February Teacher Talk

I attended the first “teacher talk” of the spring semester on February third. The

focus of this presentation was on handling situations where students experienced a

traumatic event in their lives. The speaker was Douglas Knepp, a Spanish teacher at

Palmyra Area Middle School and a graduate of Lebanon Valley College from 2002. A

fun fact about Mr. Knepp: he was my Spanish teacher during my eighth-grade year in

middle school. It was neat to see how knowledgeable he was about a topic so serious in

the education field. He explained how trauma-informed care is a discussion that is not

had enough between teachers and administrators.

The word “trauma” means something different to each person. For example, a

student may experience their parents getting a divorce and another student might have

gotten a grade lower than an A. While every interpretation is unique, educators must

take every incident seriously. Most of the time, students are not up-front with how they

are feeling or what their home life is like. It is not a teacher’s job to pry for the answer,

but to be a reliable and trustworthy source in the event that a student shares their

traumatic experience.

Mr. Knepp shared a tactic that he uses to make his students feel comfortable in

his classroom: an unstructured seating arrangement. This may not seem like a big

change, but he said that his students feel less stressed and more relaxed. His

classroom contains exercise balls and couches but excludes desks. The most

outstanding part of his classroom is the section he has designated for students to relax

and take a few minutes to themselves. He understands that if a student had a rough
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night, they may need a moment throughout the day to take a few minutes to themselves

and relax.

This teacher talk was very informational and gave me the inspiration to be aware

of how my students act and react to certain stimuli. If a student is having a rough day

and negatively reacts to their locker being locked where they cannot access their

belongings, it is my job as the teacher to first assist them with their locker, but to also

bring them back to reality where they do not need to worry about their home-life at

school. A teacher has multiple duties during the school day, but being aware of a

student who experienced a traumatic event is the most important so that we can take

our own actions into consideration when responding to their behavior.