Cornerstone Learning Community Winter 2011-12

CORNERSTONE TIMES We Are All Learners

The cornerstone and keystone of success, in any and all professions, is the ability to learn. It is one of the most

transferable skills with which we can equip our children.

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By Bev Wells Senior Director

We get a lot of positive feedback here at Cornerstone. Parents and students love our supportive community and classrooms. Teachers have the daily experience of watching students engage and grow in knowledge and skill. They thrive on the energy young learners bring to the process of discovery and exploration, and are inspired by the children’s thinking and reasoning. Many might be tempted to think we’ve got it all right here at CLC, but resting on our laurels would not match with our mission. We know our successes are built on a

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commitment to lifelong learning for everyone.

Since we opened our doors as a school, CLC teachers have been actively looking for ways to strengthen our curriculum and community. We studied Earnest Boyer’s Basic School concept, adopting his core virtues and the annual covenant that we all sign. Over the years we have continued to study, adopting curriculums that extend our mission.

This year we are focused on assuring the continuation of this commitment to life-long learning through ‘lesson study.’ Lesson study is a professional development practice that

Winter 2011-12

In this issue:

2 Pedagogy in Practice How does research shape teaching practices in the middle school?

4 Faculty in Focus Award-winning art teacher, Jana Kiwala, discusses the value and power of the arts in education.

5 Board Room to Classroom How the Board of Trustees is furthering the mission of the school.

5 Where Are They Now? A chance to check in on a couple of our alumni.

Cornerstone Learning Community is a non-profit preschool through 8th grade school. Visit us online at www.cornerstonelc.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. Or better

yet, swing by in person.

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has been used by Japan and is beginning to gain usage in the US. This Japanese import is rooted in the writings of American philosopher and educator John Dewey and draws heavily on his ideas regarding the necessary role experience plays in human learning.

(continued on page 2)

Save the date

6-7 Looking Back, Seeing Now A photographic blast from the past and a snapshot of today.

8 Red Carpet Gala Gear up for our Annual Spring Auction. Prepare yourself for the red carpet experience.

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Winter 2011-12 Cornerstone Learning Community

Learning to be a better teacher is a very complex and personal process. It requires the same things

we require of our students: motivation, engagement, practice, and a willingness to

make mistakes.

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By Jelaine Javier-Palmer Middle School Coordinator

CLC values the ability of a student to understand the process of learning. We want students to know about knowing, and this aspect of metacognition is given more emphasis than the basic retention of rote facts. This is evident in how teachers in CLC’s middle school engage students.

At the heart of CLC’s curricula, teachers provide opportunities for students to learn how to learn within a given discipline. Mastering the ability to think like a scientist, mathematician, linguist, or writer becomes the end goal, while understanding the knowledge within those fields

Pedagogy at Work: Teaching Through Investigation and Research

“History deals with the past, but this past is the history of the present…the true starting point of history is always some present situation with its problems.”

~John Dewey (continued on page 3)

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On a very simple level, lesson study consists of a group of teachers who work together. They decide on a lesson to be taught, research the concepts, set the goals and objectives, design the activities, teach the lesson, observe the lesson and its effectiveness, revise the lesson based on data collected during observations and finally re-teach the lesson, again gathering data through observation.

This collaborative process allows teachers to access skills within their group, to think critically about all the details of instruction and to

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make mistakes in a way and under conditions that the mistakes can be utilized to increase understanding and improve teaching practice over time.

Our Wednesday afternoon lesson study groups are exciting evidence of the school’s continued commitment to growth and improvement. As a participant, I am excited about the instruction my group is planning. As an administrator I am excited about the pathway to continuous growth and development this process provides teachers, and by proxy, our students. ❊

We Are All Learners (continued from front page)

7th & 8th graders embark for Model UN, 2011

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Teaching Through Investigation and Research (continued from page 2)

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becomes the means to that end. In this way, facts become tools that help students reach a deeper understanding of the material. Students graduate not only having been exposed to a broad range of content, they enter high school and beyond with a transferable skill set – the ability to think critically within disciplines.

In the social studies classroom, thinking like an historian, geographer, or social scientist requires more emphasis on how knowledge is acquired than on rote memorization of names and dates. In Teaching World History as a Mystery, researchers and authors David Zevin and Jack Gerwin, acknowledge the limitations in teaching history and social sciences as “too much to do, too much to cover, too little time.” The inevitable result is social studies with an Americentric perspective that is ineffective at preparing students to be globally competitive.

Zevin and Gerwin suggest learning historical and social topics by removing ethnocentrism, egocentrism, and econcentrism. How? By moving past the chronological, regional and fragmented methods of teaching social studies. What does this translate to in the classroom? Developing a concentrated research component in the curriculum that looks beyond the Americentric view of social issues and opens up paths of learning through investigation.

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Some examples of investigative projects in the 6th – 8th grade social studies:

• Researching, planning, and implementing a community service event. In one such project last year two students developed, organized and carried out a clean-up at Suwanee River State Park.

• Representing a foreign country as a Model United Nations delegate. As one of only two middle schools present, CLC’s Delegation of Bahamas was awarded an Honorable Delegation.

• Constructing a National History Day entry tied to a specific theme. 8th

grader Zoe Hume advanced all the way to State competition with her original website, “Women Astronauts.”

In these examples and many others, CLC middle school students demonstrate the competence to confidently compete alongside students

several years older. Their work illustrates not only their mastery of the content, but also their capacity to confront ideas and concepts from various socioeconomic, political and ideological perspectives.

These skills and ideas are essential to the virtues and mission of CLC and to the development of adolescents. The expansion of ideas from an Americentric view to the view of a world citizen produces global leaders who aim to be inventive for the advancement of all human kind. Historical investigation is a foundational component of this thinking and will provide students with the skill sets to do just that. ❊

Students winterize a New Orleans residence as part of their Citizens-In-Action service-learning trip.

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Winter 2011-12 Cornerstone Learning Community

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By Laura Ciociola CLC Board of Trustees Secretary

CLC Art teacher Jana Kiwala was recently awarded Excellence in Teaching Holocaust by the Holocaust Education Resource Council (HERC). Each year HERC holds an art and essay contest. The contest encourages students to learn about and understand the lessons of the Holocaust, including the nature and repercussions of unchecked hate and prejudice taken to their ultimate extremes. The hope is that such an understanding will promote cultural diversity and its acceptance.

About the contest, Jana said, “Because art comes from such a personal place in each person, I tend to stay away from art competitions. However, the subject of this competition holds such meaning – to every human being, I thought it would be an opportunity for students to learn about

Faculty in Focus: Award-Winning Art Teacher, Jana Kiwala

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something true and difficult to understand and have an expressive outlet for their emotions through the art-making process.”

Jana said a few of her reasons for becoming an art teacher were a love of art, a dominant visual language, high level of comfort with chaos, a

genuine delight in working with children and a desire to share what she’s learned through experience in the arts.

“Solving problems through the use of art materials is a powerful way to assist all learners especially those who struggle. I also believe the arts are an integral part of our human lives and enjoy sharing this kind of creativity with all children.”

Congratulations to Ms. Jana! CLC is fortunate to have you. ❊

You can read the full interview on our blog at cornerstonelc.com or by scanning the QR code.

A student’s award-winning Holocaust sculpture.

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By Dan Mears CLC Board of Trustees Chair

Cornerstone’s growth over the past decade defies belief. The school began small in size but big in ideas. Luckily, a number of the school’s founders and many others who were “there at the beginning” remain, providing the leadership, guidance, and wisdom that makes CLC what it is. What’s next, though?

This past year, the school’s Board of Trustees recognized the need to take stock of where the school has been in order to strategically move forward. We wanted to keep true to the school’s mission, while also ensuring the school could financially achieve that mission far into the future. To do so, we knew we needed to make some changes.

For example, the school has operated for years through the dedication and time provided by Betsey and Tony Brown, without pay. While they continue to be pillars of support for the school, their roles have changed. This change highlighted the need to develop greater financial stability in order to fund and hire administrative staff. CLC is, after all, a lean operation!

The school recently changed its administrative structure, too. We now have one Senior Director and an incoming Associate Director, rather than two co-Directors. That may seem small, but for a school this size the transition signaled a significant development for us.

These, and other

Alex is a sophomore at Tufts University where she is majoring in International Relations with a

concentration on comparative regional analysis and minoring in History. She is also learning

Arabic. She plans to attend grad school after graduation.

Where Are They Now?

Alex Suarez, ‘06

Morgan Brown, ‘03 Morgan will graduate from FSU

with a degree in Sociology in May, the same month she is

getting married. She then plans to attend grad school for speech therapy. She is our first alumni to come back and work at CLC.

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developments, led the Board to shuffle standing committees to better manage and lead CLC’s continued growth. Two examples include the creation of a Fundraising and Development Committee and a Marketing Committee. Both of these committees will strengthen the school. For example, many opportunities exist for cementing the strong financial foundation of the school. We should capitalize on them so that our students have the resources and experiences that make CLC’s educational environment so special, and to ensure our teachers receive the support they need to foster such an environment.

In addition, we will do more to let the broader community know about CLC. To assure we are fulfilling our mission’s goal of diversity, we will do a better job of getting the word out. The word-of-mouth approach has worked wonderfully—you can see it in the collage of students in every classroom. But we can do more to inform the community and our families and alumni about big events and accomplishments at CLC. The Marketing Committee will be helping to achieve this goal.

We members of the Board are grateful for the chance to help the school. We are mindful, too, of the responsibilities that come with tending to an organization that has such an important charge. Ultimately, however, we feel

Where Cornerstone is Headed From the Board Room to the Classroom

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excited about the changes under way to continue CLC’s educational mission and to support the efforts of the parents, families, teachers, and administration as we all work toward that cause together. ❊

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Winter 2011-12 Cornerstone Learning Community

Remember When . . . ?

Class of 2013 as Kindergartners

The 1st Community Sing with Jason Childs

The Masai visit CLC

Marching in Springtime Tallahassee

Ms. Nakisha dancing at MS Coffee House

3rd & 5th graders serve lunch at The Shelter

Frame of the West House with 2002-2003 faculty

CLC by the Numbers

• 40,000; Number of hours Tony & Betsey have volunteered at CLC since 2000.

• 20,000; Number of hours of student community service.

• 42; Number of students when the school opened.

• 176; Number of students this year.

• 409; Percent increase in growth in 12 years.

• 8; Number of more games the soccer team won last year than during its 1st year.

• 96.3; Average percentile rankings of CLC classes on the ITBS compared to other classes in the US.

• 0.1; Percent of class time teachers spend on test prep.

• 60; Percent of recent survey respondents who cited teachers as what they most appreciate about CLC.

• 100; Percent of teachers who appreciated hearing that.

Have news about a CLC alumni we should know about? Old photos to share? Questions to ask? And/Or ideas for articles? Email us: moreinfo@cornerstonelc.com

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Kindergartener demonstrates her numeracy skills during a performance-based math assessment.

4th Grade teacher, Annmarie, enjoys some laughs with students.

Preschool students engage with their “Grand-Friends” during preschool’s monthly trip to the Alzheimer’s Project.

3rd graders integrate their investigation of gothic art with writing, humor and

performance.

…And Happening Now

Seventh graders in New Orleans, helping St. Bernard Community Center prepare mountains of goods for distribution to families in need.

(right) A parent shares his Presidential signature collection with students.

Mark Your Calendars

• Jan 27: Community Sing 11:15 – 11:45

• Feb 10: Café Cornerstone 8:00 – 9:30

• Feb 17: Science Night! 6:00 – 8:00

• March 2: Community Sing 11:15 – 11:45

• March 9: Spring Auction

• March 12 – 16: Incoming Associate Director, Alison Tabor, on campus.

• March 19 – 23: Spring Break

• April 6: Spring Music Concert for 3rd – 5th grades

• April 24 – 26: Joe Budd field trips

• April 27: All School Play and Fish Fry

• May 18: Community Sing 11:15 – 11:45

• May 30: 8th Grade Graduation

• May 31: Last day of school!

Cornerstone Learning Community Winter 2011-12

Cornerstone Learning Community

2524 Hartsfield Rd Tallahassee, FL 32303

(850) 386-5550 www.CornerstoneLC.com

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CLC is a private school with a public mission serving students preschool through 8th grade. Students graduate prepared to tackle the academic,

intellectual, and social challenges of high school, college and the world beyond. CLC is the foundation for a life of learning and succeeding.

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By Lori Chorey & Andrea Kocourek, Auction Co-Chairs

WHEN? Friday, March 9th, 2012 WHERE? The FSU Alumni Association

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This is THE event you won’t want to miss. This is a great party for a great cause—our students and our school. You will have an opportunity to bid on a wide variety of items donated by area businesses, national companies, parents, students and teachers. We will provide additional information regarding available auction items in the weeks and months to come. WHO BENEFITS? All funds raised through the auction are used to support our educational enrichment and financial assistance programs. WHY ATTEND? A Cornerstone

An Evening on the Red Carpet

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education is highly sought after by families all around Tallahassee and with good reason. CLC is a model school as demonstrated by our innovative academic programming, our focus on building a community of life-long learners, and the effect of our dynamically involved community members of parents, grandparents and friends. With community support, we’ve been successful in the past and plan to be so again this year. Your involvement in the Red Carpet Gala will help us not only grow, but excel. ❊