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.
The Myelinating Brain - Practice Makes Pathways: How Repetition Shapes Adolescent Learning, Behavior, and Belonging
Why do some habits become automatic so quickly in adolescence—while others feel impossible to change?
This article explores the myelinating adolescent brain and how repetition shapes learning, behavior, and belonging. Through the story of a school-avoidant ninth grader, it shows why routines, consistency, and supportive systems matter more than motivation alone—and how schools can design Tier 1 and MTSS structures that reinforce persistence rather than avoidance.
The Pruning Brain - Use It or Lose It: How Adolescents Begin to Wire Who They Are Becoming
When I first started teaching, I believed that if I designed engaging lessons and maintained clear expectations, students would naturally respond with focus and motivation. I thought disengagement was something to fix and inconsistency was something to correct. I did not yet understand how much of what I was seeing was a reflection of adolescent development.
Years later, I would come to understand that adolescence is not a time of simple growth. It is a time of refinement. The adolescent brain is not adding endlessly. It is choosing.
This process of choosing is what neuroscientists refer to as synaptic pruning. It is the brain’s way of deciding which connections to strengthen and which to let fade. But pruning is not simply a neurological event. It is deeply personal. It is how adolescents begin to shape identity, values, interests, and purpose.
Understanding this matters because many of the behaviors that frustrate educators are not signs of apathy or immaturity. They are signs of specialization in progress.
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.