Teachers often reflect on what the job entails. There has been many conversations across the motu of the different roles teachers have in their day - educator, mum/dad, nurse, psychologist, friend, mediator, seamstress, athlete, artist, judge, jury, writer, policeman...the list is endless.
We know as educators, the ability of a child to learn is determined by a number of things but where it starts for the teacher is in the well being and relationships they develop with each student in front of them. If students don't have these things sorted first, they probably wont meet their true potential.
Today our TOD focused on working with kids who have suffered trauma. We worked with the MoE Learning Support team - Sara, Hannah and May. To be honest I was a little nervous leading into the day as I know the content of trauma can be difficult to navigate. We all have stories to tell of our experiences of working with kids who have suffered trauma and some teachers themselves may have suffered trauma in the past which is not the knowledge of all, I was unsure how this would be managed. I trusted the skills and expertise of the professionals facilitating the session.
The facilitators navigated through a range of content, beginning with culturally sustainable connection to us. Staff were made to feel comfortable, working in an environment created by the facilitators that was both open and safe. By opening themselves up, sharing their culture and heritage through pepeha and experience, we felt safe in being able to share our thoughts and ideas openly with each other. Working in a predominantly Pacifica/Maori community, it was important that the content was culturally appropriate. Our 3 facilitators navigated this exceptionally well, giving guidance and advice that connected to our community and more specifically to the teachers - much of this was done through whakatauki and activities with a cultural twist.
The content delivered specific to trauma is content that I believe every teacher should know and learn about. The neurological impacts, what behaviours manifest through it, the impacts those behaviours have on the child, how we recognise them, what we can do to manage and in some cases negate behaviours. The content was delivered with four objectives in mind - Awareness (Matauranga), Learn (Ako), Support (Tautoko) and Protect (Paruru). We learned about; developmental trauma, culturally responsive practice within trauma informed practice, the adverse childhood experience (ACE) study, Protective and Compensatory Experiences study (PACES), how the brain is affected, fight/flight/freeze, Social and emotional learning through Whare Tapawha and Pacifica perspectives.
Our staff finished the day sharing some of their new learning, the things that impacted them most and their
biggest takeaways. They learned to walk in the sunshine, not in the shadows - focus on the brightness each child brings, not the darkness they encounter. This workshop was engaging, informative and hugely reflective. It gave staff tools for their kite to use and reflect on. What our students go through outside of school is for the most part unknown to us and out of our control. We focus on what is in front of us and how we can grow our tamariki to be the best they can be. This is one PLD that we all walked away from feeling reflective, enlightened and humbled.
