As a teacher, you’ve dedicated your time, energy and focus to these kids. You stay late after school to help those struggling to understand the lessons. You wake up early to make sure you get there and get the lesson plans in order. Then there’s the trouble makers…
Students do a number of things to disrupt the class…
- Question and argue
- Non-compliance
- Verbal abuse
- Defiance/confrontation
- Emotionally charged aggression
Even though you’re frustrated, you remain calm and lay down your sentencing.
- Adjust the seating charts,
- Send them to the principles office
- suspension
It all seem like reasonable punishment. But what if you were told that our society has it all wrong? That your punitive punishment isn’t helping. And what if there was peer review research to back it all up?
Meet Jim Sporleder:
Jim Sporleder retired in 2014 as Principal of Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA. Under Jim’s leadership, Lincoln High School became a “Trauma Informed” school, gaining national attention due to a dramatic drop in out of school suspensions, increased graduation rates and the number of students going on to post-secondary education. These dramatic changes at Lincoln caught the attention of Jamie Redford, who spent a year filming the documentary, Paper Tigers, which tells the Lincoln story. The documentary was released at the May 2015 Seattle International Film Festival and received positive reviews. Jim is currently working as a trauma-informed coach / consultant as well as a trainer with the Children’s Resilience Initiative, based in Walla Walla. His travels as a consultant, keynote speaker, presenter and trainer have taken him all over the United States. Jim is married, has three daughters and five granddaughters. In his spare time, Jim enjoys fishing, hunting, but most of all spending time with family.
Questions to Consider:
Would you want to learn before you felt loved?
Would you believe that the system we’ve created is fundamentally broken?
What if you were told that even the most disruptive, misbehaved children have a chance to succeed?
They just need to be in the right physiological mental state. The learning state, not the triggered state.
With a trauma informed model, students will succeed, teachers will connect, principles will smile and everyone will feel the cultural shift and atmosphere adjust.
Trauma awareness can change our society as we know it. It can change so many lives for the better.
Lets give every child love before we ask them to learn.
A Note from Jim:
“I am passionate about sharing and training schools how to implement trauma informed strategies into their daily practice. The percentage of students impacted by toxic stressed environments is increasing and needs to be addressed. The research on Adverse Childhood Experiences…ACEs, along with the neuroscience, tells us that we need a “New Approach” in our schools with struggling students. A trauma informed model has a positive impact on all students, and positive outcomes with student behavior and achievement. Trauma awareness is building momentum across our nation and schools are beginning to look at a more effective manner in which to interact and keep students in school.”
Other resources recommended by Jim:
Children’s Resilience Initiative and their resources
Mission: Mobilizing the community through dialogue to radically reduce the number of adverse childhood experiences while building resilience and a more effective service delivery system.
An online resource Jim endorses for Parents, Schools and professionals.