Building Trauma-Informed Classrooms With Noni

Challenge

The Early Learning Coalition (ELC) of Flagler & Volusia Counties in Florida saw the pandemic significantly exacerbate already-challenging circumstances for so many of their children and families. As they grappled with meeting the needs of high numbers of children placed in foster homes and/or experiencing homelessness, the ELC’s Early Behavior Specialist, Ellyn Minnich, knew she needed a way to meet the following goals.

Solution

Ellyn discovered a new resource that checked all the boxes with Noni, a research-based  app that offered everything she was looking for.

	Provides insights into the impact of trauma—through both built-in onboarding and on-demand professional development—building teacher knowledge, empathy, and confidence
	Guides teachers on how to manage challenging behaviors in the moment, as well as identify triggers and plan for future disruptions
	Provides resources to help teachers prioritize their own self-care and mental well-being

Results

A Comprehensive Trauma-Informed Classroom Solution

“Lots of initiatives come across my desk, but when I saw the information about Noni, it really just stuck with me. We were at a point where we had a lack of educated teachers who really understand social-emotional development, a loss of social skills for children as a result of the pandemic, and constant teacher turnover in our programs, all leading to a volume of behavioral issues that we’d never seen before on our school readiness assessments. The fact that Noni offered support to address each one of those things really caught my eye,” said Ellyn.

Ellyn knew that their already overburdened teacher workforce was likely to resist taking on “one more thing.” But as she did more research on Noni and began to see how easy and responsive the technology was, she went straight to her supervisors.

“I said, ‘This resource is not a burden. This is something that actually addresses the existing burden of the circumstances we’re currently in. It isn’t something else for teachers to do, it’s the only thing that will really help with where they are. This is something we have to do.’”

Support for Students, Teachers, and Families

What Ellyn found in Noni was a resource that finally addressed all sides of their current circumstances—providing not just support for the child, but support for the teacher and families as well. Noni’s technology was built to ease the burden of teacher stress: it offers in-the-moment guidance for managing challenging classroom behaviors while gently encouraging teachers to understand what’s behind the behaviors and offering tools to help them care for themselves when their work is especially stressful.

Additionally, said Ellyn, there were so many other little things that Noni does, “like checking in on the teacher in the mornings, reminding them throughout the day that they’re doing a great job, checking in at the end of the day and encouraging them to take two minutes to use one of the quick self-care strategies built into the app. Center directors are so busy, they can’t always check in like that, and Noni does it for them. Teachers may say they can’t take on one more thing, but this isn’t a solution that’s all-consuming. It’s just there to help when you most need it.”

Easy to Implement and Scale

The ELC of Flagler & Volusia began with an initial cohort of 30 teachers, targeting programs where teacher turnover and challenging behaviors were the biggest hurdles. After attending several hours of virtual training, the cohort began to use Noni in their classrooms. The feedback was so incredibly positive that they rolled the initiative out to two additional cohorts, approximately 40 more teachers. Several of these second-phase teachers have already reached out to Ellyn to say that Noni has had a positive impact on their classrooms.

“A big part of Noni is about educating the teacher on the impact of trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on young children and how and why that leads children to demonstrate challenging behaviors. It really meets the teachers on a human level, showing them that a child’s behavior isn’t a reaction to the teacher, it’s a reaction to what the child is going through or has been through in their lives.

Ongoing Reduction of Challenging Behaviors in the Classroom

The ELC of Flagler & Volusia has been implementing Noni in their classrooms since December of 2021, and early data they’re collecting from teachers who have been using it is promising.

“We’re getting information on an ongoing basis, and we can see from our school readiness data over time that behaviors have reduced… Noni is helping teachers to form these positive connections with the children, so we see those negative behaviors starting to stop” said Ellyn.

Feedback from each cohort of teachers who’ve taken the training confirms that implementing Noni was the right decision.

The ELC of Flagler & Volusia plans to continue to add cohorts of teachers implementing Noni, and participants are thrilled with the results to date. As one teacher who reached out to Ellyn put it, “I didn’t even know we could feel this good about what we’re doing.”