there are a lot of children that have trauma in their lives but the statics now wow are 60 – 70% of children showing up with emotional issues. No wonder our classrooms are hard and teachers are burning out.
Angela Murray was the speaker she’s also a writer of children’s books and she used to be a teacher and now is a counselor. She obviously had trauma in her life because she was real and raw and she knows. She started off by saying that we are all magic and that we can build magic relationships with our students. You’ve heard me say before that I’m drawn to the students that need lots of help and those that just need to know that you love them no matter what. I was one of those students so I understand and I understand why they push you away first so that they don’t get hurt. They don’t want to push you away but it’s to try and stop getting hurt yet again.
She talked about building relationships with children who have truama. I always tell people that if they don’t trust you, you have nothing. I use humor in my classroom a lot because children with trauma don’t smile much. The child in my class that often would scowl at me or put their tongue out at me. We were in the sensory room and they were standing behind me and they were breathing heavily. I asked them are you Darth Vader? They smiled because they knew who he was. Then this very simple game came out of that where I heard this child laugh. I had never heard them laugh in fact they giggled. That was the start of that trust relationship and now this child smiles when they see me and tells me that they love me and blows me kisses when they are going home.
Trust is not always that simple. It can take time and patience. It was a good reminder for me to remember that when a child is elevated that telling them what they need to do is not the right time. They also cannot learn anything because they are in survival brain and that nothing else matters. I’m going to create a calming kit for some of the children in my classroom when they feel that out of control feeling. Angela also talked about breathing and how this helps calm down your nervous system.
I’m going to look into getting Angela’s books for our school. So great for Students with big emotions.
https://www.angelamurphyauthor.ca/wonder-pup
Remember no matter what you do in your life that you are magic.
Beauty from Ashes. 