Welcome to the Fourth Grade School Year of 2023-2024!

Dear Families, Welcome to fourth grade at Gold Rush Elementary. My name is Jennifer Poli, and I will be your child’s teacher. I am excited for the journey of a new year to begin and to experience it with all of the children and you! I look forward to getting to know you and your child as we embark on this journey together. I truly look at my role as your child’s teacher not only as an educator with regard to the fourth grade curriculum, but as someone who will be a part of his/her growth as an individual (academically, socially, emotionally). I teach with both my “educator hat” and my “mom hat” at all times, and I will do all I can to challenge and support your child as we grow together throughout the year. Allow me to tell you a little about myself as I will be spending a great deal of time with your child. I earned my undergraduate degree in psychology from William Paterson University in northern New Jersey. My teaching degree is from Rutgers University, and I earned my Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from Temple University in Pennsylvania. I have been teaching for nineteen years, and I have had the privilege of teaching here at Gold Rush for the past ten years. Outside of school I enjoy spending time with my family. I have two children; my son is fourteen and will be entering ninth grade this year at Legend. My daughter is twelve and will be in the seventh grade at Cimarron. My fiance and I are getting married this October so I will be going from Ms. Poli to Mrs. Lucas. I thought it would be best to begin the year this way so it’s easier for the kiddos. I will be going by Mrs. Lucas from the start. My email account with the district is still Poli. Hopefully I am allowed to change it soon so it’s not so confusing. For now, you can always reach me at this address. I’ll let you know when they are able to update it. In my spare time I enjoy cooking/baking, reading, hiking, physical fitness, and cheering on my children at their many sporting events. You can often find me on the volleyball or basketball court when I am not in the classroom. Kids sure do keep you busy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! I look forward to working with you and your child in the upcoming school year! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at jennifer.poli@dcsdk12.org. I have an open door policy, and I feel that communication is an essential part of a successful school year so please don’t ever hesitate to reach out to me with regard to anything you or your kiddo needs. I hope you enjoy every last moment with your child before the school year starts. Here are a few important reminders for the start of the upcoming school year. Please send your child to school with a water bottle and several healthy, non sugary snacks for snack time starting on the very first day. Lastly, it would be wonderful if your child could come to school with at least 4-8 books of his/her choice. The books can be fiction chapter books or nonfiction (a mix of both is great too). We do have a classroom library the kids can borrow from, and we will be going to the school library in the upcoming weeks. Having a few books from home at the start of the year helps us build the foundations for reading workshop before we have a chance to get into book borrowing. The books can be from your home or from the Parker library. If this is not possible, please know that I will give your child time to select books from the classroom library. Feel free to bring the books on Meet the Teacher Day or the first day of school. Please refer to the Welcome Back to School email from GRE. The email has information about express check-in, signing up for Meet the Teacher Day, and lots of other valuable information. It was emailed on July 20th. Please let me know if you have any questions, and I look forward to seeing you soon! Sincerely, Jennifer Poli (soon to be Lucas - yes, this will be a bit confusing for us all…me included. We’ll get there!)