This is Jennifer Gonzales, welcoming you to episode 218 of the cult of pedagogy podcast.

In this episode, we'll be talking about how you can help your students without positioning yourself as a savior. As a teacher you probably find yourself in situations pretty often where you're made

aware of a student having needs or challenges that exceed what your school typically offers them.

It might be a need for extra time or attention, a shortage of school supplies, food or clothing, a need for transportation, a need for help

with organization, structure, time management, the list of student needs in so many schools is never ending,

and your desire to help meet them is probably pretty strong too.

But attempting to meet these needs on your own

to become a kind of savior to your students can not only lead to

burnout for you it's also not ultimately that helpful to the student long term.

My guest today is Alex Schengen. that helpful to the student long term.

My guest today is Alex Chevron vinnett, author of the book Equity Center trauma informed education.

This is Alex's third time on the podcast.

The first time was in episode 2009 when we did an overview of Trauma-informed teaching.

There were two topics from the book that I thought were so important I wanted to do a deeper dive on them.

So we did separate episodes for each of these.

In episode 214, we talked about a concept called unconditional positive regard, a stance toward working

with students that's grounded in giving them love and acceptance without making them earn it first.

And today we're going to talk about the danger of getting into a

savior mentality when helping our students, how to tell if you're slipping into

that kind of thinking, and how to shift toward healthier and more helpful ways of thinking about and

approaching student needs. Before we get started I would like to thank our

sponsor the Modern Classrooms Project which empowers educators to meet every student's needs.

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