“What our students really crave the most is predictability from the adults interacting with them,” says Roger Sapp, a student success teacher at KIPP. For that reason, the one-on-one session is not a reward for being “good” or withheld if something bad happens. The kids who need it can count on it – every day.

The scene is from a video by Edutopia (aka the George Lucas Educational Foundation), which has produced a series of more than 20 powerful, engaging shorts on how children learn in collaboration with several organizations devoted to education and learning  (see below). The series – How Learning Happens – features  Linda Darling-Hammond, Ed.D., president and CEO of Learning Policy Institute, and Pamela Cantor, MD, founder and senior science advisor of Turnaround for Children. With vivid storytelling and animations, the series shows us teaching practices grounded in the science of learning and development.

The good news? In a positive school climate of trust and security, children’s brain can be rewired for the better.

For children who’ve experienced toxic stress from abuse, neglect, divorce and other Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), this approach is invaluable.

Research shows that even simple changes like greeting children at the school door with a smile or high-five can work wonders. And this is what makes the series so exciting. It’s not just about improving schools for everyone – although the teaching practices it showcases certainly will. It’s about helping solve a major public health crisis: the impact of childhood adversity and trauma, which can harm children’s brain chemistry, immune system, and mental and physical health over a lifetime if left unaddressed.

Click HERE to read the StressHealth article,