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4.5 Ways Special Ed Will Outperform Gen Ed

How to Build an “Anxiety-Free” Environment in Your Classroom

September 21, 2026

Previously, I wrote about How to Help Your Students Manage Anxiety. If you haven’t read that article yet, I suggest you start with it, here. It explains what causes anxiety, which is key to understanding how to manage it. Today, I want to share some strategies for building an “anxiety-free” environment in your classroom. Obviously,…

How to Help Students Manage Anxiety

September 10, 2026

The key to helping students manage anxiety is to understand what’s happening in their brain. “Emotions are the on/off switch to learning,” says Priscilla Vail, author of Smart Kids with School Problems. You and I both know this is true. We know from our own experience that it’s pretty hard to learn geometry theorems when…

The Challenge of Executive Function:
What’s the Antidote?

September 7, 2026

“Students Greatest Need Is Executive Function!” This year, in the SOAR® Learning Laboratories, we challenged ourselves to discover “What do students in special education need the most?” We interviewed special education educators from across the country, expecting to make a “top ten” list we could narrow down to the “top three things” students need. However, we were stunned when one response came…

The Motivation Circuit: How Motivation Works

August 27, 2026

The Motivation Circuit Video Transcription “Motivation” is the term we use to describe a power surge from the emotional region of the brain. When the emotional region of your brain is happy, comfortable, and engaged, it makes a lot of brain chemicals. This provides a hefty power boost the rest of the brain, making learning…

The Learning CircuitTM: How Learning Works

August 17, 2026

The Learning Circuit Video Transcription Learning is nothing more than your brain creating new wires. How does this work? Every time you learn something new, your brain powers a connection from something you already understand. When this happens, the neuron wires in your brain –the information you already understand– create new wires to capture the…

RTI Tier 3 Interventions:
Step Back Before Going Forward

August 14, 2026

Brain-First Learning for an AI World Tier 3 Interventions RTI Tier 3 Interventions: Step Back Before Going Forward When the wrong gap is being targeted, “more intensity” isn’t the answer. Tier 3 is where we stop escalating and start digging deeper — finding the exact place the learning circuit breaks down. She averaged 11% on…

RTI Tier 2 Interventions:
Elements of Effective Intervention Lessons

August 14, 2026

Brain-First Learning for an AI World Tier 2 Interventions RTI Tier 2 Interventions: Elements of Effective Intervention Lessons When Tier 1 builds the foundation, Tier 2 builds the bridge. The pattern is hard to predict… You’ve tried slowing things down. You’ve tried different programs. You’ve tried more repetition, different modalities, fresh starts. Some of it…

RTI Tier 1 Interventions:
The Small Set of Skills with 80% Impact

August 14, 2026

Brain-First Learning for an AI World TIER 1 INTERVENTIONS RTI Tier 1 Interventions: Avoid Differentiation at the Wrong Layer Teach What’s Universal, Honor What’s Individual The Brain Circuit™ — how every brain connects new information to what it already knows. This universal layer of learning is what Tier 1 instruction serves. “Executive function is EVERYTHING.…

How to Solve Our National Motivation Crisis

February 18, 2026

The United States’ Motivation Crisis is so pervasive; we look right through it. A fish is the last one to know he swims in water. Likewise, the solution is so simple, you might miss its full power. How to Solve the Motivation Crisis We simply need to “change the conversation!” We need to stop focusing on deficiencies…

Student Motivation Is a National Crisis…
and NO ONE Is Talking About It!

February 12, 2026

Student motivation is a national crisis! Across every boundary: gender, racial, geographic, academic, and socioeconomic… students simply don’t care. Everyone knows our education system is in turmoil. It’s critically disconnected from the real-world. People attempt to improve education with STEM or STEAM programs. Or, they try to build “critical thinking skills.” But no one is talking about the…

Six Steps
Conquer the Chaos


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