McCormick Institute for Early Childhood

BY Leslie Layman | November 12, 2025

A woman wearing glasses and a suit is smiling in front of a flag.

Sim Loh is a family partnership coordinator at Children’s Village, a nationally-accredited Keystone 4 STARS early learning and school-age enrichment program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serving about 350 children. She supports children and families, including non-English speaking families of immigrant status, by ensuring equitable access to education, health, employment, and legal information and resources on a day-to-day basis. She is a member of the Children First Racial Equity Early Childhood Education Provider Council, a community member representative of Philadelphia School District Multilingual Advisory Council, and a board member of Historic Philadelphia.


Sim explains, “I ensure families know their rights and educate them on ways to speak up for themselves and request for interpretation/translation services. I share families’ stories and experiences with legislators and decision-makers so that their needs are understood. Attending Leadership Connections will help me strengthen and grow my skills in all domains by interacting with and hearing from experienced leaders in different positions. With newly acquired skills, I seek to learn about the systems level while paying close attention to the accessibility and barriers of different systems and resources and their impacts on young children and their families.”

A table showing the comparison of pre and post intervention of fas scores

This document may be printed, photocopied, and disseminated freely with attribution. All content is the property of the McCormick Institute for Early Childhood.

BY LESLIE LAYMAN


Introduction: Building on Intentional Design


In part one of this “Scaffolded Beginnings” series, Emilie Austin, McCormick Institute for Early Childhood’s Manager of Learning Design Experience, spoke to the importance of intentional design and scaffolding to support new employees in deepening their learning during orientation. This second part of the series covers the importance of operational leadership in helping that learning to “stick” so that employees can successfully apply skills learned in orientation to their new roles.


Many organizations structure orientation as a “big day” of meeting people, reviewing handbooks and procedures, and maybe sharing coffee and sweets. On that day, new employees are taking on a new role, expectations, and culture while trying to understand and memorize functional processes and procedures. Going beyond the big day by applying intentional environmental design and contextual, participatory learning theory in your day-to-day helps your employees own and grow into their place in your organization’s culture.


Applying a Reggio-Inspired Approach to Onboarding


Intentional leaders are responsible for both the administrative leadership of the workplace environment and the strategic leadership and guidance of the organization. Both areas are involved in scaffolding new employees from understanding what they have learned during orientation to applying that information in their new role throughout and beyond the onboarding and training process (Talan, Masterson, & Bella).


Loris Malaguzzi’s Reggio approach to early childhood education is a useful framework for thinking of and planning for new employees as learners and participants in the environment, as well as educators and carers of children and families.


“To make a lovable school, industrious, inventive, liveable, documentable and communicable, a place of research, learning, re-cognition and reflection, where children, teachers and families feel well - is our point of arrival.” -Loris Malaguzzi (Sourced from: Institutionzione del Comune di Reggio Emilia)


Each of the Reggio Values can be used to create a shared learning space where educators and children can thrive. A few examples include:


  • Children are active protagonists in their growing processes
    And so are adult learners! Find ways to make new employees the “lead” in the story of their onboarding. New employees can participate in individualized goal setting to help them feel in control of their professional development. 
  • Progettazione/Designing
    People of all ages learn by doing. Support new employees to participate in designing training and learning experiences rather than providing only pre-planned or scripted training.
  • The Hundred Languages
    People bring all of themselves, their experiences, and their ways of being to learning and work environments, and they gain new knowledge through active co-construction. Integrating learning experiences into the work environment can help training become more memorable and easier to apply. One example is implementing training on technology or documentation tools as they are being used in context.
  • Participation
    New employees need opportunities to participate in the environment as they are learning and to experience the emotions and culture of the role. Observation time is important, and being an active team member early on is also important.
  • Organization and the Environment
    Intentional planning of the way in which employees will interact with the space makes learning more fluid. Some ideas include:
  • making sure that the resources needed for tasks are in functional locations,
  • having deadlines for documentation or responding to family communications built into the daily schedule, and
  • modeling intentional care for children by demonstrating deliberate care for the space. Thoughtfully organize adult materials and create a welcoming, inviting environment for adults and children. 


Leadership Insight: Apply what you know about Learning and environments


The same principles of guiding the learning and independence of children in the educational environment can be applied when helping new staff to move beyond understanding their role to actively embodying their role on your early care and education team. This process can be applied using the early education and care philosophies that are most important to you and relevant to your leadership context.


Reflecting on the philosophical and curricular choices you have made for your program and why you chose them can help you think about how you may want to apply those approaches for adult learning. This strategy works because it is integrated and intentional, and it builds skills by modeling skills in the “real world” context to make them stick. 


Resources for Further Exploration


  • Scuole E Nindi D’Infanzia, Institutionzione del Comune di Reggio Emilia. (N.D). Reggio Emelia Approach. Reggiochildren.it, https://www.reggiochildren.it/en/reggio-emilia-approach/




Citations



Leslie Layman, M.S., is the Senior Director of Professional Learning and Innovation at the McCormick Institute for Early Childhood at National Louis University. In this role, she supports professional learning, including training, academies, coaching, and learning design. Prior to joining McCormick, Leslie was the Director of Early Childhood Education Strategic Initiatives at National Louis University, Director-Teaching and Learning Programs at Harry S. Truman College, and had many years of experience in early intervention, home visiting, and supporting children with developmental delays and their families. She holds Baccalaureate degrees in Psychology and Italian from University of Wisconsin, and a Master of Science in Child Development with a specialization in children with special needs from Erikson Institute.

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The AI-Enabled Administrator: Reclaim Valuable Time

By Dr. Neal Green • February 8, 2026
Tools: Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, Perplexity Spaces Overview The evidence is clear that early childhood professionals' most significant challenge is a lack of time. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, when used strategically, can give administrators some of the time they desperately need, allowing them to focus more on their staff and the children and families in their care. This approach aligns with the foundational goal of strengthening leadership effectiveness and program impact (Abel, Talan, & Masterson, 2023). When I scan the AI landscape of available products and platforms, it becomes overwhelming. There are so many options that it is impossible to keep up with every new development. Focusing on a limited number of AI tools backed by organizations with strong infrastructure and fiscal stability is a wise place to start your AI journey. McCormick Institute for Early Childhood’s (MIEC’s) upcoming professional development sessions will focus on three AI tools. These include Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, and Perplexity Spaces. Think of Gemini Gems as your customized AI assistant that you "train" to follow your rules and meet your goals. Gemini Gems are the right tool to tackle Internal Operations . NotebookLM is perfect for creating Family Support resources that stick. NotebookLM is a powerful AI tool that uses only the documents or other resources you add to generate specific, focused output. Perplexity Spaces is a fantastic choice to address Marketing demands. Like many AI tools, you can toggle back and forth between open web searches and focused documents that are specific to your work. Gemini Gems: The “Specialist Teammate” Gemini Gems allow you to create templates you can use repeatedly for agendas, HR policies, and more. If you have used AI in the past, you know that writing an effective prompt takes time, and they can easily get "lost" if you use AI often. Gems removes that challenge and lets you save your most effective prompts without having to rewrite them every time you use Gemini. It is up to you to decide if you want to create several smaller Gems to tackle common challenges you face or create larger Gems that encompass large swaths of your work. For our purposes, we will focus our Gem work on Internal Operations, addressing Program Administration Scale (PAS) Item 9: Internal Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). Imagine using a Gem to turn messy staff meeting notes into professional minutes with clear action plans in minutes or less! NotebookLM: The "Walled Garden" NotebookLM is an excellent tool for Family Support for your center, addressing PAS Item 17: Family Support and Involvement (Talan & Bloom, 2011). After uploading documents and resources, such as your parent handbook or community referral lists, to your Notebook, you can create several resources that parents/guardians of your center students will love. Just a few of the impressive features available with NotebookLM include audio (podcast) summaries, video summaries, and reporting functions with templates or the option to create your own report with metrics that matter most to you. Perplexity Spaces: The "Research Librarian" Perplexity Spaces is a perfect AI partner for Marketing your early childhood education (ECE) program, addressing PAS Item 18: External Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). You can build your own centralized repository, with control over branding to ensure consistency and present a professional, current image. Adding specific instructions to your space eliminates the need to format documents constantly and saves valuable time. The consistency that a Perplexity Space offers in this regard allows you to upload messages that are the "voice” of your brand. Your marketing efforts are not only more aesthetically pleasing but also enable you to track trends at similar centers in your area, helping you assess the competition. Strategies for Success: Audit your Internal Communications: Identify one repetitive task, such as creating staff meeting agendas (PAS Item 9), and automate it with a Gemini Gem. Curate your Family Resources: Gather three to five existing documents to "feed" a NotebookLM project for more responsive family support (PAS Item 17). Standardize your Brand: Use a Perplexity Space to ensure all public relations tools project a consistent, professional image (PAS Item 18). Reflection Questions: Which administrative task takes the most time away from your interactions with staff and families? How might centralizing marketing materials (branding) impact the professional image to prospective families? Table 1: AI Tools for ECE Professionals
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