What's Happening At Clonlara School? Our Upcoming Events:

            Family Math Night, September 27 6-8pm

            Co-sponsored by Mathnasium here in Ann Arbor, our Family Math Night event is all about exploring math in ways that are fun and rewarding, and it’s open to the public. At our campus from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, games and activities that test kids’ logic and math skills will be available for ages K-8^th grade. Children can learn to balance risk and reward in the game “Playing the Odds”, work on their multiplication skills at our multiplication game table, and test out their logical thinking with the game “Nine Squares”, which requires them to strategically fit nine numbers within nine squares. Want to encourage a love of math and learning in your student? Join us at Family Math Night!

“Is The Writing On The Chalkboard? Does Your Child Need An Academic Change?”, October 11, 6pm-7:30pm

Is your student already frustrated, distracted, or struggling at school? School doesn’t have to be difficult or frustrating—in fact, it should never be! Come learn about your many options at our school-wide open house on Tuesday, October 11^th at 6:00pm to 7:30pm, where Clonlara advisors and enrollment specialists for both the Campus and the Home-based programs will be available. The event will be an open forum with access to all of our K-12 Campus teachers, and is all about exploration. Clonlara School’s programs have a place for every kind of student—whether you’re interested in full campus enrollment, full home enrollment, blended scheduling, dual enrollment between our home and campus programs, or dual enrollment with another public or private school, we have something for your learner, no matter how old he or she is.

            We want everyone to know that no matter where you are in your education, if you are struggling, there are options—many of them. If your current educational choice isn’t the right fit for your student, come see what Clonlara has to offer. Our students’ curricula are completely tailored to their individual strengths and interests, and our educational programs are designed to give students and their families control. Even though school has already started, it’s not too late to come see what Clonlara is all about and to learn how we can help turn things around.

            Pint Size Heroes Blood Drive, October 14, 1:00pm-6:45pm

            On Friday, 10/14, we invite the community at large, and our parents, to join our students in the Pint Size Heroes blood drive as volunteers and, for those eligible, as donors. Individuals who are 16 years old may donate blood with a signed consent form, which can be obtained from our Campus Administrator, Martha Rhodes. Students who are older than seventeen are able to donate without parental consent, but should still discuss this with their parents. We have sent home the parent letters for the event in the past two weeks’ newsletters. Parents, friends and community members can sign up for their donation appointment at www.redcrossblood.org using the sponsor ‘clonlara’. We highly encourage everyone, mostly parents, to donate because we need 31 donations in order for each of our Campus students to be named Pint Sized Heroes.

This event will provide not only the opportunity to help save a life, but also an opportunity to learn about an important medical service. Students will learn about the many benefits of giving blood at an assembly given by the Red Cross beforehand: they will learn about blood and how it is used as a medicine, how blood is given and received, and what American Red Cross Blood Services does. To learn more about this community service project, take a look at their website.

What Clonlara Students Learn Outside The Classroom

By Marie Schutt

    An education can’t be defined by the walls of the classroom. In their 2008 study titled “Developing Citizens: The Impact of Civic Learning Opportunities on Students’ Commitment to Civic Participation”, Joseph E. Kahne and Susan E. Sporte surveyed high school students in Chicago to examine the impact that volunteerism and community service have on students’ civic involvement. They found that students who were more active in school and extracurricular activities, and who felt more like they belonged at the school tended to report “higher levels of commitments to civic participation”. These, and the results of similar studies, all seem to point to one overarching trend: that the kind of hands-on learning that happens through volunteering and community service has positive effects on academics, citizenship, and personal development.

    The 2010 New York Times article “The Benefits of Volunteerism, If The Service is Real” discusses the many personal benefits of volunteering if the intention is genuine. The article cites another study carried out by Kahne and colleagues, this one in California, where they found that high school students who were engaged in community service of some kind were more likely to be involved in civic service in their lives after graduation. Most striking, perhaps, in terms of students’ personal growth and citizenship, is the finding that students who were involved in volunteer work (whether it was required or not) were more likely to indicate that they’d vote when eligible than those who weren’t. Students were asked about voting twice: once at the beginning of their high school career, and once at the end. Those who weren’t involved in volunteering and answered no to the first time were much more likely to answer with a ‘yes’ the second time if they’d spent time involved in some kind of civic or community service in between. The study also found that students who had some kind of outlet to discuss and reflect upon their service experiences tended to get more out of the work.

    At Clonlara we not only recognize that community involvement is crucial to a student’s education; we require it, for graduation from both our campus and our home-based programs. And though some may argue that required or mandatory community service defeats the purpose of volunteering, we have already come up with our own solution to this problem: our students pursue their interests and passions in their volunteer work and civic involvement. As with many other aspects of their Clonlara educations, students get to choose how to how and where to serve their communities (although we do place limits on volunteering through churches or religious organizations.) Their service is meaningful, and allows many of our students to try out potential career paths. For students who have never held a job, community service provides valuable working and skill-building experience.

    Clonlara Campus students have put many hours of their time into a diverse array of projects, including the following:

    Food Gatherers (a program that distributes millions of pounds of food to needy families in Washtenaw County)
    Growing Hope (a program that supports and advocates sustainable food and health equity)
    Great Strides (a therapeutic riding stable)
    The University of Michigan Spectrum Center (a center for student-centered education, outreach, support and advocacy for LGBT issues)
    The Michigan Abilities Center (a center for healing, teaching, and innovative equine therapy)
    The Young Actors Guild (an Ann Arbor production company and resource for education through drama)
    The Peace Neighborhood Center (which provides support and programming for children, families and individuals experiencing social and economic difficulties)

    We’ve also had students pursue projects on their own in their communities, including creating art for donation and installation at a local library to promote the message “reading is cool” and working with the “Planned Pethood Adoption Program” at the local Petco. Students also help out around the school with yard projects and clean up, and some students also do their community service work through their families’ place of worship.

    While almost all American public schools mandate some kind of community service for graduation, these programs don’t always meet their full potential to foster the kind of character-building and civic awareness that we see develop in our students. We do find that an hour requirement is necessary, but the point is not to simply rack up volunteer hours until the numbers add up. It is simply to ensure that our students have adequate time to learn through service in the world beyond their homes or classrooms.

Sources: http://aer.sagepub.com/content/45/3/738.short

Learning Styles - Which One, or Ones, Match Your Student

Clonlara School recognizes that children are smart in many different ways. There isn’t just one expression of intelligence, and it can’t be quantified with one number. Each child’s learning needs are as unique as his or her personality, so taking a “one size fits all” approach to education doesn’t make much sense. This is why families choose to homeschool: children’s educations are tailored exactly to their learning needs, by educators (often parents) who know them best. The beauty of homeschooling is that it is a direct educational response to each student’s unique intelligence gifts.

Defining intelligence can be a tricky business. In an interview with Simon Hanson at Brain Connection, Howard Gardner challenges what he says is the ‘standard view of intelligence: “The standard view of intelligence, held since the beginning of the century by most psychologists, is that there is a single intelligence. We are born with it, we can't change it very much, and psychologists can measure it with a simple instrument. I feel that each of these claims is wrong.” Instead, he argues, there are several distinct types of intelligence, and “From an evolutionary point of view, it seems probable that each intelligence evolved to deal with certain kinds of contents in a predictable world.” (From his website’s FAQ) Gardner pioneered the theory of multiple intelligences with the publication of Frames of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences in 1983, initially listing seven and then adding the eighth, Naturalistic intelligence, in 1999 (source). Elsewhere in his FAQ, Gardner recommends observing students’ behavior and filling out questionnaires in order to determine a student’s learning strengths and weaknesses.

At Clonlara School, our campus instructors utilize a learning styles inventory to assess a student’s strengths and weaknesses. The test we use gives multiple scenarios as possible answers (for example, “When you study for a test, would you rather: a) read notes, read headings in a book, and look at diagrams or illustrations b) have someone ask you questions, or repeat facts silently to yourself c) write things out on index cards and make models or diagrams”) and tallies up students’ scores in different categories to determine the student’s learning style. A summary of the different learning styles is available here.

Too often, children whose learning styles do not conform to the educational models of our institutions are labeled “problem children” or are funneled into remedial or disciplinary programs that don’t actually help them. A student who is constantly fidgeting, moving around in his or her seat or even getting up to visit different areas of the classroom during instruction cannot be simply dismissed as a disruptive presence who deserves a time-out, but considered rather as a child who might score highly in the Bodily/Kinesthetic category. Having to sit still and passively listen for long periods of time would be difficult for such a student. If tactile and physical activities like drama, games or building projects were integrated into the material, would this student be more focused? Maximizing a student’s education by catering to different learning styles helps everyone, because it allows students to use their strengths while working on their weaker learning styles. Employing multiple intelligences and learning styles in teaching also provides educators with a greater array of teaching options.

Have you taken a multiple intelligences inventory? Whether you’re a student or not, it may be worth your while to learn a little more about how you uniquely process information. The one we use and recommend can be found here.

Clonlara Campus School Answers The Question, “Why Do I Have To Learn This Stuff?”

Did you know that school starts up in less than two weeks? The first day of classes on Clonlara’s campus is September 6th, and while we can’t wait to see our students again, we’re also incredibly busy gearing up for another great school year. Will your child be joining us on campus this fall?
 
If your child is constantly asking “Why do I have to learn this stuff?”, don’t fret—it doesn’t mean your child is lazy, or a bad student. It means that they need instruction that supports this line of inquiry, and encourages exploring how the information they’re taught connects to the world outside the classroom. If your child is creative, confident in being him- or herself, curious, and lively—your child will fit right in at Clonlara School.
 
Our Campus program focuses on taking a student-centered approach to learning. Though even the child’s coursework can be tailored to his or her abilities, interests, and learning pace, our students don’t learn in an individualized vacuum. They are active members of both the Clonlara campus community and the community at large. These world experiences combined with project work create a well-rounded student who is prepared for both college and a career.
 
It’s true that our students are well-prepared for the testing and other requirements needed to get into college, but we never force our students to focus on cramming material that will show up on standardized tests. Rather, our students enjoy full intellectual freedom, and learn from day one to take ownership of their educations. As Plato says: “Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge, when it is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind…”
 
Intrigued? Please stop by our Quiz for students, and if you get an “A” for two or more items, give us a call or email us to get started on exploring our enrollment process. If after learning more about our program you would like to move forward, there are a couple of steps we can take. If you would like to explore Clonlara with your child before our school year starts, please call us at 734.769.4511 or email us at campusinfo@clonlara.org. If classes are in session, we will schedule a campus tour to show you around our facility, meet with program teachers, and answer any specific questions you may have. We then have prospective students participate in a three-day visit: Day One is for observation, and Days Two and Three are for full participation. During this time, prospective students have hands-on experiences in the classroom. It is important that all sides—parents, student, and Clonlara—agree that a Clonlara Campus education is the best fit for the child. If this is the case, we will move forward to an interview, then filling out admissions paperwork and working together to set up the student’s academic plan.  

The new school year is almost here, but it’s not too late—come find out how our Campus Program can serve your learner!

Clonlara Campus Meets the Wave of the Future: Introducing the Clonlara Dual Enrollment Program

Blended education is the wave of the future. While blended scheduling is nothing new to Clonlara School, increasing numbers of American schools are getting caught up in this wave—according to this The Journal interview with Heather Staker, Senior Research Fellow and Project Manager at the Innosight Institute, in 2010 four million students were participating in a blended learning curriculum.

Clonlara School’s Dual Enrollment Program was designed with the students’ learning experience in mind. When developing the Clonlara Dual Enrollment program, we identified eight points that we consider crucial aspects of this experience: Options, Blended Scheduling, Flexibility, Strength/Interest-Based Learning, Excellence, Customized Scheduling, Freedom, and Tailored Education.  Available for students of all ages in kindergarten through high school, our program allows for each child to be him- or herself and to learn at whatever pace is natural. The program involves a combination of direct instruction and home school guidance, allowing students to choose how much time they spend on campus and how much is spent learning at home.

The core topics are language arts, math, science, and social studies, but the Dual Enrollment program also makes use of an independent study program, either self-directed or instructor-coached, which allows students to pursue their own interests. Advising is available from certified teachers, and graduating students are issued a private school diploma that’s accepted at top universities. Students learn from experience and by completing projects, which enables them to enjoy freedom balanced with responsibility. In the Dual Enrollment program, they earn three campus credits and up to six home-based credits per year. For tuition and scheduling information, please visit the Programs page on our website or contact the enrollment specialists directly at 734-769-4511 and ask for either Martha or Julia.