Building Resilience in Students Impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Whole-Staff Approach - Paperback

by Victoria E. Romero (Author), Ricky Robertson (Author), Amber N. Warner (Author)

Use trauma-informed strategies to give students the skills and support they need to succeed in school and life

Nearly half of all children have been exposed to at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE), such as poverty, divorce, neglect, homelessness, substance abuse, domestic violence, or parent incarceration. These students often enter school with behaviors that don't blend well with the typical school environment. How can a school community come together and work as a whole to establish a healthy social-emotional climate for students and the staff who support them?

This workbook-style resource shows K-12 educators how to make a whole-school change, where strategies are integrated from curb to classroom. Readers will learn how to integrate trauma-informed strategies into daily instructional practice through expanded focus on:

• The different experiences and unique challenges of students impacted by ACEs in urban, suburban, and rural schools, including suicidal tendencies, cyberbullying, and drugs
• Behavior as a form of communication and how to explicitly teach new behaviors
• How to mitigate trauma and build innate resiliency through a read, reflect, and respond model

Let this book be the tool that helps your teams move students away from the school-to-prison pipeline and toward a life rich with educational and career choices.

Author Biography

Victoria Romero is an educator with over 42 years of experience working as a classroom teacher, principal, and instructional and leadership coach. In her two placements as a principal, the academic performance improved significantly for students. For the past 10 years, she has coached administrators, directors, principals, vice principals, and school leadership teams for equity and sustainable school improvement in 3 school districts in Washington state. She has teamed with Gary Howard to facilitate equity workshops throughout the country. Victoria co-authored The African American Experience for Howard's REACH program and the study guide in the 3^rd edition of his book, We Can't Teach What We Don't Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools. She is a certified consultant for Corwin, facilitating workshops for school districts using Howard's We Can't Lead Where We Won't Go: An Educator's Guide to Equity.

Ricky Robertson has had the privilege to work with students from Pre-K to 12th grade who have persevered in the face of adverse experiences and trauma. Drawing from his experiences as a teacher and Behavior Intervention Specialist, Ricky coaches educators on more than just managing behavior. With compassion, humor, deep listening, and "real talk," he seeks to reconnect the hearts and minds of students and teachers through a relationship-based approach to teaching and learning.

Amber Warner is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 20 years of experience. She has had the privilege of serving as an outreach case manager, school social worker, medical social worker and clinical mental health therapist. The majority of her experience has been school-based social work service. In this role she led support groups, provided student counseling, and facilitated classroom discussions. She was a member of the faculty Leadership team and was instrumental in coordinating community and parent involvement. She served as the Project Coordinator for the local Children's Defensive Fund's Freedom School program for children in foster care and/or low income families.Trained by Marian Edelman Wright, founder of the Children′s Defense Fund, Amber was responsible for hiring staff and providing professional development for them. She networked with businesses and other community agencies to arrange field trips and provide public service projects for the children. As a therapist she utilizes Positive Psychology, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and System Theory to support individuals coping with trauma recovery, mental and physical health challenges, and grief and loss. Her approach helps her clients to learn new strategies to live their best selves and improve their overall quality of life.