This is part one of a two-part series about discomfort in college classrooms.

Do "lazy" students get under your skin? Read on for trauma-informed tips for working with lazy students.

People often ask me: “what is a trauma-informed classroom and how is it different from a ‘regular’ classroom?” I’ll give a shorter, abbreviated answer here. In subsequent posts, I’ll offer extended, contextualized responses with a guide to implementing these principles.

This piece is a version of a half-day, pre-convention
workshop held at the Conference on College Composition and
Communication in March 2019.

In weather-speak, a red flag warning is issued when conditions are ripe for fire combustion. Many law enforcement officials in Florida have described school shooter Nikolas Cruz as displaying all the “red flags” of a troubled youth, yet no one seemed to speak up enough to prevent the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. This reflection extends writings I have recently done that describes trauma and traumatized systems as an invisible fire...