BLOB: The “BLOB” is an acronym for Bold Learning Objectives. The BLOB approach to learning sees the learner holistically and is designed to equip learners with the skills they need to be future ready. The five areas of the BLOB are: Mindset, “How might we practice with intention?”; Skills, “How might we develop tools for life?”; Creativity, “How might we approach challenges?”; Knowledge, “How might we understand the world?”; and the connecting outcome is the amplification of Voice, “How might we express who we are with confidence?”

Board of Directors: The board is the governing body of One Stone. It is composed of at least two-thirds students. The term for a board member is one year and all members are eligible for re-election annually until the student member graduates from high school. Adult board members do not have a term limit. New student board members receive extensive training during a summer board retreat.

Bridging: The level that follows Developing and precedes Actualizing on the One Stone Growth Progression, as evidenced by a student’s growing understanding and ability to apply a BLOB competency with increasing self-direction and ownership. Contact One Stone Ventures to learn more.

Bring optimism:  A design thinking mindset and the name of a pod. “Design is inherently optimistic. Human-centered designers are persistently focused on what could be, not the countless obstacles that may get in the way. Constraints are inevitable, and often they push designers toward unexpected solutions. But it’s our core animating belief that shows just how deeply optimistic human-centered designers are: Every problem is solvable.” More on this mindset HERE.

BreakerBOI:  A 2014 design thinking challenge with the theme, “The future of stuff and why does it matter?” One Stone staged the event in partnership with the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation, and the Stanford d.school. Boise was the fourth city to host a Breaker event following Detroit, New York City, and Portland. BreakerBOI was the first event that involved high school students in the challenge.  

Calling In: Rather than calling someone “out” for behavior that doesn’t belong at One Stone, such as a lack of kindness, bullying, or harassment, we will call each other “in” to reflect upon our actions, own our failures or shortcomes, and rejoin the culture of the One Stone community as a leader.

Cannonball: Compared to a Deep Dive, a Cannonball is a quick splash into a topic. Often two days long or shorter. 

Catalyst: A multi-disciplinary, multimedia art studio on One Stone’s campus at 1151 W. Miller St. in Boise, Idaho that empowers students to explore a variety of artist techniques while creating art connected to history, the natural world, human rights, social and environmental justice, advocacy, culinary science, fashion, and more through self-expression, gallery curations, and portfolio development.

Catapulting into Adulting:  This One Stone program is designed to equip learners with the adulting tools they need to successfully transition into college/career and greater independence. Examples of these skills include, but are not limited to: mindfulness, financial literacy, mental and physical health care management, and self-defense.

Champions: Community members (often parents) who help us with needs such as preparing food for Community Lunch, chaperoning trips, or donating items off of our wish list. 

Coach: One Stone faculty and staff members who work and learn alongside students to help them grow and develop their skills and confidence identify as coaches. Coaches support learners in One Stone programs. In lieu of teachers, the term coach is used to communicate that adults are present to challenge, support, inspire, guide, and connect each student with resources, experts, opportunities, and information.

Community-Based Learning: As Idaho’s only lab school, One Stone innovates and partners with local universities, colleges, and organizations, such as the City of Boise, to deeply learn about current, relevant issues in the Treasure Valley community.

Community Clean:  At the close of each day, we put on music and break into groups to clean an area of the building. All students and staff help keep the building clean and organized.

Community Lunch:  A special lunch time event for the One Stone community. Coaches and learners gather together to share a lunch prepared by students, staff, and champions. 

Community Read:  Similar to a book club, Community Read is an opportunity for school learners and coaches to meet face-to-face in a small community setting to engage through literature.

Context: The setting or environment in which a learning experience takes place. One of three assessment criteria in One Stone’s Growth Framework, which also includes Application and Agency. Contact One Stone Ventures to learn more.

Core values: Our values are doing good, equality of voice, creative innovation, student driven, and empowered ownership. Our values inform our culture, purpose, mission, and vision.

CrashUP: A CrashUP is a One Stone workshop or seminar that combines a meet-up and a crash course in design thinking. We offer a menu of custom design thinking, collaboration, or consulting CrashUps at a range of prices depending on the duration, group size, and the amount of customized content. 

Curation of Me:  The culmination of learning at One Stone. It is the final student-led portfolio review with everyone in the community who has contributed to the learner’s experience.

Current: A cyber lab where students develop coding and technology skills, including cybersecurity, electronics engineering, machine learning, 3D video game programming, virtual reality, and other tech explorations.

Embrace Ambiguity:  A design thinking mindset and the name of one of our pods. “Human-centered designers always start from the place of not knowing the answer to the problem they’re looking to solve. And though that’s not particularly comfortable, it allows us to open up creatively, to pursue lots of different ideas, and to arrive at unexpected solutions. By embracing that ambiguity, and by trusting that the human-centered design process will guide us toward an innovative answer, we actually give ourselves permission to be fantastically creative.

Emerging: The earliest or beginning phase of growth on the One Stone Growth Progression, when a student has yet to develop basic understanding and ability to apply a durable skill, and demonstrates minimal self-direction and ownership of the BLOB competency. Contact One Stone Ventures to learn more about the Growth Framework.

Experiential Learning Opportunities:  Experiential Learning is where coaches’ expertise meets students’ passions and interests. Students and coaches work together to establish objectives and design projects that will allow students to choose how they will demonstrate their learning, skill development, and fulfillment of those objectives. Formerly known as Collaborative Courses.

Fail Forward: A Design Thinking mindset. It is reflection that allows the space to learn through failure. By failing forward, students are encouraged to be creative and try new things. Fail forward is also the name of a pod.

FIT Tuition: One Stone high school uses an “Family Individualized Tuition” (FIT) model, where each family makes a financial commitment to the school that is customized based on the family’s ability to pay. Each individual tuition is considered “full price tuition.” Multiple financial factors determine each family’s personalized tuition amount. 

Foundry: This One Stone makerspace is a collaborative learning area with a variety of tools that encourage the designing, building and making of things. Learners are encouraged to push themselves by designing, prototyping, abandoning expectations of perfection, and failing forward.  

51: This term, unique to One Stone, is used to encourage people to generate many ideas. It is often explained by “throw out your first 50 ideas, because those are the obvious ones that everyone has already thought of.” When we reach for 51, we begin to uncover the best, most creative ideas. 51 is also used as a verb, e.g. “Let’s 51 it.”

Lab school: Founded in 2016, One Stone’s lab school is an independent high school that is inclusive of all students. Laboratory schools, or sometimes labschools, are typically a University-affiliated institution, academy, or program that offers teacher training, professional development, and opportunities for educational research. One Stone high school and One Stone Ventures operate in a lab school environment, where innovations and alternative education practices are researched, developed, and implemented on K-12 campuses locally, nationally, and globally. Sometimes referred to as Lab51.

Living in Beta: One Stone’s wayfinding program guides learners through a personalized process of self-discovery, authenticity, and exploration. Coaches work with each learner to navigate the complexities of college admissions, technical training, career planning, and entrepreneurship. Tools include the Yearning Octopus, T-Popper, Vision Board, Golden Circle, and other supporting artifacts. Living in Beta also includes the Winter Exploration, Summer Experience, and culminates with a toolkit for life. All One Stone learners participate in Living in Beta. 

Manifesto: The One Stone statement of beliefs and philosophies that guide our actions.

Mastering: The highest level on One Stone’s Growth Progression, representing professional excellence and a maximum level of growth that is extremely difficult to attain. On One Stone’s Growth Transcript, Mastering is evidenced by a sophisticated understanding and ability to apply a competency or skill with extreme purpose, ownership, and independence in order to adapt, lead, and/or affect change. Contact One Stone Ventures to learn more.

Mentorship: Mentorship is the crux of One Stone’s personalized learning model. Students work directly with their mentor to focus on the individual’s academic, social and emotional needs, areas of growth, goals, and celebrations. While some may be paired for the duration of their One Stone journey, The length of the mentor/mentee relationship varies based on a variety of factors including student’s advocacy and staffing needs.

Mission: Making students better leaders and the world a better place.

Thread: One Stone’s alumni program, Thread, is inspired by the idea of the unique and shared connection One Stone’s alumni have to the organization and to each other. This new programming will offer opportunities for alumni to engage with One Stone in a way that resonates with them, while also connecting with each other to create a supportive network.            

Tinker: TINKER is a three-day summer camp experience for rising 3rd and 4th graders to explore the elements of S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering, and math). Little buddies are paired one-on-one with a high school STEM Guide to fight the “summer slide” and reinvigorate the joy of learning through hands-on, fast-paced experiments and activities.

Toolkit for Life: The knowledge and skills learners acquire and employ during their time at One Stone. Learners at One Stone are encouraged to use these tools now, as well as in the future. The toolkit supports students in their journey to be successful and make positive change in a rapidly changing world. Toolkit elements include, but are not limited to, all skills listed in all five sections of the BLOB. 

T-Popper: One Stone’s Transformation Popper—a tool that helps learners identify and organize skills and talents over time to identify their passion and purpose in life. 

Trailblazer: A One Stone high school student.

Two Birds: A student-driven creative services agency that provides professional experience for students interested in learning about design, marketing, and social entrepreneurship while providing revenue-generating creative services for paying clients.

Venture Camp: Venture is a three full-day design thinking and entrepreneurship summer camp for seventh and eighth graders designed to explore what it takes to make it in the world of startups.

Vision: The One Stone vision is, “Forging an army of good for good.” Through our innovative programs, we help learners build a toolkit for life and empower them to make the world a better place. Since One Stone’s founding in 2008, we have worked with—and inspired—hundreds of students who are doing good in the world.

Vision Statement: One Stone learners’ personal guiding statement.

Vision Board: A visual representation of a learner’s purpose and passion life map.

Golden Circle: This concept is from Simon Sinek. The idea behind the Golden Circle shows how some leaders are able to inspire, rather than manipulate, people to act and participate. The method of discovering your Golden Circle must begin with defining the “why” vs. the “what”. Conceptually, organizations often can articulate “what” they do, “how” they do it, but often are not able to say “why” they are doing it. Sinek’s approach is a One Stone aligned method of starting with “why” that is used not only for the organization as a whole, but it is also a cornerstone of One Stone’s wayfinding program, Living in Beta. Prior to graduation, each student creates and shares a personal Golden Circle.

The Goods: A weekly email for One Stone students, families, and staff containing everything you need to know about the week ahead. Read it! It goes out Sundays at 5:10pm.

Graduation: A beautiful, deeply-personalized, and traditional graduation ceremony celebrates each student’s success, excellence, and achievement. Each graduate receives a certified diploma and their Final Growth Transcript.

Gratitude Week: Gratitude Week, the week before Thanksgiving, is an opportunity for intentional reflection on gratitude. Gratitude Week culminates in the Gratitude Feast—a Thanksgiving-style meal shared by students and staff. 

Growth Transcript: One Stone’s innovative approach to measuring and tracking growth and competency-based skills. A key product of One Stone’s Growth Framework, The Growth Transcript is a tool that students and coaches use to measure BLOB growth over time. Students use their transcripts to identify areas of strength and set personalized learning goals for growth and improvement. The Growth Transcript is One Stone intellectual property. To learn more about the Growth Transcript, contact One Stone Ventures. 

Hatch: An incubator for student-driven ventures, business, and ideas that bring design thinking to market. Through vision, risk taking, ownership, and grit, students gain experience developing a business model canvas through leadership, management, finance and presentation skills. Formerly known as Solution Lab.

How might we…? (HMW): Every problem is an opportunity for design. By framing your challenge as a How Might We question, you’ll set yourself up for an innovative solution (cited HERE). 

Human-centered design: This is a creative approach to problem solving. It’s a process that starts with the people you’re designing for and ends with new solutions that are tailor-made to suit their needs. Human-centered design is all about building a deep empathy with the people you’re designing for; generating many ideas; building prototypes; sharing what you’ve made with the people you’re designing for to be sure you are on the right path; and eventually putting your innovative new solution out in the world. (Inspired by IDEO). Design thinking is One Stone’s approach to human-centered design.

HQ: One Stone World Headquarters in downtown Boise, Idaho (1151 West Miller Street) currently features a one building campus that was previously a pathology lab. Centrally located in downtown Boise, One Stone HQ is easily accessible by car, bike, bus, or by foot. An open-space environment with no classrooms, One Stone’s premier high school facilities are designed to look and feel like a combination of a Silicon Valley tech start up, a marketing firm, and a college innovation hub. One Stone HQ features mobile, configurable furniture, dozens of whiteboards, and a variety of student-driven studios and labs where students can explore their passions in technology, engineering, science, graphic design, podcasting, and more.

One Stone Ventures: One Stone’s research and design hub, formerly known as Idea51, was formed to develop and commercialize innovative learning methods, systems, and technology to benefit students, teachers, and administrators seeking an alternative to traditional grading systems. One Stone Ventures develops innovative learning solutions, tested by lab school students at One Stone and with partner schools across the country, that empower students to learn and practice durable skills through One Stone’s proprietary competency-based assessment platform, through One Stone’s wayfinding program, and the radical reinvention of learning. One Stone Ventures markets the products and services it develops to schools, after-school programs, nonprofits, and other end markets.

Open Book Adventures: Open Book Adventures Camp is a three full-day Project Good project designed to encourage a love of literacy in Kindergarten, first and second grade learners. Little buddies from elementary schools across the Treasure Valley are paired one on one with a high school Adventure Guide to practice reading and writing skills. OBA was founded by a ESL student who was a new American who was passionate about childhood literacy. OBA is often held as a summer camp and as an afterschool program.

Outside the Lines: Outside The Lines is a three-day arts-themed summer camp for fifth and sixth graders planned by a team of One Stone students who utilized the design thinking process to create and implement the camp.

Paradise Point: A summer camp on Payette Lake in McCall, and a popular destination of our annual staff retreat and One Stone fall trips. 

Pi: One Stone High School’s daily schedule traditionally ends at 3:1415ish PM (Pi).

Portfolio: Students compile and showcase what they have created, achieved, and mastered using their portfolios, which are housed as Google Sites. The portfolio transforms assessment into understanding the skills, mindsets, knowledge, and creativity of a One Stone learner. One Stone uses portfolios for individual learner assessment and reflection. Everyone at One Stone, including staff, curates a personal portfolio that reflects on their growth, challenges, and future goals, while sharing stories of their One Stone experience.

Peeps on the Street: Events when parents, grandparents, and volunteers come into the One Stone community during various phases of design lab projects. Learners are able to share their research and ideas, gain empathy and gather feedback from the volunteers, and iterate as needed before implementing their final solutions.

Pods: Spaces in the One Stone building identified by the mindset sign above each pod. Each pod features a whiteboard, a magnetized board, and a blackboard wall.

PopUP: An event staged at One Stone open to anyone in the community, but especially prospective learners and their families, to learn about our school and programs. PopUPs include student-led tours as well as the opportunity to have deeper one-on-one conversations about One Stone.

Practice empathy: A design thinking mindset and the name of one of our pods. “Empathy is the capacity to step into other people’s shoes, to understand their lives, and start to solve problems from their perspectives. Human-centered design is premised on empathy, on the idea that the people you’re designing for are your roadmap to innovative solutions. All you have to do is empathize, understand them, and bring them along with you in the design process. Immersing yourself in another world not only opens you up to new creative possibilities, but it allows you to leave behind preconceived ideas and outmoded ways of thinking. Empathizing with the people you’re designing for is the best route to truly grasping the context and complexities of their lives. But most importantly, it keeps the people you’re designing squarely grounded in the center of your work” (cited HERE).

Project Good: One Stone’s original platform, launched in 2008 as a community-based experiential service program. In Project Good, students work with a coach to use the design thinking process to develop and lead human-centered service projects that Disrupt for Good. The purpose is to make positive change that is lasting. Project Good projects typically last 6-9 months.

Prototype: A prototype is the opportunity to transfer ideas into tangible artifacts that can be tested with an end user. As defined by IDEO, “Prototyping is the stage of the human-centered design process where ideas come to life. Building prototypes is a low-cost and risk-averse way to get your ideas into the hands of the people you’re trying to change.”

Prototype Wall: A wall at One Stone with materials for prototyping. These include everything from pipe cleaners and blocks to stickers and glue guns.

Purpose: One Stone’s North Star or “why” statement: “We believe in the power of students.”

Week of Welcome (WOW): The first week of the One Stone fall term. WOW is designed to introduce our culture and build community. 

Winter Exploration: A one-month term typically in January for students to engage in personal introspection, self-reflection, and future planning. Students work closely with their mentors and coaches to develop practical tools to explore their passions, reframe challenges, and way find through life and career decisions as well as opportunities. 

XLab: Experience Lab (XLab) is an immersive experience for our youngest and newest Lab51 learners. Students in this cohort learn design thinking, while experimenting, and growing their mindset, creativity, knowledge, and skills in order to thrive at One Stone and beyond. XLab practices the power of community by connecting deeply with one another through vulnerability and risk taking in a safe, supportive environment. With four years available to each student to explore the myriad of opportunities available at One Stone and to create their own student-driven learning, XLab students connect deeply with their personal passions, their learning, their community, and themselves. 

Yearning Octopus: From Tim Cook’s blog, Wait But Why, the Yearning Octopus helps us unpack our competing motivations and priorities by breaking them down in social, practical, lifestyle, social, and moral. The Yearning Octopus only has five tentacles, which is controversial among students.  

“Yes, and...”: An integral part of One Stone’s culture, “Yes, and...” is a Design Thinking mindset. By using “Yes, and…” instead of “Yeah, but…” we foster a judgment-free environment of creativity, innovation, and big thinking.

YLab: YLab is typically a student’s final Design Lab project of their One Stone experience. Using their Why statements (see Golden Circle above), YLab students engage in a nine-month-long, autonomous design thinking project. Each student identifies and secures their own community partner and works collaboratively with them to research, understand, and solve a real-world problem or create a new product or service that meets a market demand.