Avoca West News

November 17, 2023

Gratitude & Thanks!

As we head into a full week away from school, it's the perfect chance to pause and share gratitude for so much here in our Avoca Community! I'm grateful for:

Our students for sharing their insights and impressions as they view the world through curious eyes.
Our staff who give every day their all here with our students and work long into the evenings and weekends in the hopes of making our students and families feel like school is smooth -- despite the many efforts!
Our front office team who has embodied that "Disney Spirit" in all they do, making it feel like the happiest place on Earth as they work their magic behind the scenes.
Our support staff, lunch team, bus drivers, and food service staff who work behind the scenes with SO many moving parts, pieces, and are woven into the fabric of Avoca West.
Our caregivers who support us and our students in so many ways. As a parent, I know this is not easy work and often comes AFTER a long day of work and after our students have given us their best. Thank you for all you do!
The PTC board and so many volunteers who work to shower our staff and students with support in tasty treats, Innovation Grants, fabulous classroom celebrations, and much, much. more.
The All In Avoca team who has been absolutely instrumental in setting up canvassing, surveys, Open Houses, information nights, and always ready to answer a question from the community.
The incredible weather that has graced us all the way far into November. Despite an early snow, we have truly been blessed with the sunshine and warmer temps!

With so much to be grateful for, it's impossible to list everyone and everything that is special and awe-inspiring about Avoca West. Most of all, I'm grateful to be a part of it all! Blessings to you and all of our families in the week ahead!

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Caregiver Connection Opportunity!

As I look to make sure Avoca West is a hub of safety and connection for our staff and students, I also want to be intentional about making it a space for our caregivers and community members feel that same sense of connection. I remind my own children often -- there is no guidebook for raising a child. If there is, no one has raised YOUR child...in this time...place...or with the same stressors or variables. The greatest asset that we have as parents and caregivers is one another, especially if we can be vulnerable with one another!

This January I will start what I hope will be a series of several "Caregiver Connection" meet-ups. We'll start with a common topic that we'll all be learning more about (see below) and I hope to let our participants drive the content of future meeting topics. To get you started thinking about whether this is of interest to you, Dr. Becky Kennedy's most recent TED talk gives some food for thought that might be a helpful add to your parenting toolkit. The short-ish video will give you a snippet of what will be found in her book Good Inside. To get our Caregiver Connection started, we'll be diving into that book to talk through Dr. Kennedy's findings and to bounce our own ideas off of one another.

If this sounds interesting to you, please leave a response in the poll below. Rest assured there will be plenty of time to read, listen, or browse the book between now and January! I look forward to reading along with and learning from you all!