Raise a thinker, a feeler, and a force for good
DGLA is a hybrid K–12 + Early Learning academy (ages 2–18) uniting rigorous NGSS-based STEM thinking, Montessori and Reggio Emilia pedagogy, and a whole-child Mind-Body-Soul wellness framework — so every student is academically prepared, emotionally regulated, and purpose-driven. Students thrive across physical campuses in Fayetteville NC, Dallas TX, and Valley Village CA, and through a seamless online learning environment.
"Every child who walks into a DGLA environment — physical or virtual — deserves to be seen as a whole person, challenged as a real thinker, and sent into the world knowing exactly who they are."— shera13
What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Apply NGSS Science and Engineering Practices — asking questions, designing solutions, and arguing from evidence — to real-world interdisciplinary challenges across all grade levels.
- Recognize and use Cross-Cutting Concepts (patterns, cause-and-effect, systems thinking) as universal lenses that connect STEM learning to everyday life and other disciplines.
- Develop independence, self-direction, and a prepared-environment mindset through Montessori-anchored routines that build executive function from Early Learning through high school.
- Collaborate on inquiry projects and express learning through multiple creative modalities — art, language, construction, and performance — rooted in the Reggio Emilia approach.
- Navigate emotional regulation, social challenges, and personal growth using the SRG (Support, Regulation, Growth) framework, building non-clinical mental-health literacy and character without relying on traditional SEL labels.
- Demonstrate whole-child wellness habits aligned to Mind (reflective cognitive growth), Body (physical and kinesthetic vitality), and Soul (ethical reasoning and purpose), fulfilling DGLA's Maslow-grounded self-actualization mission.
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
6 modules · 23 lessons
Foundations of the DGLA Learning Identity
This opening module orients every learner — from Early Learning through Grade 12 — to who they are as a DGLA student and how the Academy's three-dimensional 3×3 model shapes every experience. Students build a personal Learning Portrait that they will return to and update throughout the year. Sequenced first because all subsequent modules assume students can locate themselves inside the model.
- 1.1Who Am I as a Learner? — Building a DGLA Learning PortraitIncluded
- 1.2The 3×3 Map — Seeing the Whole ModelIncluded
- 1.3Prepared Environments — Designing Spaces That Support All Three DimensionsIncluded
NGSS Science and Engineering Practices — Thinking and Doing Like a Scientist
This module builds the first Academic 3 pillar: Science and Engineering Practices. Students learn and practice all eight NGSS SEPs, with emphasis on the four most transferable to interdisciplinary work. Sequenced after the identity and model foundations so students can consciously apply SEPs through their emerging DGLA lens. Lessons progress from generating questions → gathering evidence → making meaning → defending claims.
- 2.1Asking Questions and Defining Problems — The Engine of InquiryIncluded
- 2.2Planning and Carrying Out Investigations — From Idea to EvidenceIncluded
- 2.3Analyzing Data and Constructing Explanations — Turning Numbers into KnowledgeIncluded
- 2.4Arguing from Evidence — Productive Disagreement as a Learning SuperpowerIncluded
Cross-Cutting Concepts — Universal Lenses for Connected Thinking
This module builds the second Academic 3 pillar: Cross-Cutting Concepts. Students learn to use patterns, cause-and-effect, systems thinking, structure-function-scale, and the remaining NGSS CCCs as portable intellectual lenses that work across every discipline. Sequenced after SEPs because students now have investigation experience to analyze through these lenses. The module also surfaces connections to Mind-Body-Soul wellness, making the 3×3 integration visible.
- 3.1Patterns and Cause-and-Effect — The Two Foundation LensesIncluded
- 3.2Systems Thinking — Seeing the Whole When Everyone Studies a PartIncluded
- 3.3Structure, Function, and Scale — Why Things Are Built the Way They AreIncluded
- 3.4Energy, Matter, and Stability — Flows, Cycles, and Change Over TimeIncluded
Disciplinary Core Ideas — Deep Knowledge Across the Four NGSS Domains
This module builds the third Academic 3 pillar: Disciplinary Core Ideas. Students now apply the SEPs (Module 2) and CCCs (Module 3) to deepen content knowledge across all four NGSS DCI domains. Sequenced after SEPs and CCCs because the practices and lenses are tools — this module is the material those tools act upon. Each lesson is contextualized in the real geographies of Fayetteville, Dallas, and Valley Village to honor DGLA's multi-site mission.
- 4.1Life Science — Living Systems, Growth, and InterdependenceIncluded
- 4.2Physical Science — Forces, Energy, and Matter in the Real WorldIncluded
- 4.3Earth and Space Science — Local Land, Climate, and Planetary ConnectionsIncluded
- 4.4Engineering Design — Defining Problems, Prototyping Solutions, IteratingIncluded
Mind-Body-Soul Wellness — The SRG Framework and Whole-Child Development
This module builds the Wellness 3 pillar through the SRG (Support, Regulation, Growth) framework — DGLA's non-clinical replacement for traditional SEL and character education models. Sequenced here — after the three Academic 3 modules — because students now have rich academic experiences to draw on as wellness material. The SRG cycle (Support → Regulation → Growth) is the correct pedagogical sequence; lessons are reordered from the draft to honor this logic. The Body dimension is repositioned as its own full lesson within the SRG arc rather than an afterthought, and a Soul-integration capstone lesson is added to close the whole-child arc.
- 5.1Support — Building Safe Connections and a Culture of CareIncluded
- 5.2Regulation — The Mind-Body Connection and Emotional Literacy Without LabelsIncluded
- 5.3Body — Physical Vitality, Kinesthetic Learning, and Creative ExpressionIncluded
- 5.4Growth — Purpose, Character, and the Soul DimensionIncluded
Integrated Pedagogy in Practice — Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and SRG Across the 3×3
This capstone module makes DGLA's three pedagogical approaches — Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and SRG-Whole Child — fully operational across the entire 3×3 model. Sequenced last because students now have the content knowledge, skills, wellness foundations, and self-awareness to synthesize everything through an integrated pedagogical frame. The draft's three original lessons are preserved and expanded; a capstone integration lesson is added to close the full curriculum arc and prepare students for the next cycle of learning.
- 6.1The Montessori Work Cycle — Independence, Focus, and Self-Correcting LearningIncluded
- 6.2Reggio Emilia's Hundred Languages — Multi-Modal Expression as Intellectual RigorIncluded
- 6.3Collaborative Inquiry Projects — Learning Together Across DifferencesIncluded
- 6.4Capstone Integration — Demonstrating the Full 3×3 in ActionIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
Military families on the move
DGLA's consistent 3×3 framework across campuses and online means your child's learning identity travels with them, not against them, through every PCS move.
STEM-focused parents
Your child won't just learn science facts — they'll think and work like a scientist, applying NGSS practices and Cross-Cutting Concepts to real interdisciplinary challenges from day one.
Early childhood advocates
For parents of toddlers and preschoolers, DGLA's Montessori-prepared environments and Reggio Emilia creative modalities build executive function, curiosity, and joyful independence from age 2.
Wellness-minded families
If you want your child to understand their emotions without clinical labels or stigma, DGLA's SRG framework and Mind-Body-Soul model deliver real emotional literacy woven into every school day.
High school students with purpose
Teenagers who want to go beyond GPA will find rigorous capstone projects, ethical reasoning, and a reflective learning identity that prepares them for college and a life of meaning.
Diverse professional families
Busy dual-career and multicultural households in Fayetteville, Dallas, and Southern California appreciate DGLA's values-centered, hybrid flexibility that never sacrifices academic depth for convenience.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
shera13
If you're reading this, I have a feeling you've already tried to fit your child into a box — and watched them not quite fit. Maybe the school was academically strong but emotionally hollow. Maybe it felt warm and nurturing but academically soft. Maybe it worked beautifully until your family relocated, and you had to start all over again. I see you. That tension — between rigor and wholeness, between structure and flexibility, between where your family is and where your child needs to grow — is exactly the problem DeGrio Global Learning Academy was built to solve.
What we've designed at DGLA isn't a collection of good programs layered on top of each other. It's a single, unified architecture — the 3×3 framework — that holds NGSS science thinking, Montessori independence, Reggio Emilia creative expression, and our SRG wellness model in genuine relationship with one another. A child learning to argue from evidence in a science investigation is also practicing emotional regulation and collaborative character. A student designing a prototype in engineering is also exercising the systems-thinking lens that will help them understand climate, economics, and human relationships. Nothing is siloed here. Everything is on purpose.
I want to be honest with you about something: the wellness piece is not a soft add-on to make parents feel good. The SRG Framework — Support, Regulation, Growth — is intellectually serious. It gives children non-clinical, stigma-free language for what's happening inside them, and it teaches them to move through discomfort toward purpose rather than around it. The Mind-Body-Soul model is Maslow-grounded and built into daily routines, not delivered as a separate "feelings class" on Fridays. Your child will graduate DGLA knowing how to think and knowing who they are.
And for our military families, our professional families who move, our parents who need the Fayetteville campus this year and the online environment next year — we built this for you too. The same framework, the same Learning Portrait, the same prepared-environment principles operate across every DGLA campus and our online learning space. Your child doesn't reset when your family moves. They deepen.
You are the most important partner in your child's education, and DGLA treats you that way. From the very first unit — Who Am I as a Learner? — your child begins building a Learning Portrait that belongs to them, not to a grade or a test score. I invite you to come see what that looks like in practice. The door is open.
— shera13
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- 6 modules, 23 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
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