Hello everyone, my name is Eleni Webster and
I am a graduate teaching assistant and classroom
instructor for public speaking and other communication
studies related courses. I am a survivor of the
Stoneman Douglas High school Shooting and tragedy.
I was a Parkland student at that time and I am
a huge advocate for trauma -informed education
and culturally informed education. I think it's
so important to create a safe and engaging and
welcoming atmosphere in the classroom. Welcome
to the Classroom Narratives Healing and Education
podcast, the space where education meets resilience.
I'm Dr. Joey Weisler, and in each episode, we
dive deep into the personal stories of educators,
students, leaders, and frontline advocates who
are navigating the complexities within modern
education. Whether you're just starting your
teaching journey, or are we seasoned professionals
looking for inspiration, we'll explore how to
foster meaningful change, prevent burnout, and
build trauma -informed communities within our
schools. Now, let's take a seat at the front
of the classroom as we get started. Welcome to
today's segment. I'm truly honored to have Ms.
Eleni Webster joining us today, who is a graduate
teaching assistant, otherwise known as a GTA,
and master's student at Florida Atlantic University.
She's also the assistant director of FAU's Speaking
Center, and despite her exceptionally established
roles, it's important to continue emphasizing
that all views from this podcast are not affiliated
with FAU and are entirely our own. But what drew
me to Eleni was... First, we share a very dear
mutual mentor to both of us. Eleni's director is
no other than my very own public speaking professor,
Ms. Cynde Carrico, who was one of my first college
instructors in fall 2013 and is a pedagogist
who has always made me love the classroom landscape.
Second, I did not learn until more recently that
Eleni was a freshman attending Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School in the 2017 -2018 school
year and was present at school on February 14,
2018. And so Eleni fit the profile for a guest
who can not only discuss her triumphant comeback
into a system that depleted her community, but
can also discuss the resiliency journey leading
up to that success. So Eleni, warm welcomes to
the show. And I wanted to begin today's conversation
by asking, can you take us through the journey
of when you came to realize that you could return
to the very system that brought trauma to you
and your peers and actually be a part of changing
it for future students? Wow, that's a great question.
So in 2018, thinking back of how that year was
for me, how the system served me and or failed
me as well as my peers, figuring out what is
it that we needed. I think that was the first
thing to think about is like, what does a child
need? in such a critical period of their life.
And I think so much of it is support and empathy.
And I think the most difficult part of it is
that no one exactly is trained to know how to
cope with all of this. For example, like in elementary
school, myself, my sister, so many of my peers,
we win these awards of writing these essays of
like, what happens when your house is on fire?
And we're so well equipped from a young age as
to like how to cope with. those kinds of emergencies
but this sort of emergency you always hear about
in the news and you never think it's going to
happen to you so when it does no one knows what
to do the children don't know what to do the
parents don't know what to do administration
teachers even certain psychologists like everyone's
kind of sitting there going oh my goodness like
how can we deal with such a tragic thing and
so I think that's that's something that's always
in the back of my mind when I'm even educating
my students is thinking like everyone here has
a trauma that they're not necessarily revealing.
It's not like all my students are going to tell
me like, oh, so -and -so has been abused in this
sense in their home or by their partner or has
gone through a violent incident as we did, like
a school shooting, et cetera. But it's kind of
knowing like, how can I approach the classroom
so that all of my students can feel safe enough?
Maybe they may not feel safe in themselves to
discuss or reveal these parts of themselves,
but how can I create an environment where they
feel welcome, comfortable, safe? I'm also, like
Joey, very much into pedagogy. Shout out to Professor
Cynde, who taught pedagogy for us. So I love
dancing. I'm very big in Latin dance. And so
I'll bring that into the classroom. So I teach
public speaking. performance anxiety and speech
anxiety are pretty much interlinked there's tons
of research on this so that's something i'll
bring into the table like all right before we
get into speeches let's get up and let's dance
and let's have a few of us come to the front
or just doing unconventional things like sitting
in a circle instead of having them all face me
it's like all right let's all sit in a circle
and what can we do so it's not just me lecturing
at you but how can everyone have their voice
heard. I'm also very big on having discussions
where not everyone agrees with each other and
how can we learn to have these conversations
in which we can disagree in a respectful manner.
One thing I always mention to my students is
ARA. So A is acknowledge. I want us all to acknowledge
we have different points of views. R is respect.
We've got to respect those individual points
of views. And then the last A is analyze. Analyze
the other point of view, not only to find flaws,
but also to find strengths. Because you never
know where you're going to be five years, ten
years down the line, and that might be your new
perspective. And I think, again, to kind of tie
it all together is just thinking back to what
is it that I needed, my peers needed back in
2018? What do my students also need? And how
can I create a very welcoming, comfortable, safe
atmosphere in the classroom? That's incredible.
And I also love this idea of having a dancing
in the socratic circles and classrooms that.
invite, but don't require students to engage,
but does so in a way that values their safety
and their voice as well. And I think those are
common pedagogies that you and I have experienced
through our own educators in college as well.
And it leads me to think about, first of all,
not everybody reveals their traumas, that's true.
But a lot of us also don't know what to do once
those come about. What were some things that
you found were missing, back in 2018 that you
wish you and your peers had more of to guide
you through such a time? I think I'm going to
try to remember because again, trauma entails
a lot of like blocking out. So I, I, there's
a big part of my life there. That's kind of like
blurry in my mind. I would say I was grateful
for, for example, they put on campus like two
trailers that were like for therapists, psychologists,
counselors to be there for us. And I think that
was just the fact that it was there for me personally
felt very, like I felt seen. I didn't always
feel seen and understood, but just the fact that
it was there was like, okay, they care enough
to put this here. I think what could have been
implemented that I honestly did not see implemented
very much was more awareness of like, I wish
we could have had. licensed therapists maybe
come into the classroom and take up like some
minutes of class time because at the end of the
day some teachers could not continue the curriculum
for students that have a mind that cannot even
absorb information or content anymore like some
people were just trying to survive getting out
of bed and coming back to campus where there
is the blood stains and the memories and everything
is just so hard enough like how can you even
try to absorb content now every student was different.
Some students were like, I want to be taught
like that will distract me. Other students are
like, I don't want to know algebra right now.
So I think, again, it comes down to individual.
I think trauma is very individually manifested
differently and in diverse manners. But as I
was saying, I really think having like licensed
therapists, counselors, psychologists come into
the classroom and be like, let's have a 20 minute
session about like, what do you do if you're
dealing with suicidal ideation? What do you do
if you have no idea how to cope with so many
thoughts, so many emotions? Let's teach somatic
therapy. Like the fact that I wasn't aware of
certain somatic therapy until college was crazy
to me until I started teaching it to my own students.
Just so many things like that. I think that would
even just that. I think that's the number one
thing that will come to mind right now is having
them come to the classroom, take up some class
time and just teach as basic. psychological anxiety
coping strategies would have been beautiful and
I think that's something that I now bring to
the classroom again it is connected to like public
speaking anxiety performance anxiety but I always
tell my students like this is also for you personally
experiment and see what works for you because
Maybe you hate going to the doctor and this is
going to help you do this, this X, Y, Z, or maybe
you get anxiety just walking into a party and
you just want to be a young adult and go to a
party or go to a bar, whatever you do in your
free time, but you get social anxiety, like use
these strategies. And I think if we would have
been taught that even since elementary school,
like why aren't we taught that since the age
of four, how to regulate your nervous system?
I think that's something that the education system
should be implementing since kindergarten, since
preschool. We need more conversations on just
how to regulate the body and let Maslow over
Bloom into our classrooms where we just understand
that students cannot focus if their nervous system's
out of sync. And Bessel van der Kolk has tons
of work about this. It's called The Brain and
Body, keep the score. And Bessel van der Kolk
talks about the brain and the body with how they
physically manifest trauma on their own. And
I appreciate you mentioning that because I think
I noticed when I went back that there was no
right or wrong way to handle things just because
nobody knew. When I asked the sub coordinator,
how do I do this? Her answer was just take each
classroom, look at the students and take it one
classroom period at a time. And you'll figure
that out once you see them. I'm like, I'll try.
That's all we can do. Just give it a try. And
same thing happened in 2018-19 as well. And
it makes me wonder, what are some things that
you now do in terms of when you approach your
own students that you're showing them pedagogy
or things that you either had or were lacking
that now you want to give to them? Absolutely.
I think one thing that I like to do that I unfortunately
noticed for some reason is happening in university
teaching is where we assume that undergrads can't
handle theory. And my philosophy is. If they're
not handling your theory, it's because you're
not presenting it fun or relevant enough. There
are tons of pedagogy books that explain that
if you do not establish relevance or make it
like enough attention seeking, they're not going
to care, obviously. So one thing that I do is
I present theory as fun and as engaging and as
practical as possible. So, for example, I teach
them Maslow's hierarchy and I'm like, OK, how
many of you raise your hands if you would? care
to share did come to class today and has not
had breakfast and then a lot of them will raise
their hand and i'll say okay how much of my words
are you really absorbing right now versus the
days that you have come eating and then we'll
open up this nice conversation where obviously
everyone's like well yeah if you're hungry you
can't focus etc etc and then that's a way i can
like tie in theory and just make it relevant
to them Maslow's is just an example but i think
Creating a toolkit, even if you don't present
it as a toolkit, but kind of embed it throughout,
or if you present it as like these are your strategy
toolkits, either way works. And I think educators
just need to find their style. Probably one of
the first classes I do is anxiety coping, again,
because it is public speaking. everyone is freaking
out. I would say 90 % of my students are freaking
out when they get to my class. So I'm like, okay,
we're going to make this class fun. We're going
to make it engaging. We're going to have the
dancing. We're going to do enough activities
where you all get to know each other. So many
of my students will tell me that this is the
only class in which they know their peers' names.
Also one of the only classes where they know
my name. Some students will go to college and
not know their own professor's names. Me personally,
I always knew their name, but apparently this
is a very common phenomenon. So I try to build
rapport with them. Obviously, I have certain
boundaries that cannot be crossed. Even though
I'm a very young educator, I'm very much like
you will refer to me as Miss Webster. You will
not first name me. That's a personal thing. Every
educator has their own style. But I always encourage
other fellow GTAs as well to find your style,
find what is. Like the rapport and balancing
with the boundaries. Again, all of us really
make a big emphasis on teaching them anxiety
coping. Something that I also do is I have that
self -conversation with them of what do we do
in an active shooter situation? And I always
preface it. And I'm like, if you need to exit
the room right now, if this is a triggering conversation,
I'm not going to judge. None of us are going
to judge. Like, take this time now. OK, it's
important for us to have this conversation because.
It is very prevalent. I actually have not told
my students. I think they can tell by my tone
that it hits pretty home when I start talking
about it. But I don't tell my students that I
am a school shooting survivor. I don't believe
I've done so in the past few semesters. But I
always also start with how many of your other
professors have ever had a conversation with
you in college about what to do in an active
shooter situation? Zero. In all my semesters
of teaching, not one student has said that a
previous professor has taught that. They've said
high school had, but not college. And I'm like,
oh no. I say, okay. I use some infographics that
I find off of like universities that post what
to do on their websites. And I'll do the whole
step one, step two, step three. These are your
options. And then I say, okay, what can we do
with the classroom? And I'll have them tell me.
I had one student actually say. hey, I'm a summer
camp counselor and this is what we do in the
classroom. And we add kind of like this resource,
et cetera. So I also have them tell me what they
would do in said situation. How can I make them
feel more comfortable about all of this? But
it does disturb me that it is not a conversation
that even if it's like a three minute conversation,
it's not being had. And that concerns me. I agree.
And I'm actually guilty of that as well. Some
things I'm thinking about here is I love how
you mentioned just that building of rapport is
one thing that I've learned as the secret sauce
is that we need to build the community of students
amongst each other in the process of them to
build a community and relationship with us as
their instructor. One activity that I do with
them. Well, I'll mention two activities. So one
that I do with them is that every day we do.
Technically professors call it like an exit ticket,
but I do it in the beginning. We still call it
exit tickets because they give it to me as they
walk out. But essentially I'll do one question.
Sometimes it's academic related. So it's like,
what part of the new upcoming assignment is stressing
you out? And like, write down your concern. Or
another day it'll be like, what's your favorite
flower? And another day it's like, what's your
favorite animal? And what I do is I'll read each
one and I'll give them a little stamp. and they
think it's cute and it shows like i read it and
i get to know each one of them individually which
is very nice because i don't have that one -on
-one time with any of them, but I'm used to being
a tutor. So having that one -on -one. So that's
one way that I get to know them all individually
is I see what's concerning them. I know a little
bit about like, okay, what are their preferences
now? What can I tie into the analogies I use
in the classroom? Or if a lot of them are like
really into a certain sport, I can keep referencing
that sport and they all get excited. So that's
the exit tickets that I do. I also do these game
shows where we pretend it's like a Family Feud
Jeopardy thing. It takes me hours to make, but
they love it each time. They get very competitive.
They team up. And then the lightning round question
is always name every person on the opposite team.
And I was so proud that last semester the student
got it perfectly. I mean, he had perfect time.
It was amazing. the best memories with them.
And so then at the end, I write each student
an individual note, like on an index card, and
I put together all of their exit tickets. And
I call it their souvenir, their passport. It's
their graduating passport from my class. So I
call all my students diplomats because they need
to learn to be diplomatic and tactical, but also
confident, all these things. So I'll have them,
I'll write each of them a note telling them like,
I'm so proud to see you progress and this, this,
and this. I'm so excited. And then I'll tell
them. I'm excited to see you become a doctor.
I'm excited to see you become, and I'll tell
them their career. Because by then I've memorized
what they all want to do with like their future
careers. And then the last day of class or the
last few weeks, they write me a note. Tell me
what you liked about the class. And then I give
them a few prompts. And it's always so nostalgic,
sentimental, memorable. It's a lot of fun. Incredible.
And yeah, I think the one thing that Eleni and
I can both agree on the secret sauce is to make
the students feel valued. If they feel like you're
just a number to them, then your class will be
treated just like another subject to them. But
if there is personality and there's value in
that, they will invest so much more into that.
I'm also thinking about, so we talked about boundaries
as well. So, and as an educator, what are some
boundaries that you keep up for yourself in front
of your students and vice versa? What are some
things that your students have told you? And
in connection to just handling and dealing with
those emotions, how do you do it in a way that
still protects you, the student, and your classroom?
I think one of the keys of being a quality educator
is learning how to establish boundaries. I think
when it comes to, for example, them sharing things
with me, I did have one student that did share
that they were from Parkland or that they were
from MSD, but they did say that in their speech.
And they said that the reason they were able
to share that is that the atmosphere felt safe
enough to be vulnerable. And again, that comes
to establishing, yes, we have boundaries, but
yes, also we're comfortable here sharing, but
also we have boundaries. And it's kind of, again,
finding the equilibrium and balance. And I think
that was very beautiful because a lot of them
get very vulnerable in their speeches. And it's
so important for everyone to just realize we're
going to respect one another here. And we're
going to appreciate everybody. I think humanizing
is very important. Like you said, a lot of times
people are just considered a number. These are
just my fellow students in the classroom. Boom,
we're all numbers. There's 28 of us. Done. No,
it's like I know everybody's name. First step
to humanizing something, knowing each other's
names. Second, building that community, having
them get to know each other through I do group
activities with them and seeing each other's
personalities. Everyone feeling safe enough to
expose their true personalities is also a very
big element to creating that welcoming classroom.
Absolutely. Thank you for sharing all of that.
And I agree, just having boundaries that are
welcoming, but still allow the student to show
the vulnerabilities in a safe and humanizing
way is really the most fundamental way that a
classroom can be operated. You said you've now
been teaching for three to four semesters, right?
Yeah. What are some things that you remember
from your first semester that have evolved as
a teacher who's growing through the process?
Because I am such a different teacher for the
better than I was five years ago versus now.
I think my first semester, I was a little bit
weary again of being a young female professor
and needing to be taken seriously, obviously.
So when I talked about the AI policy, my approach
was very like, if you do it, I will report you.
These are the consequences, blah, blah, blah.
And then my second semester, I was a lot more
confident in myself. And I knew like, okay, if
I present myself in this manner and I'm myself,
like they know that I'm being myself. They tell
me that all the time. They're like, Ms. Webster,
we can tell you're being you. Like this is the
authentic, enthusiastic, professional Ms. Webster.
Like they always say that to me. So second semester
though, I was like, We're all adults here. AI
is going to be tempting to use. If you use it,
it's going to give you more work. It's going
to give me more work. I beg you, just don't use
it. Like my approach to it was a lot more like,
if it happens, it happens. You're going to get
this grade. I think they felt a little bit more
humanized. And I think they felt as though, although
a lot of them were 18, 19, 20, they felt like
she sees me as an adult. versus i see you as
a child and i know you're going to do wrong it's
more like i see you as an adult you have the
choice to do right or wrong and so that's one
thing that's evolved another thing i wanted to
share was relevant to the previous question was
one student was actually vulnerable enough to
share how he had a medical condition in which
like he had alarms on his phone and so his ringer
had to be on but previous teachers like thought
it was disrespectful, which I probably would
have too if he hadn't expressed that to me. But
he was like, oh, I feel so safe in this classroom.
I'm going to share like this is what my speech
is going to be about. He shares. And so for the
rest of the semester, like when his ringer would
go off, we'd all kind of like smile at him. Like
we wouldn't laugh at him. He said like other
times people would laugh at him or people would
yell at him. But it was like we knew like a different
dimension to him, which again, health, especially
in I feel like in American culture, health is
very much like this is private. This is me. We
don't share. And so kind of seeing him like comfortable
enough to share it also made us understand him
better. And he was able to understand his peers
better as well. I like that. And I definitely
find that students are seemingly less likely
to challenge the authentic human versus somebody
who tries to flex their muscles with that power.
I've learned that quite a bit too. When I walked
in that fall after 2018 had happened, I passed
out detentions. It's like they were free candy
and they would give it right back to me. And
as time went on, it was like, I learned, it's
like a counterintuitive, like I disciplined by
not disciplining. And it's like, yeah, they know
to follow the rules because they don't want to
disappoint. It's just the human in front of them.
And when you mentioned the students who feel
safe to be vulnerable, and I love that there's
a lot of literature about that from Brene Brown,
that's definitely an awesome theorist to think
about. I noticed like when I taught public speaking
too back in the spring, for their first speeches,
for the info speech, I was just looking for a
typical like, hi, my name is. And so many students
came forward with their mental health journeys
coming back from rock bottom. I'm just like,
I didn't ask for that. Am I prepared for that?
I don't know. But here it is. You just gave it
to me. And when students still offer you those
really. vulnerable personal moments through their
coursework. What steps do you take as their instructor,
including as someone who also was looking for
a community service like that back in 2018? Something
that I do even before I see them being vulnerable
in any sense is I start reminding them of CAPS.
counseling and psychological services which is
the therapy office on campus I'm always reminding
them like I tell them the first day when we're
going over syllabus I remind them throughout
the semester just like they have us take that
module course before even teaching at Florida
Atlantic like they have you take a course where
it's like if your student says this sort of stuff
what should you do and so i would probably tell
them like oh yeah i recommend caps for you I
I'm a big advocate of CAPS. I'm always telling
students like, go to CAPS, it's great. So it's
so simple, but not enough professors are doing
it where it's like reminding their students.
The resources exist on campus. And when I do
tell my students, most of them are like, is it
free? I don't know if it's free. Are you sure
it's free? Wait, where is it located? And I'm
like, oh no, nobody knows. And I'm like, okay,
yeah, no problem. Let's pull up the website.
Let's pull up how to schedule an appointment.
Let's find the map. Take a field trip, for goodness
sakes, right? So whatever it takes to just make
them aware of the resources that are available
to them. Again, not enough educators are doing
it or maybe not enough educators know they should
even be doing it or can be doing it, I think
is another element and dimension to it. So I
think emphasizing the resources that are available
to them is huge. I think a lot of students don't
realize that their tuition is paying for services
exactly like that. So they might as well be utilized.
What can you also say, Eleni, based upon this
awesome discussion? This has been so productive.
Thank you for all this. What would you say would
be a takeaway that you want our listeners to
gather from today's conversation? I think something
that the listeners can take away, I think, firstly,
is assess your own thinking patterns and behavioral
patterns. Study your own psychology of the self.
From there, also... Think like, what is it that
I needed when I was in a tough time? How can
I bring that to the classroom? If you're an educator,
how can I make my lessons more engaging? How
can I make learning exciting? The main reason
students are quote unquote lazy, quote unquote
hate school is because they've never had enough
educators make the learning fun, make it exciting,
make them feel seen. You have to make them feel
like you value their voice so much that you will
be disappointed. if you don't hear their voice.
So emphasizing participation. Even my lecturing
style is very much like I'll lecture for about
30 seconds and then I'll ask a question and then
I'll ask another question and it's like I'm not
going to be talking at you for 30 minutes. I'm
going to be talking with you. I think that's
very important. I think when it comes to just
like trauma -informed education, culturally -informed
education, become as knowledgeable as you can
study different scholars or if you're not big
on scholarly reading go to youtube podcasts whatever
it may be and just try to understand better different
styles find your style i think a lot of times
we think that there's only one way to do something
and that's when we get stuck if you find a style
that is comfortable to you and also your students
when it comes to lecturing when it comes to activities
I think that's crucial I think it's crucial to
emphasize the resources that are on campus, right?
So going back to like counseling and psychological
services on a campus, emphasizing that to your
students. And I think, again, full circle moment
is realizing what did you need and what do your
students need and how can I offer that in a way
that respects the boundaries that we have in
this classroom, but also ensuring that we are
creating a very safe, inclusive, welcoming atmosphere.
in which everybody feels safe, the instructor
as well as the students. I really want to thank
you, Dr. Weisler, oh, Joey, for everything that
you do. Genuinely, since I've heard about like
your trauma -informed like education advocacy
podcast, all this stuff, I think it's so rare
to find, unfortunately. So I'm like so, so grateful
you have no idea. I think the little freshman
in me, it's healing to even just hear that somebody's
doing it. I haven't even like fully delve into
a lot of your work just because it can be triggering
to like read or listen to. But just the fact
that it exists, it brightens my day in my heart
genuinely. So I'm like so, so, so grateful to
you. I think more people need to be doing things
like this. And I think what you're doing, it's
unique. It's significant to so many people. And
I think it's even more impactful than you can
even imagine. Thank you so much. Hats off to
you as well. thank you thank you thank you so
much so that was Eleni Webster with us who's
here to remind us that the most productive classrooms
come from both safety and understanding which
all stems from belonging so as you work to build
up yourself in the classroom be sure to also
build up your students and let them build up
each other too because once those moments matter
the whole course will come to life Thank you
for joining us on the Classroom Narratives Healing
and Education Podcast. If today's episode inspired
you or made you think differently, I'd love to
hear from you. Drop a comment or review wherever
you listen to podcasts and stay connected with
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can transform our scars into stars in education,
one conversation at a time.