Reducing Stress In Schools

Content:

1. Identify primary stressors affecting students and educators

2. Recognize systemic vs. individual sources of stress

3. Reflect on stress within participants’ own school environments

Content:

1. Explain how stress affects brain function
2. Understand why stressed students struggle with reasoning and self-control
3. Connect neuroscience to classroom practice

Content:

1. Recognize signs of stress in students and staff

2. Differentiate between behavioral problems and stress responses

3. Understand cumulative impact of chronic stress

Content:

1. Connect stress to common classroom behaviors

2. Understand why stressed brains cannot access higher-order thinking

3. Reframe “misbehavior” as dysregulation

Content:

1. Distinguish helpful stress from harmful stress

2. Learn how to create optimal challenge in learning

3. Balance rigor with regulation

Content:

1. Evaluate school climate through a stress-reduction lens

2. Design predictable, safe learning spaces

3. Understand how belonging reduces stress

Content:

1. Implement regulation-centered classroom management

2. Replace power struggles with supportive structures

3. Use preventative strategies to reduce dysregulation

Content:

1. Apply discipline that preserves dignity

2. Reduce re-traumatization through restorative approaches

3. Teach skills rather than impose punishments

Content:

1. Understand relationships as a protective factor

2. Use connection as a preventative tool

3. Strengthen relational capacity in classrooms

Content:

Final Integration Project:

• The importance of life skills in education

• The role of teachers in fostering these skills

• How these skills will impact students’ future success