Elizabeth Swaby

Having a trauma sensitive learning environment is important for everyone, students, teachers, co-workers, admin, etc. I work hard to make my classroom as welcoming as I can. I am working on identifying triggers early and avoiding them with students and friends.

Everyone responds to trauma differently. Impacts of trauma vary greatly, but can include physical, social, emotional, and behavioral impacts. Trauma also greatly impacts the brain and how it develops in teens.

I learned about the 4 F's of trauma response. I was familiar with the freeze, flight, fight responses, but hadn't heard of the fawn response before.  I've seen and experienced the fawn response before. Now I know the name!

Trauma and PTSD can both have great impacts on quality of life, especially if left untreated. As educators, we do not have to treat them, but identifying possible need for treatment is helpful. Educators are also Mandated Reporter for abuse.

I agree that safety is always the number on concern. It is good to remember that safety things may seem obvious and second nature to use as adults yet our students need reminded of what and WHY. My students do much better with remembering the what when they understand the reason behind it.

I've done a lot of research into Trauma Informed Care and PBIS. I think these are healthy approaches to take with our students. Above all else, value the relationships with students.

Having a mentor is so important! Every new employee, teacher or not, CTE or not should be given a mentor.

We have an advisory council, but now I feel like we should be doing so much more with it!

I can see how thr transition from industry to the classroom would he challenging for someone. What is appropriate and inappropriate in a classroom setting working with minors is vastly different than most careers/industries.

I enjoyed the brief history of CTE and learning who Carls Perkins was. I've referred to Perkins funding a lot, but didn't know the meaning behind the name or who the man was. I look forward to learning more about the career clusters.

Engagement is a constant struggle when teaching high school. It varies so much from student to student and class to class. I agree that making the information applicable and relevant to students helps. Forming relationships with students also helps a lot. The saying goes, "They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." 

One of my biggest struggles teaching high school is helping students develop self-regulation. I think this is a big part of engagement. When students can successfully self-regulate, they can control their engagement even in activities and learning that doesn't interest them. We… >>>