Building Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Your Guide to Creating Safe, Supportive Learning Environments for All Students

by Jen Alexander

In the United States, at least one in four youth experiences trauma severe enough to negatively affect their school success.* Give hope and help to these students with this reader-friendly how-to guide, your springboard for building responsive, trauma-sensitive preK–12 schools.


Drawing on her extensive experience as a school counselor, trainer, and mother, trauma expert Jen Alexander delivers a comprehensive framework for building a safe, supportive school environment that helps all students learn and thrive. You'll start with an evidence-based introduction to the profound impact of trauma on a child's development, attachment, and behavior. Then you'll get an effective multi-tier system of support (MTSS) for developing a trauma-sensitive learning environment, including both universal strategies (Tier 1) and more intensive interventions (Tier 2 and Tier 3) for students who need more support. Compelling anecdotes and sample scripts illuminate challenges and solutions, and the included forms and worksheets are valuable tools for helping educators build the mindset and skills necessary for becoming trauma-sensitive. With this engaging, highly practical guide to what works and why, your school team will gain insights and develop action plans that make a real difference in the lives of all kids, including our most vulnerable youth.


DISCOVER HOW TO:
make five key shifts in the way you view and approach students, so that you’re better equipped to support them

work together to prioritize resilience by actively putting relationships first in your school
implement universal instructional strategies that foster safety, connection, regulation, and learning for all students
use special supports, supplemental instruction, and coaching when universal strategies aren't enough

collaborate effectively with families and colleagues to meet each student's needs
incorporate restorative discipline practices that focus on restitution, not retribution
create a personalized self-care plan to promote wellness and reduce the effects of job-related stress


PRACTICAL MATERIALS: Creative activities for teachers, powerful case stories, sample dialogues and scripts for educators and counselors, reflection and brainstorming worksheets, downloadable forms, and templates and handouts for use with students.


Build resilience by helping all students
Feel safe
Be connected
Get regulated
Learn


* National Child Traumatic Stress Network Schools Committee, 2008

Genres: Education

248 pages, Paperback

Published January 30, 2019

About the author

About Jen Alexander MA NCC SB-RPT

As an experienced educator, trauma expert, engaging national presenter, and author, Jen Alexander believes that we can make a positive difference with kids - one relationship at a time, which is why she is a passionate leader in the movement to build trauma-sensitive schools. Her new book Building Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Your Guide to Creating Safe, Supportive Learning Environments for All Students is now available.

Want to learn more about how Ms. Jen can help you help others? Check out her resources using the information below. Together, we can build trauma-sensitive schools, help all students learn at high levels, and promote resilience. In doing so, we will cultivate hope for all kids, entire communities, and one another as professionals. Join the movement today!

Reviews

[Lisa Gusewelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book ranks up there with my all-time favorite teaching books: Transforming Talk into Text by Thomas McCann, Teaching Arguments by Jennifer Fletcher, and Diving Deep into Nonfiction by Jeffrey Wilhelm. It also works really well with methods discussed from Dr. Karp's Happiest Toddler on the Block and Becky A. Bailey's Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline. And, can I also say, that it ranks in my top favorite leadership books, too, with Jocko Willink's Extreme Ownership and Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power.

What is special about this book is that while it is focusing on social-emotional learning, it also encompasses teaching, relationship-building, leadership, and ownership. Some of the books that I have read so far on PBIS have really been pie-in-the-sky visions and there was a certain honesty lacking in the development of the students, teachers, and schools that were illustrated. With this book, the examples showed both what it looks like when the practice works and how it looks like and how to respond when it does not work. I was not left asking, "Well, sure, it worked in this case, but what if...?" because Jen Alexander clearly confronted the what ifs and recognized the imperfection of humans.

I also appreciated that this book focused on redemption in more than a restorative justice lens. With restorative justice, there is much pressure put on the victim to find common ground and to provide a redemptive path to the perpetrator. That is not the case in this book, though it is an option that can be taken IF THE VICTIM WANTS IT AND IS NOT BEING PERSUADED INTO IT BASED ON SCHOOL PRACTICES. This book encourages students to set healthy boundaries to keep themselves physically and mentally safe. There are more avenues for redemption for the perpetrator than needing the victim to play a role in the perpetrator's redemption. That seems mentally healthy to me and is an accurate vision for what we want students to understand prior to developing their adult relationships.

This book was repetitive (that is probably why Dr. Karp came into my mind), and at first, I found myself thinking that I could be through reading the book if there was not so much repetition, but then I realized that the book was mentally coaching my brain. I now have memorized the 4 essentials (safe, connect, regulate, learn) and can tell you that relationship-building and save yourself first are the top premises of this book. So I see this repetitive nature as a good brain training model for those who read it as well as the cohesive nature between the chapters. The top priorities remain the top priorities.

I highly recommend this book for those who are interested in implementing PBIS, Restorative Justice PBIS, and trauma-informed/sensitive school training. This book has a great deal to offer, though it does not offer a blueprint for building schools (that's the only real detractor, but that can be fixed by looking at Chicago Public Schools' restorative justice plan as well as the research article by Chafouleas, Johnson, Overstreet, and Santos (2015) focusing on a blueprint for trauma-informed delivery for schools).

[Felicia Finley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to start by saying that there were some incredible take aways from this book. Alexander offers some awesome strategies that can be implemented within the classroom proactively to help identify and process emotions, especially for elementary students. .....
As is the case with most books there were a couple things that I would critique.....
https://bookescapeblog.weebly.com/rev...

[Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource and full of helpful tools and information, especially the River of Feelings lesson and other strategies to encourage students to investigate and regulate their emotions. So many of us have trauma and without the awareness, we continue to spread it. Overall, a great book for all teachers to utilize.

[Maddi Spletter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of all the education books I was asked to read, this is one I did enjoy. It had story to go with the instruction along with answers and suggestions of what to do beyond just building a relationship with your students. I would recommend it for most teachers, especially in thinking about those students you have that slip through the cracks.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as part of my graduate classes working towards a master's degree in alternate education. I thoroughly enjoyed the anecdotes from "Pepper" and her family's lives. It helped me see a little bit into the reasoning behind my traumatized students' action. While this isn't something I would pick up to read on my own, it is interesting, informative and useful.

[Renee Mattson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been a great book to share with teachers in the field who are trying to prep for kids returning back to school after 5 months of Covid-19 trauma. With so much focus on teacher self care it also can help the teachers as they support each other through these tough times.

[Ian Napper · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really great book on ways to create trauma-sensitive environments for learning, at any level.

[Hayley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is just a rehash of a thousand other books, nothing in here blew my mind or was something new. Decidedly "meh."

[Shawn Robb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know it’s a technically a textbook, but I read it cover to cover and it counts. Very informative and one of the only textbooks I’ve really enjoyed reading.