Tagged With "Disconnected"

A few weeks ago, I went into my son Chase’s class for 
tutoring. I’d e-mailed Chase’s teacher one evening and said, 'Chase keeps telling me that this stuff you’re sending home 
is math—but I’m not sure I believe him. Help, please.' She 
e-mailed right back and said, 'No problem! I can tutor Chase after school anytime.' And I said, 'No, not him. Me. He gets it. Help me.' And that’s how I ended up standing at a chalkboard in an empty fifth-grade classroom while Chase’s teacher sat behind me,...

TROUBLED KIDS ARE DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR REGRETTABLE ABILITY TO ELICIT FROM OTHERS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT THEY NEED. (L. Tobin ) Underneath their surface behaviors your most difficult students are young people in pain. Painful emotions including negative inner states like fear, anger, sadness and shame. Painful thoughts including worry, distrust, guilt, hatred and helplessness covered up by defense mechanisms like denial, blame, and rationalizations to cover the pain. And of course, pain...

Laura - thank you so much for re-posting this blog. I turn to it again and again. The part about how every outward act of violence begins with inner loneliness is a kernel of truth that feels like the very reason we talk about the importance of relationship building, and asking questions like what happened to you? What's going on at home? I sent this to a handful of teachers at my kids' elementary school as well as to principals in the district I'm working with to support trauma informed...

You're welcome, Jennifer. I shared it here because I feel like the teacher described in the article "gets it" -- and it's at the heart of why I believe so many of us choose to gather here on ACN for sharing and discussion.

Congratulations on your impressively well-done addition to our understanding.

I love this! We're going to share it with all the teachers we serve - although Teach for America may find it a bit difficult as they were singled out as those who drop in and don't stay. Would you be willing to send me a version that doesn't name them directly? Each month we work with over 200 of their teachers and they are so genuine in their desire to connect with the students they work with and so eager to have strategies, I would love to be able to share this wonderful information with...

Hi Louise godbold. Hope this finds you well and thanks for the kind feedback. I too have some experience working with the young people in TFA. I admire their desire to do important work. My issue is not with them, it is with the design of what we are currently doing in some of America's most difficult places!! The students in these places need consistency of care and sustained relationships. To create this requires adults to build relationships with relationship resistant young people very...

Oh, I absolutely agree - it is far from ideal. However, we do have these young people - la creme de la creme of university grads - who are investing themselves in schools where there are many heroic teachers who provide inspirational modeling but also many teachers who are burnt out, and all of them working with the challenges of students as well as the system that further complicates and burdens. Given that these young people are in schools now, given that we have an opportunity to equip...

Louise Godbold... feel free to copy and past any of my posted work that may help. I would also like to suggest sharing more and more the idea of teaching as a vocation in these places rather then a short term feel good about yourself mission. I have been doing this work now for over 3 decades and what i am seeing in America's most desperate places will require much more!! These young people should really know what the research on resiliency says, what the basic idea of toxic levels of stress...

Please share a PSA link to help grow public awareness of the impacts of developmental trauma. There are so many of us who’ve never heard of the overpowering, life-long impacts. Click HERE for links designed to use in social media: https://lucidwitness.com/2016/...dex-to-lucidwitness/