Are you ready to increase learning opportunities, reduce negative behaviors, and improve staff and student morale? Then it's time to become a brain builder! We all are aware of an alarming increase in reported behavioral disruptions in school settings. Often less understood is the critical role that the brain plays in shaping all behavior, including the challenges we face in our classrooms and beyond. Light Up the Learning Brain illuminates the many ways that teaching through a brain-based lens can breathe new life into your work. In these pages, you will discover: how the brain's two main "operating systems" interact - and often compete the amygdala's vital role as an alarm system and gatekeeper ways that brain function is closely connected to our senses the power of play, curiosity, and safety in fostering brain development tips, scripts, and tools to make your job easier and more fulfilling Blending the latest neuroscience with practical application, this book will be your guide to wake up the creative, curious, problem-solving "upstairs" brain of staff and students. Brains are dynamic and diverse, and so are the solutions presented in this accessible resource. Facts and insights are balanced with hands-on ideas that can be implemented immediately. As educators, we have a timely opportunity to empower our students to build their own big, brave, beautiful, world-changing brains - and isn't that, after all, why we chose this profession?