Mount Harmony Elementary School

Posted: May 22, 2022

I'm sure its a higher ranking school for the area and for being in Maryland, however I was not impressed. Staff was friendly enough when we talked to them and teachers communicated well. Like another reviewer said, my child watched countless movies and online videos while in class that teachers put on (5th grade). I might give them the benefit of the doubt that it was because of the whole COVID-19, but why were they not doing real educational classwork or knocking out stuff so they didn't always come home with homework? Or watching movies that were at least educational? My student struggled with homework via the computer that I couldn't help with because it is so different than what I learned. I was frustrated when I tried some workbooks with my student that I purchased at a bookstore to try a different approach because my student just was not getting it, and the teacher told me not to. She also once told me my child needed consequences when my child started to show signs of sruggling with work in the classroom; mighty presumptuous, innacurate and absolutely out of line. They spend a lot of the year focusing on that stupid MAPS testing and I think my students class went on one field trip the entire year. My student's teacher always used no recess as a punishment, the cafeteria food is dreadful, and if your students bus is 30 or 45 minutes late picking up or dropping off your kid, don't bother calling the school; they apparently have no clue or communication with the busses. Lastly, when my child was bullied and we talked to the principal, he made sure to mention to me that the other student was on the student council. I guess that means either it's all okay and the bullying doesn't matter or that we must be wrong and mistaken because ya know, kid's on student council and all. Ditch the common core, figure out the busses, quit watching movies all the time and completely demolish and restructure the dang parking lot.

Posted: May 22, 2022

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Posted: October 26, 2020

We didn't have the best experience at Mount Harmony... In Kindergarten, our oldest daughter's teacher had the kids watch 20+ movies (including The Nightmare Before Christmas) because she wanted to keep them entertained during recess and waiting for dismissal. We didn't find out until later when we got a Disney Plus subscription and our daughter informed us that she had already watched pretty much every Disney movie on there at school.

In 1st grade, our daughter quickly became bored because she was advanced in reading, writing, and math and so the content wasn't challenging her. We emailed her teacher asking if she could challenge our daughter, and the teacher said that after they completed their standardized MAP testing then if she scored well then she would do so. Our daughter tested at a 3rd grade level for reading and a 4th grade level for math, and yet we still didn't hear back anything from the teacher on how she would challenge our daughter. Teaching how to write the numbers 1-9 to a kid who knows multiplication and triple digit addition and subtraction w/regrouping just doesn't work.

Overall, we found the teachers to not be receptive to adapting their teaching based on the ability levels of their students. More than that, they seemed to be really lazy. It was really disappointing, as we had hard great things about this school district and had moved to Calvert County just for the schools. We ended up pulling our kids out and home schooling so that we aren't wasting their time. We may revisit the public schools later on, maybe the higher grades have more systems in place for challenging the more advanced students, but at least at the younger grades they won't do anything.

Posted: October 26, 2020

Posted: October 26, 2020

Posted: October 26, 2020

Posted: October 26, 2020

Posted: October 26, 2020

Posted: October 26, 2020

Posted: April 10, 2017

The teachers are extremely dedicated. There are constant updates via email and class websites. I've even gotten friendly waves when bumping into them at the grocery store. I think children tend to behave better in school when they know they can run into a teacher anywhere...and parents tend to sign forgotten permission slips...but I digress... I have a sneaking suspicion that Mount Harmony teachers enjoy teaching and actually like children. The principal greets children by name (there are days when even I resort to pointing and saying "you" to my children). The Aftercare staff are likewise dedicated and are even alumni of the school. Children in the program always seem to be reading, coloring or doing puzzles and it is located in the library which is bright and airy. My refrigerator could do with less colored butterflies however, yeah, I'm looking at you Ms. P.