Skip to main content

New Year Gifts from The Homestead

The holidays were extended for The Leelanau School thanks to our neighbors to the northeast at The Homestead.  Yesterday, we received word that The Homestead was upgrading and renovating their conference areas, and as a result had a wonderful array of gently used items that they were kind enough to donate to The Leelanau School. “They sent photos and detailed descriptions of all the items and it quickly became obvious that the chairs and whiteboards in particular would be put to very good use at our school,” said JD Friley, Head of The Leelanau School. The items were ready to go by the next morning and Leelanau students and staff loaded them into trucks and unloaded them in our Learning Commons and in our Karman Activity Center. It didn’t take long for the students to find them and give them the big thumbs up. The dark brown chairs are perfect in our Learning Commons, because they allow us to rearrange the space quickly and gather in circles, around desks and in quiet study areas.  Plus, the color and texture will hide dirt!  The chairs they are...

Continue reading

ADHD Awareness Month – 5 Strategies for Learning Success and Joy

  Here at The Leelanau School we couldn’t let the month of October – ADHD Awareness Month – go by without sharing some of the valuable strategies we have in place to ensure learning is a successful and joyful experience for students with ADHD. Like Dr. Hallowell, Best Selling New York Times author and world-renowned ADHD expert, says in his 20 Tips For Helping Kids With ADHD Succeed At School , “Most teachers and adults could benefit from pretending that all kids in their class have ADHD – what is good for kids with ADHD is good for all kids.” We couldn’t agree more! Here are five of our favorite strategies to help students, especially with ADHD, to thrive at school. 1 – All students benefit from activities that boost the brain body connection, ahem, enter Morning Energize. We start each school day with this knowledge in mind. Students engage in activities that awaken their bodies and brains which is proven to allow them to increase the capacity to enhance attention during the academic day. 2 – And then there are Small Classes, I mean, how could you...

Continue reading

The Leelanau School Roadshow

We have always said that the best way to get to know more about our school is by visiting us in person, but that isn’t always practical, which is why we are coming to a town near you!  JD Friley, our new Head of School, and members of our admissions team are taking our “show on the road”  this fall with Leelanau School Information Sessions in Kalamazoo, MI  on Sunday, October 23rd,  Hinsdale, IL on Wednesday, November 9th, Glencoe on Thursday, November 10th and Grosse Pointe on Sunday, November 13th.  Please click to open the attached flyer for more information on these opportunities to learn more about how The Leelanau School “inspires a passion for learning.” Leelanau Road Show  

Continue reading

5 Ways We Support Metacognitive Learning

The Journey of the Megacognitive Learner – Metacognition is a term that refers to the process of deliberately thinking about one’s own thinking. It means being conscious of not only what you are thinking about, but having awareness of how you are processing the information with the intention of improving your learning. You will no doubt have heard JD say that we focus as much on process as content; metacognitive strategies are a really important element of how we educate our learners. Really exciting research has shown that metacognition can be improved over time through practice and development. In fact, brain scans show more gray matter in the anterior prefrontal cortex (the area of the brain responsible for metacognition) in people who regularly engage in metacognitive strategies. Our Leelanau Learners come to our community with a variable range of metacognitive experiences. Some have attended schools in which metacognition is built into the culture; others have not encountered such strategies. Without metacognition, students can develop misconceptions about...

Continue reading