The Leelanau School is the experience-based, five-senses learning community where students in grades 9 through 12 live and discover together on Lake Michigan’s wooded shore. We build on each student’s learning strengths, creatively using hands-on projects and our dramatic natural setting to help students gain a fresh new sense of independence, engagement, and capability. Our school has a college preparatory curriculum and our focus is on serving students with average to above average intelligence who may have a language-based learning difference, ADD or ADHD.
The Leelanau School offers a comprehensive academic, social and physical development program. Our faculty are versatile, gifted, dedicated and have chosen to teach at Leelanau. They believe what one can accomplish is directly connected to the surroundings. A visit to our campus will let you hear the sound of the Crystal River as it slides over rocks and around trees, the lake as its waves pound the shore, our stately trees, colorful birds, fragrant flowers, abundant wild-life, and most of all our community of caring people. When all of this is experienced in one place, most hear a little voice inside that says, "I want to be here".
DISCOVERY
How do we know what a student’s strengths are? The first step: we ask. Too many young people struggle in larger high schools because their teachers don’t have time to know them, discover the way they learn best, help them imagine their own potential, and present them with opportunities to succeed and push past their limitations. Your student probably has a pretty good idea what her strengths are. If she’s not sure, we help her find out. Leelanau teachers, well schooled in theories of learning differences, understand the importance of knowing each student individually, and our six to one student teacher ratio.
CAPABILITY
One student excels in memorization and attention to detail. Another does best when questions start with ―What do you think? Once we uncover your student’s learning strengths, we equip him with the language and the insights to explain to himself and to others how he knows. Empowered with self-awareness, he understands why he does better in some subjects and can take on weaker subjects with more confidence.
For some students, uncovering how they learn calls for extra time and attention. Our Learning Resource Center helps students, in particular those with language-based learning differences, to acquire the confidence and the tools they need to understand their own ways of knowing. Most importantly, we teach self-advocacy, so that students can identify and articulate their learning challenges and seek the accommodations they need to succeed.
Leelanau - Summer Academy 2010
June 27—July 24
Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, the Leelanau Summer Academy is the ideal summer program for intelligent students entering grades 9-12 who simply learn differently.
Our experienced faculty members teach classes and lead adventures that help students find out how they know and how they build on their strengths– for fun, for school, forever.
Students take two courses each day, six days per week, for four weeks. Each course meets for 2 1/2 hours per day. After four weeks, one semester credit is earned for each successful course completed. Afternoon activities include beach time, kayaking, art exploration, concerts, sporting events and more.
Once a week an Academy Exploratory Day Trip is taken. Typical day trips include boating along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, followed by a traverse to South Manitou Island, Or a visit to Black Star Farms, which is a local vineyard, cheese factory and farm market. And even a day spent sailing on Grand Traverse Bay from Traverse City to Power Island, conducting science experiments along the way…
English as a Second Language Institute Summer 2010
June 20—July 31
The Leelanau ESL Institute is the ideal summer program for international students ages 14-18 who will be entering grades 9-12. Small class sizes—limited to ten students per level– help ensure improved English fluency and intensive TOEFL preparation.
Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced levels.
Emphasis on speaking, listening, reading, writing, applied math concepts and cultural assimilation.
Intermediate and Advanced Students may also enroll in some of our academic offerings with the Summer Academy Program.
Recreational and cultural activities designed to introduce students to a healthy American lifestyle.
Shared Living with native English speaking students.
TOEFL instruction offered to Intermediate and Advanced level students.
Contact us:
Todd Holt, Director of Admissions
The Leelanau School
One Old Homestead Road
Glen Arbor, MI 49636
231-334-5800 (phone)
231-334-5898 (fax)
Email: tholt@leelanau.org