Flying Trees Academy

How Stress Impacts Learning and Behavior

Imagine trying to concentrate on a difficult task while a fire alarm is going off. Or while you're worried about something important. Or while you feel embarrassed, threatened, or overwhelmed. Could you still think clearly? Probably not.

That's because stress changes how the brain functions.

When human beings perceive danger, the brain prioritizes survival. Attention shifts toward identifying threats. Emotions become more intense. Problem-solving becomes more difficult. Learning becomes less efficient. From an evolutionary perspective, this makes perfect sense. If our ancestors were facing danger, the brain's job wasn't to solve algebra problems. Its job was to keep them alive. The challenge, however, is that the brain doesn't distinguish very well between physical threats and psychological threats.

For children and adolescents, stress can come from many sources: fear of failure, social conflict, embarrassment, uncertainty, feeling disconnected, feeling misunderstood, excessive pressure, and difficult life circumstances to name just a few.

When stress levels become too high, learning often suffers. And students communicate that stress through their behaviors. Some students become disruptive. Some become withdrawn. Some appear unmotivated. Some become emotional. Some seem inattentive. Sometimes educators interpret those behaviors as defiance, laziness, or a lack of effort. But stress may be part of the story.

This doesn't mean students should never experience challenge. Challenge is essential for growth. In fact, some stress is healthy. (Psychologists call this “eustress.”)

The goal is not to eliminate challenge. The goal is to reduce unnecessary stress while maintaining meaningful challenge.

There's a big difference between: "This is difficult, but I can do it." and "This feels overwhelming and unsafe."

One promotes growth. The other interferes with it. (Stress that interferes is called “distress.”)

The research on stress and its impact on learning is one reason why connection, respect, belonging, and psychological safety play such important roles in The Farris Method’s approach to education. When students feel safe, supported, and understood, their brains are better able to focus on learning.

At Flying Trees Academy, we often talk about connecting before correcting. Not because expectations don't matter. But because stressed brains struggle to learn. When students feel regulated, connected, and supported, they're more able to think clearly, solve problems, and grow from mistakes.

The question isn't: "How do we remove all stress from education?"

The better question is: "How do we create environments where students feel safe enough to engage in the productive struggle that learning requires?"

Want to learn more?
📖 The Neuroscience Behind Stress and Learning
https://www.edutopia.org/article/blog-neuroscience-behind-stress-and-learning-judy-willis/
📖 Ways to Reduce Stress for Students: 3 Actionable Classroom Steps
https://learningfocused.com/blogs/acceleration/ways-to-reduce-stress-for-students
📖 Toxic Stress and the Developing Brain
https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/toxic-stress/

Why Executive Functioning Predicts Success

Imagine two students. Both are intelligent. Both are capable. Both understand the material. But one consistently remembers assignments, manages time well, follows through on goals, adapts when things don't go as planned, and stays organized. The other struggles to keep track of materials, forgets deadlines, gives up easily when frustrated, and has difficulty planning ahead. Who is more likely to succeed?

For many years, education focused primarily on academic knowledge and skills. But researchers have increasingly recognized that another set of skills plays a critical role in long-term success: Executive functioning.

Executive functioning refers to the mental processes that help us manage ourselves and our behavior in order to achieve goals. Executive function skills include things like planning, organizing, time management, working memory, attention control, emotional regulation, flexible thinking, self-monitoring, and metacognition.

In many ways, executive functioning acts like the brain's management system or CEO. It's what helps us translate intentions into actions.

Most adults have experienced this firsthand. Knowing you’re supposed to learn isn’t the hard part. Knowing HOW to learn, and then following through to do the learning, is. And that's exactly why executive functioning matters and why we need to teach students how to develop and use it.

Research has linked strong executive functioning skills to high academic achievement, good mental health, career success, healthy relationships, goal attainment, and overall well-being.

But what's especially important to understand is that executive functioning develops gradually. The human brain is essentially a construction site for the first 25 years of life, and the prefrontal cortex where executive functioning resides is one of the last areas to complete its construction.

Humans aren't born with strong planning skills. Children don’t know how to organize their time. Teenagers don’t have the same self-regulation abilities as adults. These skills emerge over time through maturation, practice, guidance, and experience.

This is one reason why bright students can struggle in traditional schools. Sometimes the issue isn't IQ or ability. Sometimes it's executive functioning. A student may understand the math but forget to do the homework. A student may read at an advanced level but struggle to organize materials. A student may have tremendous potential but lack the systems needed to translate that potential into consistent performance.

Many people hear this and assume that students like this must have ADHD. But in most cases, these students just haven’t developed their executive function skills… largely because traditional education was never designed to teach them how to do so. In fact, Piaget’s findings suggest that a sizable proportion of adults never attain the highest level of thinking, formal operational thought, in which the brain is able to understand abstract principles which have no physical reference such as beauty, love, freedom, and morality. Formal operational thought allows for hypothetical-deductive reasoning, or developing reasonable hypotheses based on what might logically occur by thinking about all the possibilities in a situation beforehand and then testing them systematically in the mind. Formal operational reasoning is akin to true scientific thinking. Piaget’s work suggested that most adults do not regularly demonstrate formal operational thought, not because they’re incapable but because their thinking has not been sufficiently challenged to develop this higher-level skill. And that’s unfortunate, because formal operational thinking opens up so many more possibilities for understanding the nuances of adulthood and careers.

This body of work suggests that the most effective education isn't just about teaching content. It's also about helping students develop the skills required to manage themselves.

At Flying Trees Academy where we use The Farris Method, executive functioning isn't treated as an extra. It's woven into instruction all day every day. Our students learn how to set goals. Monitor their progress. Reflect on their choices. Manage responsibilities. Adapt when things don't go as planned. Because success isn't simply about what students know. It's also about whether they can consistently apply what they know and plan ways to build on that knowledge.

The question isn't: "How smart is this student?"

The better questions are: "Does this student have the tools to turn their knowledge and abilities into action?” and “What can we as educators do to help students develop these skills?”

Want to learn more?
📖 Executive Functions
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4084861/
📖 Four Strategies to Strengthen Executive Function Skills
https://www.secondstep.org/resources/blog/four-strategies-to-strengthen-executive-function-skills
📖 Executive Function Skills for Life and Learning
https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/inbrief-executive-function-skills-for-life-and-learning/

What If Education Focused More on Gamification Than Lectures?

Think about the last game you became absorbed in. Maybe it was a board game. A video game. A sport. A puzzle. A card game.

Something kept you engaged. You paid attention. Persisted through challenges. Learned from mistakes. Practiced skills. Tried again after failure. And often, you did all of this voluntarily.

Why? Because well designed, intentionally chosen games are incredibly effective learning systems. They provide clear goals, immediate feedback, appropriate challenge, opportunities for practice, a sense of progress, and motivation to keep going.

In other words, many of the things that help make games engaging are the same things that help make learning effective.

This doesn't mean classrooms should become one giant game. And it certainly doesn't mean students should spend all day staring at screens or playing trending games online.

But it does raise an interesting question: If game designers have become experts at helping people stay motivated, persist through challenges, and continuously improve, what can educators learn from them?

Researchers studying game-based learning have found that thoughtfully designed games can increase students’ engagement, motivation, participation, persistence, knowledge retention, and problem-solving.

And these benefits aren't limited to young children. They've been found in adolescents, college students, and adults as well.

What's particularly interesting is that games don't eliminate challenge. They embrace it. Players willingly tackle difficult problems because the experience is structured in a way that makes progress visible and effort meaningful.

Imagine if more students viewed learning that way. Not as something done to them. But as a challenge worth pursuing. Not because they're forced to. But because they're genuinely invested.

At its best, education should cultivate the same mindset we see in great games: Try. Learn. Adjust. Improve. Repeat.

Because learning isn't about getting everything right the first time. It's about continuing to grow. And that's exactly what great games teach us to do.

Want to learn more?
📖 Game-Based Learning and Student Engagement
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1307881/full
📖 Gamification and Game-Based Learning as Cooperative Learning Tools: A Systematic Review
https://www.learntechlib.org/p/223722/
📖 The Impact of Using Educational and Digital Games on Middle School Students Science Achievement
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1438370
📖 Game-Based Learning in Higher Education
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1046878116632484

Why Play and Laughter Belong in K-12 Education

When people imagine serious learning, they often picture serious faces. Students sitting quietly. Teachers delivering instruction. Everyone focused on the task at hand.

Play and laughter, on the other hand, are often viewed as distractions from learning. Something that happens after the work is finished or when students are goofing off.

But what if we've got that backwards? What if play isn't the opposite of learning? What if it's one of the primary ways human beings learn?

Watch young children for a few minutes and you'll see this immediately.

They learn through exploration. Experimentation. Imagination. Trial and error. They test ideas. Take risks. Solve problems. Build relationships. And they do much of it through play.

What's fascinating is that this need doesn't disappear when children get older. Adolescents still learn through exploration. They still benefit from creativity, humor, novelty, and social interaction. They still need opportunities to engage with ideas rather than simply receive them.

In fact, many of the qualities we hope to develop in elementary and secondary students – such as creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, communication, adaptability, resilience, and curiosity – are strengthened through playful learning experiences.

And laughter plays an important role as well.

Think about the classes you remember most vividly. The teachers who made you laugh. The projects you enjoyed. The experiences that made learning feel exciting rather than obligatory.

Those memories tend to stick. Not because they were less rigorous. But because they were meaningful.

Of course education shouldn't be entertainment. Students need challenge. Persistence. Practice. Productive struggle. But challenge and joy are not opposites. Rigor and enjoyment are not opposites.

In fact, when students feel connected, engaged, joyful, and genuinely interested in what they're doing, learning often becomes deeper, not weaker.

Perhaps that's why some of our most powerful learning experiences don't feel like work at all. They feel like discovery.

The question isn't whether students can learn without play and laughter. Of course they can.

The question is: Why are so many educators ignoring two of the most natural tools human beings have for learning?

Want to learn more?
📖 The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds
https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/119/1/182/70699/The-Importance-of-Play-in-Promoting-Healthy-Child
📖 Laughter and Learning: Humor Boosts Retention
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/laughter-learning-humor-boosts-retention-sarah-henderson

Why Movement Helps the Brain Learn

Imagine trying to sit quietly for six or seven hours each day. No talking. Minimal movement. Limited opportunities to explore, direct your own attention, take breaks on your own timeline, or physically engage with the world around you.

Most of us would agree that sounds difficult. I couldn’t do it. I get antsy sitting through a 45-minute meeting. Yet educators often expect students to sit through a 6 hour school day, maintain focus, comply with behavioral expectations, and then go home and do homework.

The problem is that human brains didn't evolve to sit still and passively take in information. For most of human history, learning happened through movement. Exploration. Interaction. Problem-solving. Trial and error. In other words, movement wasn't separate from learning. It was an integral part of learning.

Today, researchers are discovering that movement continues to play an important role in how the brain functions. Physical activity has been linked to improvements in attention, executive functioning, self-regulation, working memory, cognitive flexibility, mental health, and academic performance.

And perhaps most surprisingly, research suggests that recess and movement breaks do not harm academic outcomes. In many cases, they actually improve the conditions that make learning possible. Are you surprised to know that taking time for recess and movement at school can actually improve students’ academic outcomes?!

Think about it this way: When adults struggle to focus, what do we often do? We stand up. Take a walk. Stretch. Exercise. Change environments. Talk with others.

Children and adolescents are no different. Their brains and bodies were designed to move, even moreso that adult brains and bodies. Yet educators expect them to sit still and assume that they're being defiant when they move or lose their focus.

For some reason that I just can’t understand, I often hear people talk about movement as a break from learning. But that's the wrong way to think about it.

Movement isn't a break from learning. Movement is one of the ways human beings learn best.

And importantly, this doesn't stop being true when children become teenagers.

Adolescents still benefit from movement. They still benefit from opportunities to recharge, reset, and engage with the world physically. So do adults. Human development doesn't stop in elementary school. Neither do human needs. This misperception seems to stem from the industrial, puritanical model of education in which school was thought of as a little factory that trained workers for careers rather than training them how to think.

The question isn't whether students can learn while sitting still. Of course they can, at least to some extent, especially if that’s their only option.

The better questions are: How much more could students learn if they could move and play at school? How much better would learning be if education worked WITH the science of human development instead of against it?

Want to learn more?
📖 Effects of Physical Activity on Children's Executive Function
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3147174/
📖 Educational Outcomes of Recess in Elementary School Children
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10664954/
📖 Active School Breaks and Students' Attention
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8224334/
📖 Green Breaks: The Restorative Effect of the School Environment
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6176023/
📖 Benefits of School Recess: A Systematic Review
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/josh.13230
📖 Why School Recess Is Important for Kids of All Ages
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/gradeschool/school/Pages/why-school-recess-matters-for-kids-of-all-ages-AAP-policy-explained.aspx

Why Creativity Is Not an Extra

When many people think about creativity, they think about art. Drawing. Painting. Music. Crafts.

And while creativity certainly shows up in those places, creativity is much bigger than that.

At its core, creativity is the ability to generate ideas, make connections, solve problems, and imagine possibilities that don't yet exist.

In other words, creativity is not just about self-expression. It's about thinking.

Consider the challenges today's students will face:
• Many of the jobs they'll hold haven't even been invented yet.
• The technology they'll use to manage their careers and lives doesn't fully exist yet.
• That technology is bound to change many of the ways adults succeed… but at this point we can’t predict what that will look like because technology and AI are changing so rapidly.
• The problems they'll be asked to solve are still emerging as disparate aspects of a world that's becoming more and more connected.

Preparing students for that future requires more than helping them memorize information.

It requires helping them *learn how to think* with information.

That's where creativity comes in.

Research suggests that creativity and curiosity are closely connected. Curious people ask questions. Creative people explore possible answers. They come up with outside-of-the-box solutions. Together, curiosity and creativity help drive learning, innovation, and problem-solving.

This is one reason why Flying Trees Academy follows Sir Kenneth Robinson’s recommendation to place such a strong emphasis on the 8 Cs (core competencies of education). They are:
• Curiosity
• Creativity
• Critical Thinking
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Compassion
• Citizenship
• Composure

These aren't "soft skills." They're life skills. Learning skills. College and career skills. They're the tools students use to understand and apply knowledge, navigate uncertainty, build relationships, solve problems, and contribute to the world around them.

Of course students still need strong foundations in reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, and the arts. Knowledge matters. But knowledge alone isn't enough. At some point, students must learn how to use what they know. That's where creativity becomes essential.

Education shouldn't simply prepare students to remember answers. It should prepare them to ask better questions, solve meaningful problems, and create things that make the world a little better than they found it. And that requires creativity.

Want to learn more?
📖 Curiosity, Connection, and the Future of Learning
https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/curiosity-connection-and-the-future-of-learning
📖 Do Schools Kill Creativity? (Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk – Watch this and be inspired!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
📖 8 Things all Great Schools Have in Common
https://www.businessinsider.com/great-schools-share-these-8-qualities-2015-8

Why Curiosity May Be One of the Most Powerful Learning Tools We Have

Think back to a time when you became fascinated by something. Maybe it was a hobby. A sport. A television show. A historical event. A career field. A problem you couldn't stop thinking about.

Did someone have to force you to learn about it? Probably not. You likely sought out information on your own. You asked questions. You paid attention. You remembered what you learned. That's the power of curiosity.

For decades, educators have often asked a simple question: How do we get students to learn?

But researchers have been focusing on a different question: What makes people *want* to learn in the first place?

You might think the answer is motivation, but before that there’s a more notable answer: Curiosity.

Research suggests that curiosity does more than make learning enjoyable. It actually helps prepare the brain for learning.

When people become curious, their attention increases. Their motivation increases. Their engagement increases. And they're often more likely to remember what they learn. In other words, curiosity doesn't distract from learning. It fuels it.

This has incredibly important implications for education, because if curiosity helps the brain learn, then perhaps our goal as educators shouldn't simply be to deliver information.

Before we offer the information, we should create school and classroom environments that spark questions, wonder, exploration, and discovery.

Unfortunately, curiosity can be surprisingly fragile for learners of all ages.

Specifically, when learning becomes about compliance, grades, test scores, or avoiding mistakes, students may become less focused on understanding and more focused on simply getting the "right" answer or “good grades.” And when that happens, one of our most powerful learning tools can begin to fade.

The good news is that curiosity isn't something a few lucky people are born with. It's a natural human tendency that can be nurtured and strengthened so that it lasts and becomes refined throughout the entire lifespan.

Children are naturally curious. Adolescents are naturally curious. Adults are naturally curious.

So the challenge isn't really about creating curiosity. The challenge is protecting it. Because before students can become lifelong learners, they first need to remain interested in learning. And curiosity is often where that journey begins.

Want to learn more?
📖 Why Curiosity Enhances Learning
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-curiosity-enhances-learning-marianne-stenger
📖 Curiosity, Connection, and the Future of Learning
https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/curiosity-connection-and-the-future-of-learning

How Does the Human Brain Actually Learn?

When most people think about learning, they think about information. Facts. Concepts. Vocabulary words. Formulas. Historical events.

But from a neuroscience perspective, learning isn't simply the acquisition of information.

Learning is the process of physically changing the brain by building and strengthening “superhighways” of connections between neurons (brain cells). Educational psychologists define learning as "a relatively permanent change in behavior, knowledge, and thinking skills that occurs through experience" (Santrock & Roehrig [2024]. Educational psychology [8th ed.]. McGraw Hill.)

Every time we learn something new, networks of neurons communicate with one another. New pathways are formed. Existing pathways are refined through practice and experience. Some connections become stronger by wrapping active neural circuits in a fatty, insulating substance called myelin that "paves" the pathway, turning a slow thought process or behavior into a lightning-fast, automatic response.

In other words: Learning is not just something the brain does to gain information. True learning is a process that changes the brain in a relatively permanent way. So for example, when you learned the alphabet as a child, you built and strengthened neural circuits. At first you had to sing parts of the song with help, then you could sing the whole song, and now as an adult you can probably alphabetize files without much thought at all. Once you learned how to ride a bike or drive a car, you practiced and it became so automatic that now you’d be able to ride or drive even after a 15-year hiatus from doing so. That’s what I’m referring to when I’m talking about learning. Relatively permanent changes in the brain's structure and function.

This definition has enormous implications for education because it means that learning isn't something teachers can simply deliver.

Teachers can present information. Teachers can ask questions. Teachers can create opportunities. But ultimately, students must actively engage with experiences in ways that strengthen and build neural connections in order to true learning to occur.

This helps explain something every parent and teacher has observed: Two students can sit through the exact same lesson and learn very different amounts. The lesson is the same. Their brain activity and learning outcomes are not.

Research suggests that one-and-done lessons don’t really produce learning in the way we’re defining it. Basic learning can happen that way, but true, deep learning happens when students connect new information to what they already know, actively engage with ideas rather than passively receive them, feel psychologically safe, are curious and interested, practice and apply what they're learning – the applications should occur both in and outside of the classroom, receive and use meaningful feedback, and have opportunities to reflect on their thinking.

So learning as a true, developmental process is different than the learn-perform-forget type of learning that most of us experienced. At one point I knew all of the state capitals and got an A on a test about them, but I no longer know them because it didn’t matter to me. I didn't truly "learn" them because I didn't make the time or effort to build lasting connections in my brain. If I had been taught in a way that connected them, perhaps by doing a project where I wrote about an imaginary cross-country road trip with stops in every state’s capital, then I’d probably still remember most of them today. This is a very basic example of how a student can do great on a test but not really learn.

Importantly, this concept doesn't just apply to young children. It applies to adolescents, too. (And adults, but since our focus here is K-12 education I’ll limit the current discussion to children and adolescents.)

Researchers now know that the teenage brain is undergoing one of the most significant periods of development in the human lifespan. Adolescence is not simply a time of "surviving the teen years." It is a critical period for building the neural pathways that support decision-making, self-regulation, planning, relationships, identity development, and lifelong learning throughout the remainder of the lifespan.

That's why education shouldn't be about just helping students acquire knowledge and do well on tests. It should be about helping students build sophisticated brains that are capable of acquiring, retaining, and using that knowledge effectively on tests AND for the rest of their lives.

Of course facts matter. Knowledge matters. Academic skills matter.

But if learning is literally the process of changing the brain, then we should probably spend more time thinking about the conditions that help students’ brains learn best.

Because before we ask, "What should students learn?"

We should first ask: How do human brains learn in the first place?

Want to learn more?
📖 Growing Brains, Nurturing Minds: Neuroscience as an Educational Tool to Support Students’ Development as Life-Long Learners (Note: FTA uses both of the methods recommended in this paper. We teach students about their brains and we consider the neuro-mechanisms of learning in our instructional design. Watching our students learn about how their brains work, and that their brain is in charge of itself, is such a fun experience!)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9775149/
📖 Deciphering the Teenage Brain
https://hms.harvard.edu/news/deciphering-teenage-brain
📖 Teen Species (This is one of my favorite video series ever! It’s factual and research based, but there are explicit portions of the videos in relation to puberty, the body, and s*x. This series is not appropriate for children and should be viewed by parents before deciding whether their teens are ready to watch it.)
https://www.amazon.com/Teen-Species/dp/B0CP7LF2MR