Horacio Sanchez | President and CEO of Resiliency Inc., Multi-state Department of Education Consultant, Keynote Speaker and Author

Horacio Sanchez

President and CEO of Resiliency Inc., Multi-state Department of Education Consultant, Keynote Speaker and Author

Horacio Sanchez
Biography

Horacio Sanchez is a highly sought-after speaker and educational consultant, helping schools learn to apply neuroscience to improve educational outcomes. He presents on diverse topics such as overcoming the impact of poverty, improving school climate, engaging in brain-based instruction, and addressing issues related to implicit bias. He is recognized as one of the nation’s leading authorities on resiliency and applied brain science.

His diverse education and background have helped him to merge research, science, and practice. Horacio sits on True Health Initiative Council of Directors, a coalition of more than 250 world-renowned health experts, committed to educating on proven principles of lifestyle as medicine. He has authored several articles and books on the topics of resiliency, closing the achievement gap, and applying neuroscience to improve educational practices and outcomes. He is the author of the best-selling book, The Education Revolution, which applies brain science to improve instruction, behaviors, and school climate. His new book, The Poverty Problem, explains how education can promote resilience and counter poverty’s impact on brain development and functioning.

Horacio Sanchez
Featured Video

Current: Learning & the Brain Conference

Time 02:24

Brain-Based

In the world of high-stakes testing, teachers struggle to find strategies that are effective with all students. Differentiated instruction is an often utilized term that is seldom implemented because educational institutions fail to train teachers on how they can differentiate instruction for each student in a manner that does not require multiple lesson plans and an understanding of each student’s learning style. This session is designed to provide teachers an effective model for implementing brain-based strategies in an easy, effective, and proven manner. Session Goals Learn a framework for understanding all students Understand the science behind validated brain-based strategies Experience how each brain-based strategy can be used in a classroom

Designing School Climates that Maximize Student Achievement

Neuroscience has identified self-regulation to be the greatest predictor of academic success and behavioral control. When the school environment promotes self-regulation, all students will benefit because it increases the opportunities for students to work to their capacity. There are three specific elements school environments need to promote self-regulation:

The first element is the ability to create a highly ritualized school climate, which promotes the perception of safety and predictability. This foundational element promotes and helps maintain homeostasis—the range of chemical functioning required for individuals to maximize performance.

The second element is the ability to cultivate a social climate in which students from diverse cultures and backgrounds can establish positive interpersonal relationships. This element can be achieved by specific strategies designed to focus on what students share in common and by learning to work cooperatively. The social climate strongly dictates how the emotional brain, the amygdala, performs:
enables students to maintain emotional control, accurately interpret social cues, and be less prone to exhibiting extreme behaviors.

The third element is to improve focus. Teachers can be trained how to help students regain and maintain the focus that is diminishing as a result of increased interaction with technology. Learning begins with focus. As students lose the ability to concentrate, their academic performance suffers regardless of intelligence. However, it can be easily restored through some specific exercises designed to improve focus and learning. When students experience success in the classroom due to improved focus, it will increase their motivation. The brain chemically reinforces things we succeed at; thereby, creating new habits.

This training provides educators with a process for understanding and even predicting human behavior, as well as teaching participants how to promote the three elements identified in the research to promote self-regulation. In addition, this interactive training not only provides the latest information on self-regulation found in neuroscience but also provides concrete solutions.

Bias

The human brain produces bias as a natural process of how it learns. The brain associates things easily and this process can lead to a person consciously thinking one thing while the brain subconsciously associates it to something else. These subconscious associations influence what we think, how we react, and even how we behave. It has been determined that individuals can even develop biases that contradict the values and beliefs that are most important to them. This means that educators who are strong student advocates can unwittingly develop subtle behaviors that undermined students.

Biases are developed by societal patterns and no one is exempt because we live in the same society. In addition, biases can be shaped by patterns in a school or district. Whenever students belonging to a group consistently unperformed or misbehave, it is almost impossible for all staff not to develop some biases related to students belonging to that group. Complicating things further is the fact that biases are often mislabeled as racism and this mistake increases tension and division between groups. The truth is that we all have biases; it is a byproduct of the human brain.

However, if educators learn:
What bias is
How it occurs
And how to identify societal and environmental biases
Then they can help mitigate its negative impacts.

Learning about bias will help individuals across races and cultures improve their ability to work with on another and better understand the dynamics that occur during daily encounters that influence attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions.

Poverty’s Impact on the Brain

Poverty is the single most significant event impacting education today. Every year school districts dedicate resources, draft policies, and create new services to meet the academic and behavioral challenges associated with students coming from poverty. However, much of the attempts of education to address the need of students in poverty are occurring without vital information on how poverty is transforming the brains of students today. Attempting to address the issues of poverty with only partial information is like completing a puzzle with key pieces missing. When the puzzle is assembled with the pieces you have you can make out the general picture but many key details of the image are lost. The brain transformations resulting from poverty speak to the heart of the academic and behavioral issues schools seek to overcome. The neuroscience of poverty provides not only a clear picture as to the whys academic and behavioral problems are occurring but also how to design a more precise response to best address the issues.

Horacio Sanchez
Featured Books

The Poverty Problem: How Education Can Promote Resilience and Counter Poverty's Impact on Brain Development and Functioningby Horacio Sanchez

The Poverty Problem: How Education Can Promote Resilience and Counter Poverty's Impact on Brain Development and Functioning

by Horacio Sanchez
The Education Revolutionby Horacio Sanchez

The Education Revolution

by Horacio Sanchez

Maximizing student capacity and restoring motivation--the key to school success

Brain research has the power to revolutionize education, but it can be difficult for educators to implement innovative strategies without the proper knowledge or resources. The Education Revolution bridges the gap between neuroscience, psychology, and educational practice. It delivers what educators need: current and relevant concrete applications to use in classrooms and schools. Readers will find

  • Teaching strategies and model lessons designed to advance academic performance
  • Solution-focused practices to address the root of negative behaviors
  • Approaches to counteract the negative impact of technology on the brain
  • Concrete methods to improve school climate

Horacio Sanchez
Featured Reviews

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