A November to Remember - Mustaches & Novels

November is going to be an incredibly busy month around Kornerstone School...I wanted to take time to update the entire Kornerstone community about two adventures happening during the month of November. The first adventure is Movember. Movember is a month long movement to raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancer. This follows breast cancer awareness month (October). I have started a Movember team, you can join by going here and clicking on 'Join My Team' in the center-right of the page. As stated on Wikipedia, the rules of Movember are:

Women are just as important in this as men. Although women are not able to grow mustaches, they can support the cause by joining a team and spreading the word.

I did Movember last year. I had never attempted growing a mustache before. My brother-in-law (Dr. Jerry Reinardy) is a teacher at Wausau West, and he talked me into joining his team. It's hard to explain the bonding that took place on our team. Here's a picture of my family from last year at Thanksgiving:

We raised over $3500 as a team, it went to a great cause, and I plan on doing this every year. I'm not sure why, but it's not harming anyone and the charity effort is legit. One person runs Movember, you can follow him on Twitter @Movember or @DMKIV. Here's another reason why I want to have a Kornerstone team: it's fun. This is another opportunity to celebrate individual's uniqueness. Although I cannot grow a mustache in a month, my colleague Josh can grow a full beard in an afternoon. If your son or daughter comes home and wants to join the team, please let me know. 

I also see this as a long term project. This is an annual event, this is a Service-Learning opportunity, this can catch fire.

Part II - Writing a novel in month

Watch this...

If Matt Cutts can write a novel in a month, why can't people at Kornerstone School? I have been designing this for over six months...many students participated in a storytelling seminar, meant to prepare them to write a novel in a 30-day period. The National November Writing Month homepage clearly outlines the goals. Write a novel in one month. 50,000 words. 1,633ish words per day. I think about a half dozen students are already planning to do this. I am making a conscious effort to set aside 2-hours each day to write. I'm planning on doing this with the students. I'm planning on meeting as a group for two hours per week to share experiences of this journey. If you want to get signed up, go to the webpage linked in this paragraph above, click on 'START HERE' in the Ready To Write A Novel box. I'm encouraging students to use their school email to register. This is going to take an incredible amount of discipline to finish- I really like what Matt said in the video about not going to bed until 1633 words were written.

My tentative plan is to have bound copies of students published pieces by our second Event Night on December 19. I'm looking into cheaper options than Lulu, I'm definitely open to suggestions.

Please join in on either Movember or writing a novel. This is going to be an incredible learning experience. 


Note: I am out on vacation and having surgery next week. I will be back in school on October 31, but my correspondence may be lacking next week.

Event Night - The Morning After...

I am still giddy from last night. I just wanted to talk a few moments and reflect on why last night has stirred up so many emotions within me. I would estimate that we had over 200 people from the community participate in Kornerstone School's first ever Event Night. A wide range of folks turned out for the presentations; tons of parents, over a dozen teachers from Kimberly High School, and other community members who were curious about what we're doing from 9am - 4pm every school day. Last night was the greatest thing I have ever been a part of as an educator. Forty young adults stood and delivered their learning experiences. I saw growth and a maturity in 12-16 year olds that I didn't know could occur. Check out the tweetstream from last night.



As an advisor at Kornerstone School, I didn't do anything last night. I was able to sit back and let the students run the show. I saw transformations take place last night. I saw a young lady who went from being shy and very very nervous, change into a confident young professional who recruited people to her presentation right up until the last minute. I saw parents who have been critical of the process completely melt at their own children's projects. Something even more important than confident students and parents believing in this school took place last night. Students were genuinely excited to see other students projects. A culture of celebrating the spark, a school where uniqueness is celebrated rather than competed against, a place where students want to see others flourish- that school took shape last night.

The students and advisors will work together to create a video last nights events into a format the entire world can see. A big thank you to everyone who took time out of their evening to celebrate our student's academic journey. I especially want to thank my colleagues from Kimberly High School who attended last night (I spoke with Ryan McGinnis, Sarah Dollevoet, Phil Yunk, Lucky Wurtz, Andrea Buss, Pam Wickman, Tamara Maxwell, and Brad Klitzke). Many of these people assisted with student projects over the past ten weeks. Kornerstone School is truly becoming a community school involving all of Kimberly.

The next Event Night is set for Thursday, December 22. See everyone there!

Why Kornerstone & Not Cornerstone

At a recent Kimberly Area School District Board of Education meeting, the question was raised: Why is Kornerstone spelled with a K and not a C? The answer: Kimberly + Cornerstone = Kornerstone. This is a community school. The designers of this school have so much pride in Kimberly and what the motion K stands for and represents.


The first name of Kornerstone School was Quo Vadis, meaning "Where are you going?". That name lasted less than three months. Looking back, I'm still fond of that name and at the same time, I'm surprised it lasted that long. The Biblical implication of Quo Vadis, was one strike against it. Strike number two and three were that no one knew what it meant. 


Now for the long answer...very early in the design process, I had laid out two different criteria for the school. The big 5 employability traits were something I had researched extensively for getting my masters degree. These 'soft skills' are the things employers look for the most, yet schools have a difficult time directly tying them into the school curriculum. The big 5 employability traits are:

1. Problem Solving & Critical Thinking
2. Social Responsibility
3. Collaboration
4. Communication
5. Work Ethic

Those five skills survived the design process and two have been added- Leadership & Creativity. 

The second criteria, were the four cornerstones. I didn't know much about project-based learning at the time, and I wasn't sure what was exactly going to be included in the school. I was at the 2009 WCSA Conference listening to Rovy Branon. He presented a slide with four boxes, one in each korner of the page. In each box was a one of the following terms: innovation, design, systems, learning. When Rovy clicked to the next slide, a central box appeared that connected everything, the box was titled TECHNOLOGY (see the transition from slide 4 to 5 on this site for a clearer picture). With Rovy's permission, I borrowed his Intellectual Property and used it as the cornerstone's for a new school. The cornerstones went through several different versions or iterations; firstly, when Tom Krause and I met with Dr. Mayfield and Mr. Rietveld, an incredibly important observation was made. "This doesn't make sense to me." Dr. Mayfield stated, "why is technology at the center on that slide." He went on to say that everything Tom and I were talking about put the student at the center of the school and not the technology. His led to this: 

In November of 2009, I was not yet comfortable or certain about spelling cornerstones with a 'K'. The Post Crescent ran an editorial following the November '09 KASD board meeting. The article was filled with words of wisdom for starting out a charter. I usually don't read comments in the Post Crescent left by readers. Being the son of a retired superintendant, I lost sleep a few evenings at some comments that were directed at my father. As a rule, I don't go through the comments on that site. A few of my colleagues told me people were commenting on the spelling of the school with a K and not a C. I should have paid more attention to this criticism, but I didn't. To be fair to the man who created the title, Brad Klitzke and I were talking in between classes outside of his classroom. Brad stated, "What about Cornerstone with a K?" It was perfect. Two months of brainstorming led to something perfect. The web domain was wide open. There weren't any Kornerstones in the area. There were however about a half dozen different Cornerstone businesses. A few months after the school design took shape, Cornerstone Driving School opened up across from the high school. And just down the street from our school is another Cornerstone financial office. Kornerstone met the planning team's goal of inputting Kimberly into the title of the school. We brought the K with us. It was an intentional branding of the school, and not just a flippant mis-spelling. 

From 2009 up until right now, spelling C words with a K has become somewhat of a Kulture thing with those involved in Kornerstone. Slowly over time, Cornerstones featured in the image above were transformed into The 4Kornerstones. This was done to limit confusion for students. 

Explaining The 4Kornerstones

Rather than reading, writin', and rithmatic, Kornerstone School has Learning, Community, System, & Design. Our school focuses on process rather than content. Student-directed project-based learning (PBL) is the process we use to deliver the content. This is a radical shift from traditional education. Over a five year period (students enter our high school in 8th grade), students must explore each of these areas in the same way that a student would have explored reading, writing, and basic math in 1911. These four 'K'ornerstone areas are the building blocks of this school. If mastered, they will lead students to their profession of choice. The four Kornerstones will be broken down in a future post, as will the school mission. 

I would hope that folks in the Kornerstone community will advocate for our name rather than against it. This is a community school. The beauty of our school is the student ownership piece. I know some folks are bothered by the improper syntax. I wanted to take this opportunity to let people know that Kimberly + Cornerstone = Kornerstone. Please leave your comments. I'd love to hear what others think. 

Future posts:
Breaking Down the Four Kornerstones (by October 1)
Explaining School Mission (by October 13)

Day 1

In less than 11 hours, I'll sit in a circle with just over 40 students and two other teachers. As one of my friends said today, "It's the culmination and the beginning." This school has been a two and half year design. Hundreds of people are responsible for making Kornerstone School a reality.

I just want the student's of Kornerstone School to know this:
When my wife and I were getting ready to have our first child, we wanted her to know how important we thought it was for her to understand that she was coming into a family that already loved each other. The same is true for the students of Kornerstone. You are coming into a school that loves you. A school that desperately wants you to take ownership of your school and create a place where everyone is able to direct their learning. 


As students, you will hear many terms thrown around. Democratic learning environment, student-directed project-based learning, Service-Learning, community service, community mentorship program, Inquiry, Place-Based Instruction, Problem Based Investigation, networked learning, mobile learning, student congress, student constitution, student project fund, Kornerstone School Inc, Governance Board, Parent Advisory Council, 1:1, BYOD (not to be confused with BYOC), Hope Survey, MAP testing, WKCE, ACT, narrative construction, student technology repair center, Writer's Workshop, FOSS, Badges, Twitter, DIY, experiential education, expeditions, wiki, Ruby, Java, Project Foundry, Capstone projects, unschool, home school, hybrid classes, seminars, community experts, community mentors, assessments, and student exhibitions.

Not a single one of those things above mean anything without creative students willing to take a chance. Tomorrow, we all jump off the cliff together. I believe learning is a messy process. I can't wait to learn from you. Thank you for saying yes to Kornerstone. If we stay positive and stay creative, we are going to do amazing things together. I believe in you. I say this all the time, todays teenagers are the most amazing generation ever. Don't ever let anyone tell you anything differently.

-Michael McCabe
Advisor
Kornerstone School