Nurturing students coping with trauma is a focus for Currier, who believes customized curriculum like the WE Teachers Trauma-Informed Module can fill in gaps created by life circumstances.

“There is a time crunch across the board, with no space for stories or relationships, no space to check in with how they’re doing,” she explains of hectic classroom dynamics. Still, she makes time every week to read to her students, using lessons in literacy to forge classroom bonds and foster resilience. Students gather on the carpet while she sits on top of a desk and, with lights dimmed and calm music playing in the background, the teacher reads a favorite of hers, Wonder.

For Currier, the sense of closeness this classroom ritual creates is as valuable as any textbook learning. “On the hierarchy of needs, if they don’t feel emotionally regulated than nothing else is going to matter,” she affirms. “In my class, there’s foster kids, students on free and reduced lunches, sad stories and pain—the need has only increased.”

That upswing of trauma is true not just in Currier’s O’Fallon, Missouri, classroom, but in schools across the country. According to the National Survey of Children’s Health, nearly half of students have gone through at least one type of serious trauma, from neglect and domestic violence to a parent’s death or experiencing racism. Those experiences can impact how students learn, behave and form relationships.

This reality is leading educators across the country to a new, trauma-informed approach of teaching to ensure their students can thrive in the classroom. This approach forms the core of the WE Teachers’s Trauma-Informed Module.

As for what this looks like in practice, a glance at Currier’s playbook suggests it begins with understanding where students are coming from. In her case, that empathy is rooted in personal trauma.

Describing her childhood as “rocky,” one of her early memories is of the flashing red and blue lights of police outside her home, while she stayed at a neighbors. At school, a brave face kept questions away—when really, it shouldn’t have. “I never had a teacher that was there for me, that I felt comfortable talking to,” she recalls. “I felt alone, and I never wanted another kid to feel that way.”

To make sure they don’t, Currier shares her feelings regularly in class. She’s open about her past and the challenges she’s faced. She talks about her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and experiences with mental health.

“Everybody struggles, I say that 10 times a day in class.” Open communication is her way of instilling lessons in wellbeing; by talking freely, students going through difficult times see they can be open, too, and that there are people who will listen and help. WE Teachers also offers a Mental Well-being Module that provides teachers like Currier with the tools to build a safe learning environment for your students, and help them manage any stress, trauma and mental health concerns.

Currier is a role model to her students. Her preferred classroom reading is Wonder, the powerful and emotional story of a ten-year-old’s evolving sense of self worth in a harsh world. Sharing this tale with students isn’t just a reading exercise, it’s therapeutic.

Showing why she is a WE Teachers Award all-star, Currier has her students write reflections on inspiring moments from the story that carry lessons applicable to their own lives. She saves each reflection, binds them into books with the addition of her own personal essay on why each student is wonder themselves, gifting the collection to students at year’s end.

Supporting students through trauma will look different in every classroom. There’s no single path; but every teacher needs the space to be vulnerable and build relationships—those two things are the core of trauma-informed approach embraced by Currier. “This is easier said than done,” says Currier. “There is no time in our day for these things.”

So, while some days a student-led conversation or reading time may derail her lesson plan—it’s worth it to see students grow their sense of self-worth and begin believing they can trust others to help them. “Teachers got into this for the kids,” says the educator. “All I can do is set them up to be better, to be healthier, when they leave me.”