Harmony Newsletter

We are about halfway in the first quarter and pleased so far. It has been a good start from all accounts in each school focus area: safety, climate, and instruction.

• Safety - We completed several fire drills and lock down drills, managed a student health concern and communicated that emergency to families (a fire truck and ambulance were on campus). Together with LCPS we dealt with the unsubstantiated threats to schools around the country.
• Climate - Our large size (about 1,150 students) gives the kids plenty of opportunities to meet other students from western Loudoun. With more than 7 classes and Advisory, kids are interacting with plenty of new friends and using their developing social skills. With polite manners taught from home, enforced at school by our kindness lessons in Advisory, we believe we are making excellent progress.
• Instruction - With the quarter well under way, you should have a clear picture of how your child is doing in classes. Check Schoology and ParentVUE regularly. Be in communication with your child's teachers. All kids should be engaged in the lessons.

Enjoy the weekend,

Eric Stewart

Oct 3 - School Holiday

Oct 4 - LCPS Professional Development Day / No School for Students

Oct 8 - Earthquake Drill

Oct 10 - Chorus to Perform at WHS

Oct 14 - Holiday

Oct 15 - Decades Day (Students pick and dress out of the decade 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, etc.)

Oct 16 - Unity Day for National Bullying Prevention Day (wear orange for kindness, acceptance, and inclusion)

Oct 17 - Neon Day

Oct 17 - PTA Spirit Night (at MOD Pizza)

Oct 18 - Pink Out Day (for October National Breast Cancer Awareness Month)

Oct 29 - Staff Versus Student Volleyball Game

Oct 30 - Student Holiday (Workday for Staff)

Oct 31 - Student Holiday (Workday for Staff)

Nov 1 - Holiday

Nov 4 - Student Holiday (Staff Professional Development Day)

Nov 5 - Student Holiday (Staff Professional Development Day)

Nov 13 - 6th Grade Awards Night (Last Name A - L) @ 7 PM

Nov 13 - 6th Grade Awards Night (Last Name M - Z) @ 8 PM

Nov 14 - 7th Grade Awards Night @ 7 PM

Nov 14 - 8th Grade Awards Night @ 8 PM

School Website Link

One challenge all schools have is maintaining consistent behaviors from all students all year long. One item we need your continued partnership with is helping our middle schoolers make better and more mature choices. Poor choices sometimes occur in things kids say or do. Sometimes kids say something they think is funny or heard about on social media that are very inappropriate.

Those usually involve racial, cultural, or sexually inappropriate comments. Examples include anti semitism, racial slurs, comments about someone's body, appearance, or inappropriate language. These are very rare but we want to do better, especially in areas of more difficult supervision like on buses or transition areas (like student lockers). We often review decision making in Advisory through our SEL lessons as well as regular "Dean Talks" where the deans go speak with the students.

Parents, we appreciate your help in telling us what kids are willing to share and helping us to stop any behaviors like that immediately. Please keep communicating with your child and with us as soon as you hear something that is inappropriate. We need each other so we can stop all inappropriate behaviors and comments as soon as possible.

So far this year we have completed: Bus evacuation drills, two lock down drills, and two fire drills. An Earthquake will occur in October. Contact names are below for any questions.

• School Security Officer, (SSO), Josh Stillwell (joshua.stillwell@lcps.org)
• School Resource Office (SRO), Loudoun County Deputy Chris Salter (christopher.salter@loudoun.gov)
• 7th Grade Dean and School Safety Contact, Justin Dailey (justin.dailey@lcps.org)
• Principal, Eric Stewart (eric.stewart@lcps.org)

School Phone is 540-751-2500 (then dial zero to reach the main office)

We are starting to have multiple water bottle spills per day in our hallways which make for slippery conditions. Kids have access to drinking fountains all day and don't really need a water bottle, especially the larger ones that only need a daily refill.

Currently kids are allowed to have water bottles in school and many do. Please encourage your kids to use our fountains and if you have to send something in, please send the smallest bottle possible.

The last few weeks we have provided root words to help build student vocabulary. We hope you have gone over them with your kids. So far we have: "bene" (meaning good), "mal" (meaning bad), and "magn (meaning large or great), aqua - water (like aquaman), scend - climb (ascend), aud - hear (auditorium), ambi - both (ambidextrous), cent - one hundred (centipedes have 100 legs), and script - to write (inscription). Here are some more:

terr (earth)

vac (empty)

graph (write)

New to Harmony? Here is a description of our awards program (and awards nights):

At the end of Quarters 1 -3, we have a Quarterly Recognition Night for students earning the "All A/B" and "All A" Honor Roll and well as students selected by staff for our Cornerstone Awards (citizenship, effort, leadership, scholarship, and the math and writing awards.). Both occur at the same time (dates above in calendar section).

There are no invitations for the honor roll. Each family should look at their child's report card and will know whether the A/B or All A honor roll was earned. Students will receive a pin and a bumper sticker and be recognized on stage.

Hope to see you there.

ChatGPT, an example of a powerful AI tool, is now being used by some of our staff and students. If you’re not familiar with it, please read on and check out the info below. (In fact, Copilot, a resource used by LCPS wrote this article below based on parameters we gave it!)

Dear Parents,

What is ChatGPT? ChatGPT is an AI that can understand and generate human-like text, helping with tasks like writing, tutoring, and answering questions.

We encourage you to explore these (any appropriate) apps to see how ChatGPT (or anything like it) and AI can enhance your child’s education.

This week we recognize several teachers! Thank you parents and staff for submitting names. If you would like to recognize a staff member, please email eric.stewart@lcps.org)

"The Nassar family would like to recognize Mrs. Donohue as one of the most amazing English teachers our children have had/have. They loved/love her English class, and because of her, their love for reading increased so much! She makes the English language so appealing and fun to learn. She’s just so awesome and we appreciate all her hard work.

We would also like to recognize Mr. Bell, who made Social Studies such a fun and interesting topic for our student to learn. Mr. Bell is an awesome teacher!!

Last but not least, Mrs. Miller! Our daughter is in high school now but still talks about how much she loved Mrs. Miller’s Latin class, and how much she misses her. Our daughter loved Latin because of Mrs. Miller and we are so thankful to her. We love Harmony and all of its teachers and staff because they care about our children."

We also received this for Mr. David Schear, "Wilder really enjoys Mr. Schear's class. I also appreciate David teaching Wilder how to read music and using that skill to explore different instruments and songs on his own this summer. I also appreciate David helping me tune Wilder's cello (without me asking!!) before bringing it home so Wilder can just start playing the instrument instead of getting frustrated with tuning it."

Ms. Potts nominated Dr. Caitlin Gosnell, "I nominate Caitlin Gosnell for being a patient and kind classroom teacher. She is always willing to listen and give students meaningful feedback."

Hispanic Heritage month is being celebrated through October 15. Check out some resources below:

This week, meet Sylvia Mendez:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/131vB0t1Tb6gzd6zWjtVeC7xv4jasKicIohs42Fo9fgs/edit?usp=sharing

...and check out this resource students will have access to in Advisory soon:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGRlP-8WdY/ymxvv4lMwAXLsx2TszH_aQ/edit?utm_content=DAGRlP-8WdY&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Interested in purchasing a yearbook this year? For a limited time, the yearbook will be $30, until the price goes up on December 1. To guarantee your student receives a yearbook, please go to www.yearbookordercenter.com and type in school code 21667 to order.

Also, if you’re an 8th Grade parent...the Yearbook wants your student’s baby picture! To submit your picture, please follow the guidelines below. Emailed photos will not be accepted. Photos must be uploaded to eShare no later than Friday, 11/22.

• Please send only one baby picture of your 8th grade student.
• The photos will be square in the yearbook, so a close-up of the face is better than a full-body photo.
• Please send a picture of your student by themselves. If you send a picture with a sibling or parent, the other people will be cropped out of the photo which may detract from the quality of the image.
• Follow the prompts in eShare to identify the student by first and last name. You can access eShare by going to www.yearbookshare.com and enter school code 21667.

If you have any questions about anything yearbook, please contact Jennifer Heffron, Yearbook Advisor, at jennifer.heffron@lcps.org.

The book fair was huge success this year. Students visited during the day all week through English classes or lunch time. We had a Open House on Sept 26. We had TONS of parent volunteers and best of all, we had 167 student helpers. No typo there. One hundred sixty-seven student helpers. Wowza.

During HIVE Time students will continue learning about relationships and problem solving through Second Step Unit 4: Lesson 21 and will also be learning about Hispanic Heritage Month. See summary for each grade below.

Harmony is committed to ensuring our school communities are safe and that our students have the support and resources they need. Please speak with your child about reaching out for help from any staff member they are comfortable with. Also, remember that our United Mental Health Team (UMHT) is always available to combine resources to help. Contact the school counselors or administrator for details on how to get this started.

With October 7th event coming up please be prepared to speak with your children about injustice, trauma, and strategies for seeking help. The Anti-Defamation League has a resource for helping students make sense of news stories about injustice:

https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/helping-students-make-sense-of-news-stories-about-bias-and-injustice.pdf

The School Crisis Center has a helpful “Psychological First Aid for Students and Teachers” resource:

https://www.schoolcrisiscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ncscb-psychological-first-aid-students-and-teachers.pdf

The Child Mind Institute has a guide for helping children cope after a traumatic event:
https://childmind.org/guide/helping-children-cope-after-a-traumatic-event/