Dive Brief:
- The Changing Minds campaign, a partnership of the U.S. Department of Justice, Futures Without Violence and the Ad Council, emphasizes the impact caring teachers can have on children’s brains.
- EdSource reports brain development research shows caring adults can lower stress hormones in children’s brains and strengthen neural connections they need to maintain self-control and make the space for learning.
- The campaign emphasizes five “everyday gestures” that school staff members can practice every day to build strong, caring relationships with students suffering from trauma — listen, inspire, collaborate, comfort and celebrate — and it recommends calm, patience and support for struggling students.
Dive Insight:
Teachers and schools have the immense burden of digging through all the emotional baggage students bring to school to reach them and create opportunities for learning. Students struggling with hunger, housing insecurity, domestic violence, community violence, bullying and more have to overcome all of these barriers to learning to have a chance at success. And teachers have to figure out how to help them.
Mindfulness exercises are one way teachers can help their students control their behaviors and recognize where they are coming from. One important first step is framing student behavior. It is easy to see students not paying attention or disrupting class and take that at face value. But behavior problems that come out of fear or trauma must be recognized. A student who can’t pay attention Friday afternoon because he is worried about whether he’ll have enough food to make it through the weekend should be refocused responsibly. Professional development is critical to help teachers master these skills, which often are not natural reflexes.