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Two For The Road: Appreciation and Planning

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ap·pre·ci·a·tion   / əˌprēSHēˈāSH(ə)n /     noun   1.  recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something. So this month I intentionally waited to post my blog until today:  Teacher Appreciation Day. Today marks the beginning of a sequence of staff appreciation day beginning with our Teachers and then moving to School Nurse (May 8th), Transportation (May 9th), Teaching Assistant (May 14th) and Teacher Aides (May 21st).  And while I know that we truly appreciate all of these staff members every day of the year - and that I am very thankful for a PTO that ensures our staff knows how appreciative our parents are by spoiling them with a special ARE baseball jersey and treats across the week - this is also my chance to publicly thank them for the amazing job they do each and every day from September to June, and throughout the summer months as well. As you know, the profession has changed, and this is not the same job description it once was.  I watc
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April Fool's?

All right - whichever one of you out there thought it would be a great April Fools Day joke to play on me by sending snow yesterday - IN APRIL - you are officially off of the Lunden Christmas card list! Hopefully we have now seen the end of it and things will start to warm up heading into an exciting and busy spring.  This month for my Gator Bait blog entry I would like to share information on three related to three different areas: Instruction:  Looking closer at the 'Workshop model' Finance:   Talking about the district budget process School Community:  Sharing and explaining Race For Education Instruction:   To keep you informed as a parent about some of the things we do in the classroom, I thought it might be beneficial to briefly share about what we refer to as the workshop model.  In our district, we are seeing an huge increase in the number of teachers using this model for writing, reading, and most recently math instruction. The workshop model is a framew
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ARE's version of March Madness: a Final Five(?)...of important topics to learn about for this coming month!

February........and wow!   Simply 'wow' to this past month - enough said?  For all of us, between vacations, snow days, delays, and more, it was simply a crazy month.  And while March will hold just as crazy of a schedule for everything going on at Allen Road, I'm sure we are all looking forward to a break in the weather that will give us a more consistent routine as temperatures begin to rise and the sunshine increases across the next four weeks! This month I want to offer information on five topics; two events, two new procedures/programs, and one fantastic parent resource. Save the Dates... This month is our annual Parents As Reading Partners month long program which is focused on having all students immerse themselves in reading with a parent or other adult partner.  To read up a little on the benefits and importance of parents continuing to read with children at home - in addition to our work with them here at school - take a look at these quick reads from '
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Hitting the Halfway Point: Some warm thoughts as we enter a frigid February...

While the frigid temperatures over the past few days may not make it feel this way, we have unbelievably already reached the halfway point of the school year!  There is still a good way to go before we can say we are out of the winter woods, but it's nice to see the daylight starting to linger a little longer and feel as though we might be starting down the back half of winter. This month I would like to take some time to wax poetic about four topics:  'Being there', 'being there', 'being there', and 'getting there'.  In less cryptic language; our Valentine's event, school attendance, video announcements, and how to get to the full copy of your child's report card online. First , this coming week marks our annual Valentine's Labor of Love event.  On Thursday, February 7th from 6:30 - 8:00 we will gather to socialize and raise both money and awareness of a great cause:   Griffin's Guardians .  Our format is slightly different this
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Happy New Year Allen Road!  As you can see, I have decided to trade in the traditional newsletter for an ongoing blog format.  Feedback over the past year has indicated that the gazette isn't as widely read as it used to be, and it seems that a monthly update and entry in this format can keep you equally informed to the degree that you want to read more, dig deeper, or just visit occasionally to keep up on what is happening at Allen Road from my perspective.  Why 'Gator Bait'?  Well, let's just hope the topics are enticing enough to hook you and have you read on to find out more each month about being an ARE Gator! My intent will be to write briefly about two or three topics each month that will be informative to you as an Allen Road parent, and include connections and links to other resources in which you might also be interested.  I will post an entry at the beginning of each month and email it out via SchoolTool.  I'm hoping to learn more about blogging, result
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