Creating Compassionate Classrooms: Overcoming Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)

Many students enter classrooms every day bearing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that affect their learning, their future health and their ability to succeed in the short and long term.  Creating Compassionate Classrooms provides teachers with an understanding of how teachers can help students can overcome adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) by adopting compassionate methodologies in the classroom and learning community.

During the 2016-2017 school year, 104,088 students were reported homeless in New York City alone. While this is just one example of a traumatic event students may face throughout their school year, this is a substantial number of students for whom traditional discipline and management routines will fail. These students, along with others, require a school culture that is built upon compassion, while identifying and supporting their needs and build them a bridge to success.

Participants will learn:

• The research and scientific rationale that supports the need for compassionate schooling.
• About Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and those students who are in a continual state of physical and emotional stress or have experienced a singular traumatic event.
• The strategies and have the tools and resources to create a compassionate classroom.
• The ability to collaborate with colleagues to a create school-wide culture of care.
• Create learning conditions that alleviate the interference of traumatic experiences that have been or are beyond the teacher and student’s control.
• Examine the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) standards that define student competencies needed to succeed.