Phoenix Flyer #9

October 21, 2020

Good afternoon – It was absolutely lovely to see so many Dorothy Hamm students participate in our School Spirit Drive Through Celebration on Saturday. The students seemed excited to see some of their teachers and the staff enjoyed their first in-person, socially-distanced school event. Thanks to all who decorated their cars, donated yummy treats, and helped the PTSA put on this event.

Just a couple of updates for this week:

**Schedule Change**
Due to today’s internet outage, tomorrow will be a “Gold Day.” Students will attend their 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Period. The normal schedule will resume next week.

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) lesson this week: Lesson 2: Bullying Prevention Month
This past Monday, October 19th, students were able to preview their second SEL lesson of the year! This week’s lesson, aligned with Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL), will discuss bullying prevention with Mr. Tuttle, the 8th grade school counselor. Students will learn how to identify bullying types, understand the roles people play, and what people can do to stop it, in this coming week’s lesson. This subject will also be woven through teacher advisory (TA) classes. SEL lessons, along with our weekly wellness check-in, allow for us to truly address and help support our students in processing their physical and mental health needs during these unprecedented times. We are here not only to support our students but their families because we are all in this together!

This week’s SEL Resources for Families:

Stop Bulling Now Website
Tips and Resources for Parents on Bullying
Information on SEL in Homes & Communities

The SEL book of the week is Positive Discipline by Jane Nelson, Ed.D.

DHMS Gifted Services Virtual Information Session: October 29th, 2020 at 7:30pm & November 2nd, 2020 at 12:30pm.
This virtual session will highlight APS gifted services, including the collaborative cluster approach, as well as methods on instructional differentiation, enrichment, and extensions provided to our students identified for gifted services at DHMS. Please feel free to email any questions you may have to Kat Partington, RTG, at katherine.partington@apsva.us. The meeting link can be found on the APS Webpage – and we will send a SchoolTalk message with it on the day of the meeting.

Fall Conferences: Reminder – reach out to your DHMS student’s TA teacher to set up the Fall Conference. Conferences will be Thursday afternoon and Friday. Middle School Students DO have school on Thursday! The goal of this Fall Conference is for the TA Teacher to get to know your DHMS student and family better. Your DHMS student is expected to attend (virtually) as they have a role in this conference. Additionally, the TA teacher will ask you and your DHMS student some questions to help us better meet your student’s needs.

Parent Chats: So glad to see so many people on our Parent Chats. We have moved to a bi-weekly schedule. Our next Parent Chat will be Monday, November 2 at 12:30 PM and will feature Ms. Partington, our Resource Teacher for the Gifted. Mark your calendar. I will send the meeting link out the morning of the meeting. So far, we have had 40+ people at each parent chat! That’s amazing. We will keep the Monday schedule through the month of November – and switch to a new day/time in December.