New home for ECTIE, new paper on PBIS, and more
News and updates from Alex Shevrin Venet
Fall is here! It’s an exciting time of year, and also a stressful one. For trauma-informed educators, fall represents a critical time to do the essential work of building trust and relationships. It’s a transitional time, too, which often means additional stress and uncertainty.
In times like this, it helps me to return to the basics: what are we doing in schools, and why? To that end, I want to share a powerful piece from the incredible Carla Shalaby: Are We Teaching Care or Control? The article serves as a great reminder to center care in our classroom choices, even as many around us and in the public narrative grasp for control and compliance instead. Here’s a taste before you go read the whole thing:
The idea is for teachers and students to agree on a model of radical inclusion, to unwaveringly believe that there is no such thing as a throwaway person, that nobody deserves an unnecessary or disproportionate dose of suffering, and that our future depends on us taking collective responsibility for protecting it. These are not ways of being that can simply be enforced through rewards, punishments, or incessant reminders. We need new ways of relating to one another, and we need classrooms to be places in which we might struggle together to practice them.
Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education has a new home (and book study opportunity!)
While my first book was originally published by W.W. Norton, the series that it’s a part of has recently been acquired by Routledge. You can now find Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education available to order here. The reprinted version is the exact same book minus a typo I’ve been dying to fix for two and a half years! Some booksellers may temporarily be out of stock during this transition but that will resolve soon.
If you’re considering using my book as a school or community book study, did you know that I offer free Q&A visits (schedule allowing)? Email me to find out more!
Learn with me!
I’m currently booking professional development workshops, keynotes, and other opportunities for January 2024 and beyond (and my schedule is filling up fast). In addition to the usual workshops and keynotes I typically offer, I have a new keynote option that’s facilitated collaboratively with a team of youth organizers with expertise in addressing generational trauma and healing strategies. Get in touch soon to learn more and schedule!
I’ll also have more information soon about my spring professional development graduate course, and stay tuned very soon for news about my forthcoming book!
PBIS paper & new podcast appearance
Last but not least: since I last sent out this newsletter, I have a new publication, co-authored with my dear friend and colleague Rhiannon Kim. We wrote about whether PBIS and trauma-informed practices can ever really co-exist. I’ve linked that paper in my PBIS resource-round-up - look for the last bullet point on the list, and note that there’s a link to a non-paywalled version if you can’t access through your library.
I also recently joined the Teachers Going Gradeless community on their podcast. Check out the episode here!