Trauma-Informed Teaching in the Music Classroom

The following artifact is my research presentation on Trauma-Informed Teaching in the Music Classroom. Throughout the semester, I have been researching this chosen topic and doing secondary research to put together this presentation for my fellow music education undergraduates and the Roosevelt University Research Symposium. I begin by explaining why this knowledge is relevant and vital for music educators by providing 3 examples that I've encountered from my own personal experiences both as a student and a teacher. I also give a little insight into what the research process was like for me. I give a definition of trauma and provide a chart that shows what types of trauma there are, and how likely children are to experience each one. I explain the results of this chart and why girls are more likely to experience trauma than boys, focusing on how girls are targeted and the masculine ideology. I talk about signs of a trauma reaction both inside and outside the music classroom, and how these signs can simply look like the student is just defying directions. This leads into the significance about maintaining a trauma-safe environment whether you know or don't know if a student has experienced trauma. I present 4 categories of trauma-informed teaching strategies and provide some ideas and examples. I talk about mindfulness strategies that can be implemented at the beginning of each class, discovering a shocking result when I ask the class if they ever had mindfulness strategies from teachers in high school. After presenting a load of research, I end with 3 major takeaways from my research. My presentation concludes with a question and answer from the class.

The time and effort applied in my presentation has helped me gain a better understanding on how to create a safe learning environment that my students can thrive in. I can recognize and accommodate for students who may have experienced varying degrees of trauma and enabling a safe place for learning to occur. I plan to use this knowledge during my time teaching music to a diverse group of adolescents. My PowerPoint presents this information on child trauma and how to maintain a safe classroom environment.