Creating Trauma Resilient Classrooms

MaryAnn Brittingham, MS, holds a master’s degree in family and child counselling from Long Island University and a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education from D’Youville College. She has over 38 years of experience as a special education teacher and child/family counsellor, with experience working in psychiatric settings creating therapeutic options for students who require higher levels of emotional and academic support. MaryAnn is a certified trainer at Life Space Crisis Intervention, which uses interactive therapeutic strategies to transform crisis situations into learning opportunities, and she teaches graduate-level courses in special education and educational psychology at two colleges in New York. Her passion is to help educators gain insights into student behaviours in order to create a safe learning environment where students can discover their talents. MaryAnn is the author of several books, including: Transformative Teaching: Changing Today’s Classroom Culturally, Academically and Emotionally; Respectful Discipline; Dealing with Difficult Parents; and Motivating the Unmotivated. MaryAnn’s course focus on practical solutions for helping students be successful in both the general education and the special education classroom. Her approach to behavioural intervention empowers students and provides realistic solutions for working with challenging behaviours.