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Anonymous wrote:I have five years experience at DHMS with two children. The administration (Ms E Smith) is the best in Arlington and on par with what we would expect at any excellent school. As a result of this outlier administration in APS, DHMS tends to get a better pool of teachers. They want to work for her. Period. I know there’s always personality conflicts, and some teachers are going to disagree (of course), but you have to take the overall picture and it’s extremely positive.
We have emailed teachers twice that I can think of and they responded. But, perhaps that is tone/demands/frequency of your emails or the particular teacher happens to be a dud?
Unlike some APS schools, DHMS has a no tech policy, meaning phones away in lockers which I love. However, APS totally undercuts this by handing all the children iPads and then expects teachers to police their use for 25 kids all class. From my perspective, that is an APS problem and not a DHMS problem per se. I know some teachers are better than others, etc., but it’s a real distraction and problem across the board in APS that isn’t properly being dealt with.
My children participated in vastly different kinds of activities at DHMS. One was athletic and did all the sports. Another was primarily interested in clubs. We’ve had teachers go the extra mile, showing up out of school hours, hours away, for unpaid extra activities. We’ve also had a few dud coaches, “coaching” sports they know nothing about (seriously)! But, you know the seasons are short, and my kids were generally very happy. I mean, it’s MS so I don’t exactly expect ES reactions of I love my teacher mommy. Perhaps that’s a transition for you?
There is a big movement to self responsibility that’s actually the most important a kid can learn in MS. More important than any of the underlying memorizing topics and the stupid grades. Focus on that transition. Your child absolutely needs to learn to advocate for themselves. Learn this now. Candidly, my reaction to your post was: sounds to me like this is your first or only child and you are too involved.
So your whole response to this person is you're wrong that's not how it is and what your child is experiencing is not happening. Super helpful.
Also, what basis could you possibly have for saying it's the best administration in APS?
DP. "Best" is of course a matter of opinion, but I agree that Ms. E. Smith is excellent. I have interacted with a number of administrators, and she is among the best I have seen. I also agree that the school has pulled some wonderful staff and teachers away from other schools.
OP's post is interesting to me because it's out of line with my experience and I'm trying to figure out why. I think part of it is that OP is new to middle school. It's odd to complain when the teachers are notifying you about your child's missing assignments. Most parents would complain if they were not being notified. It sounds to me that either OP's expectations are out of line for a public middle school or maybe OP's child has ADHD or a learning disability and needs more support at home or at school.
I am not at Hamm but I think APS transitioning to middle school in 6th grade could be what's going on Developmentally, some kids are really ready and some kids really aren't. Maybe this particular 6th grade class at Hamm just has a lot more not ready kids.
It’s 300 kids mostly from Glebe and Taylor. I mean, it’s possible that sixth grade has a bunch of extremist duds but I highly doubt that knowing the average home price.
I suspect this poster just happens to be wrong. I mean, maybe not wrong for their child and their experience and their needs but generally speaking wrong. When you repeat things like: everyone says this is some sort of horrible experience and yet you read the thousands of posts for years about people generally liking Hamm I think this person is just really needy and their child is struggling to transition to MS and they are blaming the school.
There’s no PE half the time. That’s APS.
Your child needs significant executive function support at home. Perhaps consider a tutor for this?
You need to help your child email and communicate with teachers. You should not be doing it for them.
Perhaps you misunderstood how Parentvue and Canvas work? I will get notified that my child has a “D” in an automatically generated email from parentvue. My child does not have a D. They have three assignments in Canvas and the teacher hasn’t graded one, meaning they are missing a third of their current grade (which is a very small portion of their whole grade). When this happens, do not email the teacher and demand an explanation. Figure it out yourself. I suspect this is what you are referring to in your post. If your child is routinely — and I mean routinely — getting Cs or lower in APS middle school as a final grade in their report card your child probably has some learning differences that need to be addressed.
Agree.
No dog in this fight but I find it interesting a couple posters are just really determined this can't be a thing. Thousands of posts for years about people liking Hamm? Exaggerate much. It seems odd to me to be so invested in pumping up a random public middle school's reputation.
What is "a thing"? OP's extended rant? Half of her "concerns" are just pure cluelessness.
"Random public MS" - do you even have kids at Hamm?
This thing...Hamm having a group of kids having a bad experience...just can't be happening. You (and maybe others) will just not allow it. More clear?
No I don't have kids at Hamm. I have kids at another APS middle school. I am clearly not nearly as attached to the one my kids attend as you are to Hamm. The point was why try so hard to convince several people (not just the OP) who seem to be having a bad experience that they are "wrong". Maybe some people have a bad experience at Hamm!
No one is trying to convince anyone about anything. OP posted a bunch of clueless rants and other parents are commented about how clueless they were. OP didn't just say her kid was having a bad experience, which could be totally valid and understandable. She made sweeping generalizations that were not based on actual knowledge or experience.
Everything in the OP is not clueless or a sweeping generalization. Some stuff but not all of it.
Ok let's break it down:
OP: It's as if there's an institutional mentality of hazing the students from the teachers and staff.
Hazing?
OP: Passive aggressive emails from the teachers about multiple missing assignments when it turns out there have been a total of 4 assignments over the last month
personally I would love to get emails from teachers about missing assignments if my kid is missing them. At another APS middle school my kid went for a really long time without turning in assignments before any teachers email.
OP:emails before the end of the term about how parents should know the grade already in a class where nothing is graded online until after the term is over
I don't like it when teachers don't grade in a timely manner, but my kids have 1-2 teachers every single year who grade late. Yes it's annoying but it's also not a DHMS problem.
students receiving wildly bad grades but no outreach to them or the parents unless the student is mature enough to address it in person with their teacher.
this is a little hard to unpack. Not sure what wildly bad grades are. There's a policy for retakes so are you saying the teacher isn't following that?
Reading is a daily class but students are still not able to read at grade level.
This is an APS wide problem with YEARS of history based on using a failed curriculum and not giving interventions early on. APS has been even slower to put interventions in place for middle school. It's not a Hamm thing.
Emails to the students at 5pm to make sure an assignment given that day is turned in my midnight that same day.
hard to unpack this one. If it was an in class assignment with extra time given at home for students who didn't finish then this doesn't seem unreasonable. And the reminder email should be a good thing, no?
Regular errors in grading.
ok this sounds annoying but go talk to the teacher and ask them to fix it. Mistakes happen. Teachers are human.
Limited outdoor time and weeks at a time with no PE/no exercise all day.
This sounds like someone new to middle school. There isn't much outdoor time in middle school. PE alternates with health so there are weeks when there is health intead of PE. This is part of the Virginia state curriculum so if you don't like it, take it up with the state.
iPads on all day.
yeah, that's how APS does it now. Not a Hamm thing.
It is rare that a teacher responds to an email from parents.
How often are you emailing teachers? I would say to cut it back to the bare minimum. Every time you feel the urge to email a teacher, ask yourself if this is something that would be better handled by your child, and coach them to do it. They can send a canvas message with your help.
And all the while, the students are being told that this is to prepare them for high school or that they should already be able to do whatever thing the kid is failing at (name the thing: organize a binder, talk to their adult teachers about failing grades, manage their time...).
Yes, it is preparing them, and you should be too. If your student doesn't have age appropriate skills in these areas, maybe there is an undiagnosed learning issue. Explore that.
Every kid I have talked to reports being sincerely and fundamentally unhappy. Although I value preparing my child for high school, it feels like the entire school is staffed by that one jerk teacher you had who got off on weeding out students, hazing, and bullying.
[i]this does sound bad but it's hard to understand. can you give some examples of how teachers are "hazing and bullying" students? It's not clear, based on your complaints above, if there really is mistreatment or if the teachers are just not meeting OP's expectations.
Is this just how school is now? For all the talk of school being easier now or more permissive now than when adults were kids, this just all seems like a lot and not anything in line with our family's values. Note, we have tried talking to our student's TA and counselor but we were given verbatim the same response from both, that there are no problems and that they are teaching the students to "advocate." When asked how students were being taught to advocate and how to support our student, the conversation was over on their end.
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