NEWSLETTER
The Thriving School Brief
Practical, bite-sized strategies for school leaders who want safer classrooms, stronger teacher support, and more time for true instructional leadership. Each issue gives you tools and real-world insights to build a thriving school culture of order, care, and belonging.
Meeting the Adolescent Brain Where It Is
When I stepped out of my classroom for two minutes and returned to a full-blown marker war, I did what any overwhelmed 23-year-old would do: I yelled. Then I hit my head on a filing cabinet and ended up in urgent care.
I used to think moments like this were “classroom management problems.”
Now I know they were developmental signals.
Adolescents aren’t broken. Their brains are becoming.
And most of us were never taught what that means for teaching, learning, or MTSS systems.
That’s why I’m launching a new series: Inside the Adolescent Mind — exploring what the developing brain needs from us, and how schools can design systems aligned with human development, not compliance.
If you’ve ever wondered why students react the way they do (or why you react to them the way you do), this series is for you.
Making Durable Skills Durable: When Adults Shift the System
When I first walked into New Britain High School, mornings were chaotic. More than 2,400 students entered through 510 exterior doors. Some arrived early and wandered the halls; others came rushing in just as the bell rang. Teachers started their days already tense, trying to corral energy that felt scattered before the first class even began.
Building Academic Efficacy in Adolescents
When I think about academic efficacy—the belief that you can learn, problem-solve, and persist—I think of Julia.
Building Social Efficacy in Adolescence
Social development is one of the most important and complex milestones of adolescence. During these years, the “social brain” is rapidly developing, making young people more sensitive to peer feedback, belonging, and social norms. That sensitivity can lead to missteps—but also provides an enormous opportunity for growth.
Building Self-Management in Adolescence
My eleven-year-old daughter loves screens. She can lose herself for hours in streaming shows or watching YouTube gamers play her favorite Nintendo titles, sometimes while she’s playing those same games herself. Because she loves these things so much (and they’re so designed to keep her hooked), we’ve created a structure to help her develop self-management skills: the screen-time dollar system.
The Power of Self-Awareness in Adolescence
“Trust.”
That’s what my 13-year-old daughter tells me at least once a week.
She says this when I’m encroaching on her autonomy—“It’s cold outside, are you going to wear a jacket?” or “Do you have homework tonight?” And she’s right. I do need to trust.
The Changing Landscape of Adolescence
I taught middle and high school from 1999 to 2009 — long before Chromebooks, Google Classroom, and AI became part of students’ daily lives. You might think a decade in the classroom would have fully prepared me to parent my own two middle schoolers. In some ways it has. I understand adolescent development: their drive to experiment, to define their identity and autonomy, and their simultaneous need for clear expectations and boundaries.
But teaching looks very different today.
Using AI to Improve Writing in 7th Grade: Is it Cheating?
“Is this cheating?” my 7th-grade daughter recently asked me. She was working on an essay for her ELA class on the topic “What we can learn from other generations.” Like many 12-year-olds, she sees herself as the hero of her own story and chose to write about teaching her sister to ride a bike. As the deadline loomed, she felt overwhelmed trying to finalize the essay by the next day.
Turning Chaos into Community at New Britain High School
In 2018, morning entry at New Britain High School had become a serious challenge. Students entered the school through any of its 510 exterior doors and had no designated place to go before the first bell. Teachers arrived early, only to find loud, unsupervised students roaming the hallways. Administrators and security staff were stretched thin, responding to frequent conflicts, fights, and general disorder.
A Framework for Success: The HOMies at Sokolowski Elementary
Before becoming the assistant principal of Sokolowski Elementary School, Demetrius Fuller worked for two decades as an art teacher. It was during this time that he developed the HOMies framework (“Habits of Mind”) to help his students become better risk-takers, creative thinkers, and engaged learners. This innovative approach, rooted in building relationships and fostering student reflection, laid the groundwork for a culture shift within the school, empowered students, and fostered collective efficacy among teachers.
The Power of Circles and Peer Mentorship at Summit School
Summit School is a therapeutic environment for students from kindergarten through 9th grade, many of whom have faced significant challenges in traditional school settings. These challenges — ranging from behavioral struggles to disconnection from peers and adults — often create a cycle of exclusion, pushing students further from the support they need.
How Efficacious Educator Came to Be
This summer, we visited family in Sweden, and I asked our cousins, “Does it matter which neighborhood or town you live in? Are schools better in some places than others?” The immediate and emphatic answer was, "Absolutely not." In Sweden, schools are regarded as equally good, regardless of where a child is born or the family’s socioeconomic background. There was a palpable belief in the room that, “Our schools and teachers are beyond reproach.”