PD & Adult Learning

EXPLORE IT .

Case Study
Summary

I designed and implemented la Scuola’s entire restorative practices and adult learning architecture during a period of rapid school expansion. This work established the school’s behavioral foundation, unified a diverse faculty across campuses, and created deeply human rituals that strengthened culture, aligned instructional practice, and increased staff engagement and retention. My PD systems became the core of teacher onboarding, daily practice, and community identity. 

Challenge

When La Scuola expanded into a multi-campus PreK-8 international school, instructors were struggling with inconsistent behavior expectations, uneven classroom management practices, high emotional fatigue, and fragmented communication between campuses.

The school needed:

  • A unified discipline and behavior system rooted in Reggio Emilia values
  • Scalable adult training infrastructure for new and veteran teachers
  • A common restorative language across teachers, students, and families
  • A sustainable end-of-year closure practice to maintain culture and reduce attrition

The challenge was not simply teaching restorative practices.

The challenge was building an adult learning architecture that would shift mindsets, instructional habits, and cultural norms across an entire institution.

My Role

I designed the entire restorative practices system – from conceptual frameworks to teacher-facing PD to student-facing models and parent education.

In order to succeed in this endeavor, I:

  • Led whole-faculty professional development sessions for all campuses
  • Created all teacher training decks, facilitation guides, and protocols
  • Built the Agreements System (school-wide behavior anchor)
  • Designed tiered intervention models for behavior support
  • Facilitated cultural-rites-of-passage experiences like Reaping the Harvest 
  • Trained leadership teams to internalize and model restorative approaches
  • Built parent communication structures aligned with RP values

I was the architect, designer, facilitator, and steward of the school’s cultural backbone.

What I designed

The Curriculum uses three pillars:

1. Restorative Practices Training System

[Artifacts: Why Circles slide, Social discipline window, Compass of Shame, Nine affects, Circle facilitation steps, Tiered support model]

2. The Agreements System

[Any artifacts not used in agreements…would be really great to get the images of students presenting…I think I have it.]

3. Reaping the Harvest

[Artifacts that show this]

This is my anchor piece – beautiful and unique.

Artifacts include: reflection routines slide, prompts, group closure structure, emotional cadence.

Impact

School-Wide Adoption & Cultural Shift

  • RP, Agreements, and reflection routines became the official behavioral and relational framework of the entire school
  • Systems I built served as onboarding tools for every new staff member
  • Teachers used the models to design their own classroom cultures, project-based learning routines, and conflict intervention structures

Sustained Engagement & Morale During Organizational Growth

  • Despite rapid expansion to multiple campuses, faculty reported greater clarity, shared purpose, and alignment
  • End of year Reaping the Harvest became a cornerstone tradition that reinforced staff belonging, reduced burnout, and increased return rates

Elevated Professional Learning Culture

  • My PD sessions became known for exceptionally high engagement
  • Veteran teachers adopted my techniques for their own facilitation
  • New teachers relied on RP tools immediately and consistently

Downstream Impact

  • Behavior plans, SEL initiatives, and the school handbook all rooted themselves in the frameworks I introduced
  • RP vocabulary became the default language among teachers, administrators, and even students
  • The school maintained cultural continuity through leadership transitions – evidence of the durability of the systems