This spring, I’m excited to be teaching an online class called Beyond the Buzzword: Deepening Knowledge & Practice of Trauma-Informed Education. It’s a 3-credit graduate course, fully online with three real-time video calls so we can connect and talk about our learning. 

In this class, I’m hoping to push past the “101-level” understanding of trauma-informed education and think critically about questions like these:

• How does identity intersect with trauma?
• How do we talk about trauma and does it matter? (For example -should we say “trauma-sensitive” or “trauma-informed”? Why?) 
• Can a school emphasize compliance and also be trauma-informed? 
• What can we learn from experts in the clinical field who have been doing this work for a long time? 
• What does trauma-informed school policy look like? 

I’m not the end-all expert on trauma and learning, and a lot of these questions don’t have straightforward answers. I’m hoping to cultivate a learning community through this course, developing our understanding together.

We’ll be guided by two excellent (and very different) texts: 

Troublemakers by Carla Shalaby will help us explore the connection between trauma, compliance, and freedom.

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce Perry will help us face the grim reality of child abuse and neglect and teach us about the connections between trauma, attachment, mental health, and the brain. 

I’ll also be sharing from the collection of articles, research, blog posts, and other resources I collect on various aspects of trauma-informed teaching. 

I hope that you’ll consider joining me for this learning experience, or passing this information along to an interested colleague or friend. Feel free to email me with any questions!