Many students enter classrooms carrying experiences that affect how they learn, behave, and interact with others. Trauma can influence attention, memory, emotional regulation, relationships, and academic performance, often presenting as behaviors that are misunderstood or misinterpreted. By understanding the impact of trauma and responding with empathy, consistency, and appropriate support, educators can create learning environments where students feel safe, connected, and ready to learn.

This 5-hour professional development course provides educators with practical, evidence-based strategies for implementing trauma-informed practices within their classrooms and schools. Participants will explore how childhood trauma affects brain development and behavior, learn to recognize warning signs of trauma, develop supportive classroom environments that promote emotional safety and resilience, strengthen strategies for helping students regulate emotions, and understand appropriate referral procedures for connecting students with additional support services. Through reflection, classroom applications, and resource development, educators will leave with practical strategies that can be immediately implemented to support both student well-being and academic success.

Throughout the course, participants will examine:

• The effects of childhood trauma on brain development and learning

• The relationship between trauma, behavior, and academic performance

• Recognizing common behavioral, emotional, and academic warning signs of trauma

• Understanding trauma responses, including fight, flight, freeze, and fawn

• Creating physically and emotionally safe learning environments

• Building trusting relationships that foster resilience and student success

• Classroom routines and practices that promote predictability and security

• Strategies for supporting emotional regulation and self-regulation

• Trauma-informed responses that maintain high expectations while providing appropriate support

• The educator's role in documenting concerns and making appropriate referrals

• Collaborating with school support personnel to address student needs

• Developing practical classroom resources that support trauma-informed instruction

Participants will reflect on their current instructional practices while developing classroom routines, observation tools, emotional regulation strategies, and referral resources that promote safe, supportive, and trauma-informed learning environments.

Assignments are designed to be practical, immediately applicable, and directly connected to the daily experiences of educators working with diverse student populations.

Special attention is given to helping educators recognize the lasting impact of trauma while creating classrooms grounded in safety, consistency, trust, and belonging.

Participants will develop practical strategies that support student resilience, strengthen relationships, encourage emotional well-being, and promote positive academic outcomes without lowering expectations for student success.