Supporting Newcomers Experiencing Trauma

Host Sakura Hamada focuses this week on trauma experienced by newly arrived students and how educators can create safe spaces for them. Her guest is Franky Collins, who is experienced in working with both elementary and middle-school newcomers. She explains that these students can often come from traumatic backgrounds and family situations, so educators must be prepared with individualized lessons, spaces to retreat for de-stressing, and a variety of modalities for learning.  She emphasizes the importance of collaborating with colleagues and reaching out to families to focus on what’s best for each student. 

As a bonus, Franky divulges her secret of using music and dancing, usually at the beginning of each day, to create an atmosphere of casual community building and socio-emotional learning. Of course, the students contribute to the class’s playlist, often from their homelands, and Franky shares with us the musicians from around the world who are currently popular with her students. She adds that she finds it useful to read migration literature to understand her students more thoroughly. Her goals are three-fold: that her students are unafraid to ask for help, that they have organizational skills for success, and that they get to know themselves and their friends. 

 

Resources - 

Trauma Informed Education

Franky Collins recommends this memoir for educators of newcomer students - Javier Zamora. Solito. Hogarth, 2022.  

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