Cultivating Resilience in an Uncertain Time: Strategies for Supporting Your Students

Dr. Nancy Rappaport shares practical, trauma-informed strategies to help educators support students during times of uncertainty and stress. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience as a child and adolescent psychiatrist, Dr. Rappaport explores how schools can serve as stabilizing forces for students by fostering connection, consistency, and creativity.

While this talk was recorded for ASCD in October 2020 and references the Covid-19 pandemic, it continues to be relevant, covering topics including:
• The concept of post-traumatic growth and how to nurture it
• Helping students distinguish what they can and cannot control
• The importance of connection and being a steady presence
• Joy, playfulness and creativity as protective strategies

🔗 Website: https://www.nancyrappaport.com
🎤 Speaking Engagements: https://www.nancyrappaport.com/events
💼 LinkedIn:   / nancy-rappaport-md  
📖 Books: https://www.nancyrappaport.com/writin...

00:00 – Introduction
00:21 – Acknowledging educators' challenges
01:53 – A strategic exercise: holding a student in mind
02:35 – Educators as scaffolding through setbacks
03:20 – Strengthening competence, contribution and connection
04:25 – Understanding trauma versus challenge
06:00 – Four major stress triggers students face
07:25 – Post-traumatic growth and resilience
08:45 – Teaching coping with the “yes, and” mindset
09:40 – Holding conflicting emotions
11:05 – Being a calm, steady presence
11:41 – The Head–Heart–Hand framework
13:38 – Free-floating anxiety and the myth of perfection
15:17 – Help students recognize what they can control
16:43 – Validating disappointment and grief
18:30 – Acknowledging ambiguous loss
22:14 – Infusing joy to create connection
24:44 – Be creative, silly and playful
25:30 – Final thoughts