• Remain calm and reassuring: “We will be OK.”
• Acknowledge and normalize their feelings. Use active listening. There are no wrong feelings.
• Encourage students to use multiple forms to express their feelings about disaster-related events. Don’t force it. Follow their lead.
• Promote positive coping and problem-solving skills. Review spaces and activities they can use when feeling upset. Be flexible and model the skills.
• Emphasize their resilience and community resilience. Focus on what they have done before to feel better when upset. Identify the helpers.
• Strengthen social bonds and peer supports. Assign collaborative group work. Encourage them to be kind to each other.
• Take care of you.

Classroom Specifics

• Maintain structure and routine.
• Shorter lesson plans.
• Slower pace.
• More time for personal expression and discussion.
• Plan hands-on activities.
• Structured opportunities for positive social connections.
• Expect an overall performance decline.
• Model positive coping skills.
• Stick to the facts.
• Limit media exposure.

Classroom Activities

• Elementary — Creative expressions, including drawing, writing and talking about memories, feelings and thoughts. Hands-on/active tasks, including organizing or building projects like scrapbooks or replicas, to give them a chance to organize chaotic or confusing events.
• Secondary — Creative expression like art, music, poetry, or keeping a journal to describe their feelings and experiences. Active tasks, including developing a disaster plan for their home or school, or facilitating community involvement.

Special Report: Teaching Through Trauma

This is part of our series that looks at how educators are handling students with trauma. Read more:

Stories

• Teaching Students with Trauma: Practices that work
• A Culture of Compassion: What trauma-sensitive schools look like
• Phoenix Rising: Healing after natural disasters
• Crisis in Our Classrooms: Frightened, anxious immigrant students try to focus on education
• How COVID-19 Impacts the Undocumented
• Returning to Children’s Community Charter School in Paradise
• No Such Thing as a Bad Kid: Youth-care expert Charles D. Appelstein
• Taking Care of You, Too: Educator self-care is critical
• In Their Own Words: Helping students tell what they’ve lived

Resources

• How to help students after disaster
• Restorative practices that aid in trauma recovery
• Trauma Toolkit for Educators
• Helping our immigrant & undocumented students
• Know your rights with ICE
• Educator self-care tip sheet
• Defining trauma
• Symptoms of trauma
• Guidance from UC San Francisco’s HEARTS