By: Celeste McKenzie, Hamilton County Opportunity Zone Schools

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On Monday morning, a teacher arrives at school to greet her students. While standing at her classroom door, she senses that today a few of the students are displaying moodiness in various ways. One female yells, “don’t look at me.” Another student has his head covered with a blanket. The teacher asks herself, “What happened this weekend?” Here goes another “blue” Monday.

This scenario is all too familiar for teachers across our nation. Teachers understand that what happens outside of school can have a significant impact on a student’s education. In response to circumstances that children may be dealing with in their home lives, Tennessee is now at the forefront of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) trainings through its “Building Strong Brains” initiative. Through education, prevention, and reduction of community conditions which contribute to ACEs, Tennessee is working to increase the potential for every child to lead a healthy, productive life.

In Hamilton County, we are embracing this new perspective on the challenges that our children bring to school with them each day - particularly in our Opportunity Zone schools. The Opportunity Zone consists of the district’s 12 highest priority schools. In order to equip teachers with the skills to reach students affected by traumatic events, Opportunity Zone leaders have created the “Urban Education Institute.” This professional development seminar is held twice a year for approximately 593 educators and administrators and encourages trauma-informed practices.

Opportunity Zone leaders understand that if students are not in school, they cannot learn. It is our hope that the teacher trainings will decrease the need for out of school discipline and suspensions while increasing student attendance. This intention aligns with the state of Tennessee’s strategic plan, which focuses on chronically out-of-school students and school discipline procedures.

Once our teachers understand the why, they can work on the what. Therefore, equipping our teachers with tools leads to students learning how to overcome trauma and becoming resilient. According to a 2015-16 state of Tennessee teacher survey, 73% of teachers seek training for students in non-academic areas. Over 125 of our approximately 593 teachers were active participants in trauma-informed training. In addition, two of our 12 schools are working under a state offered grant in order to share “ trauma-informed strategies” for students, parents and teachers.

Each school within the Opportunity Zone has its own unique school culture. School leaders took that uniqueness into consideration when scheduling training sessions for the teachers. School teams were allowed to train together in order to brainstorm, collaborate and plan how to meet unique student needs. Therefore, the tools that teachers are given look different in each school. This training gives our teachers the tools to build healthy relationships and learn how to respond instead of react.

Training sessions, Trauma 101 and Trauma 201 tracks, are designed to meet the needs of teachers. Trauma 101 introduces educators to ACEs and the need for trauma-informed practices while 201 provides a more in-depth study of these practices. Many sessions convey simple strategies to use in classrooms. For example, creating a classroom in which students feel safe to make mistakes and recover, acknowledging students by name and providing a calm down space that is not punitive in nature.

As a result of the tools, many of our teachers are able to establish meaningful relationships with students and create a culture and climate of understanding. They find themselves acting in a proactive manner instead of a reactive manner.

After training, our hope is that instead of wondering “what is wrong with you?”, teachers will consider “what happened to you?” as they work daily with students in the classroom.

Celeste McKenzie is the Exceptional Education Supervisor of Hamilton County’s Opportunity Zone Schools.