ISO recent experience with Eastern MS communications magnet

[Anonymous]

Subject says it all. We accepted a spot for my DC and we might reconsider. Is it worth it? Is it better for DC to remain with their neighborhood friends in the MS? We are in the DCC so it's not a far commute. Please share positive and negative experience. TIA

[Anonymous]

IME kids tend to either really enjoy it or hate everything about it. Is your child a theatre kid? Do they like to read a lot for fun and write stories or do art projects in their free time? Are they a little quirky and did they have trouble finding their tribe in elementary? The main group of kids that love this program would say yes to all those questions. There are exceptions but every year there is a core group like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IME kids tend to either really enjoy it or hate everything about it. Is your child a theatre kid? Do they like to read a lot for fun and write stories or do art projects in their free time? Are they a little quirky and did they have trouble finding their tribe in elementary? The main group of kids that love this program would say yes to all those questions. There are exceptions but every year there is a core group like this.

I think this is pretty fair. The standards are high, as is the workload, particularly in the 6th grade. The kids who are happiest are the ones who would be acting, or making little movies, or reading nonfiction, or writing stories/screenplays in their free time anyway. In that way, it's like any magnet - the happiest kids at TPMS magnet are probably the ones who would learn programming languages and push themselves in math no matter what.

Do you have specific questions or concerns? How long would the bus ride be for your child? How much do they enjoy the core subjects of the magnet (ELA, world history, media)? How much time has your child spent in economically and racially diverse schools?

All of those things will play a role in whether your child loves or hates (or just tolerates) the program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IME kids tend to either really enjoy it or hate everything about it. Is your child a theatre kid? Do they like to read a lot for fun and write stories or do art projects in their free time? Are they a little quirky and did they have trouble finding their tribe in elementary? The main group of kids that love this program would say yes to all those questions. There are exceptions but every year there is a core group like this.

I think this is pretty fair. The standards are high, as is the workload, particularly in the 6th grade. The kids who are happiest are the ones who would be acting, or making little movies, or reading nonfiction, or writing stories/screenplays in their free time anyway. In that way, it's like any magnet - the happiest kids at TPMS magnet are probably the ones who would learn programming languages and push themselves in math no matter what.

Do you have specific questions or concerns? How long would the bus ride be for your child? How much do they enjoy the core subjects of the magnet (ELA, world history, media)? How much time has your child spent in economically and racially diverse schools?

All of those things will play a role in whether your child loves or hates (or just tolerates) the program.

I think the workload in 7th is the most rigorous and time consuming. Our student enjoyed the program, but is a humanities kid through and through, is quirky as the PP mentioned, and most certainly found a great friend group there. There is most certainly a ton of work though, but for our kid the work was worth the peer group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IME kids tend to either really enjoy it or hate everything about it. Is your child a theatre kid? Do they like to read a lot for fun and write stories or do art projects in their free time? Are they a little quirky and did they have trouble finding their tribe in elementary? The main group of kids that love this program would say yes to all those questions. There are exceptions but every year there is a core group like this.

I think this is pretty fair. The standards are high, as is the workload, particularly in the 6th grade. The kids who are happiest are the ones who would be acting, or making little movies, or reading nonfiction, or writing stories/screenplays in their free time anyway. In that way, it's like any magnet - the happiest kids at TPMS magnet are probably the ones who would learn programming languages and push themselves in math no matter what.

Do you have specific questions or concerns? How long would the bus ride be for your child? How much do they enjoy the core subjects of the magnet (ELA, world history, media)? How much time has your child spent in economically and racially diverse schools?

All of those things will play a role in whether your child loves or hates (or just tolerates) the program.

I think the workload in 7th is the most rigorous and time consuming. Our student enjoyed the program, but is a humanities kid through and through, is quirky as the PP mentioned, and most certainly found a great friend group there. There is most certainly a ton of work though, but for our kid the work was worth the peer group.

Maybe this is my main question - is the extra workload worth it? Could my DC get the same/similar type of instruction in the home middle school? DC is someone who easily makes friends and isn't super quirky. Loves to write and is very creative. I don't find the writing instruction in middle school to be especially challenging so is it worth going to Eastern for that extra boost and rigor in instruction? Did you send your child there so they would have more of a peer group (social peers? Academic peers?) or for the instruction? or both?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IME kids tend to either really enjoy it or hate everything about it. Is your child a theatre kid? Do they like to read a lot for fun and write stories or do art projects in their free time? Are they a little quirky and did they have trouble finding their tribe in elementary? The main group of kids that love this program would say yes to all those questions. There are exceptions but every year there is a core group like this.

I think this is pretty fair. The standards are high, as is the workload, particularly in the 6th grade. The kids who are happiest are the ones who would be acting, or making little movies, or reading nonfiction, or writing stories/screenplays in their free time anyway. In that way, it's like any magnet - the happiest kids at TPMS magnet are probably the ones who would learn programming languages and push themselves in math no matter what.

Do you have specific questions or concerns? How long would the bus ride be for your child? How much do they enjoy the core subjects of the magnet (ELA, world history, media)? How much time has your child spent in economically and racially diverse schools?

All of those things will play a role in whether your child loves or hates (or just tolerates) the program.

I think the workload in 7th is the most rigorous and time consuming. Our student enjoyed the program, but is a humanities kid through and through, is quirky as the PP mentioned, and most certainly found a great friend group there. There is most certainly a ton of work though, but for our kid the work was worth the peer group.

Maybe this is my main question - is the extra workload worth it? Could my DC get the same/similar type of instruction in the home middle school? DC is someone who easily makes friends and isn't super quirky. Loves to write and is very creative. I don't find the writing instruction in middle school to be especially challenging so is it worth going to Eastern for that extra boost and rigor in instruction? Did you send your child there so they would have more of a peer group (social peers? Academic peers?) or for the instruction? or both?

I'm 13:44 from yesterday, and I sent my child for the academic curriculum even before I really understood how weak the MCPS English curriculum was in general.

I'm not an MCPS basher. My kids have received a great education from (mostly) dedicated and knowledgeable teachers. With that said, MCPS leadership has 100% dropped the ball on the secondary school ELA and Social Studies curricula. So, while kids who are "gifted" in math have access to an advanced and differentiated curriculum, kids who are "gifted" in writing/reading/analysis have zero options for acceleration or even just learning alongside equally motivated peers in most MCPS schools until 10th or 11th grades.

My Eastern MS kid had the option of college-level reading assignments beginning the summer before 7th grade. They read novels (not just excerpts) every single quarter and then spent real time discussing how those novels fit into the historical period being studied in the Social Studies classes.

It is a tremendous shame that MCPS has decided that these opportunities should be rationed so tightly, and I generally am the person saying that "the same kid will do as well in any school," but I really think that the decision of MCPS to introduce "Honors for All" in the ELA curriculum in MS and early HS makes that point moot.

[Anonymous]

I had one child go through a DCC middle school and one go through Eastern. No, there is no way they will get anything comparable at a regular home middle school. My child definitely struggled with the high expectations for academic work and time management. That said, my kid would still do it over again. Also, my kid found a great friend group. If the commute for you isn’t far, I would recommend it.

[Anonymous]

My kid makes friends easily, and still did better overall at Eastern than they would have at the (highly dysfunctional) MS in our school pyramid. It's not all quirky kids -- they are all smart kids. I'd do it again in a heartbeat for the smart cohort of kids. My older kid who did go to the home MS got nowhere near the ELA curriculum and there's just no way to get the integration you get at Eastern. Also, the magnet teachers are really good.

[Anonymous]

Op, my kids did not do either magnet though they got in in middle school. If it's not a big lift commute wise and if she's not already settled into a friends group, I'd go with Eastern because traditional ELA programs are quite bad in middle school. There is a Global Humanities class which is good, but it's not a literature based class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had one child go through a DCC middle school and one go through Eastern. No, there is no way they will get anything comparable at a regular home middle school. My child definitely struggled with the high expectations for academic work and time management. That said, my kid would still do it over again. Also, my kid found a great friend group. If the commute for you isn’t far, I would recommend it.

Thank you for this! very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid makes friends easily, and still did better overall at Eastern than they would have at the (highly dysfunctional) MS in our school pyramid. It's not all quirky kids -- they are all smart kids. I'd do it again in a heartbeat for the smart cohort of kids. My older kid who did go to the home MS got nowhere near the ELA curriculum and there's just no way to get the integration you get at Eastern. Also, the magnet teachers are really good.

This is also very helpful. I think that integration piece is key. and I think most of the teachers in the magnet have been there for a while so they know what they are doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, my kids did not do either magnet though they got in in middle school. If it's not a big lift commute wise and if she's not already settled into a friends group, I'd go with Eastern because traditional ELA programs are quite bad in middle school. There is a Global Humanities class which is good, but it's not a literature based class.

I do find that ELA in MS is very weak in MCPS. DC is settled with plenty of friends but they seem to be going to a large number of other schools. Thank you for your response.

[Anonymous]

Non-quirky kids sometimes have a harder time with friendships because so many kids are quirky. Many kids bond through drama productions, D&D, and if your child is not in to that it will be more difficult socially. DC continued to mostly socialize with friends from their old school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IME kids tend to either really enjoy it or hate everything about it. Is your child a theatre kid? Do they like to read a lot for fun and write stories or do art projects in their free time? Are they a little quirky and did they have trouble finding their tribe in elementary? The main group of kids that love this program would say yes to all those questions. There are exceptions but every year there is a core group like this.

I think this is pretty fair. The standards are high, as is the workload, particularly in the 6th grade. The kids who are happiest are the ones who would be acting, or making little movies, or reading nonfiction, or writing stories/screenplays in their free time anyway. In that way, it's like any magnet - the happiest kids at TPMS magnet are probably the ones who would learn programming languages and push themselves in math no matter what.

Do you have specific questions or concerns? How long would the bus ride be for your child? How much do they enjoy the core subjects of the magnet (ELA, world history, media)? How much time has your child spent in economically and racially diverse schools?

All of those things will play a role in whether your child loves or hates (or just tolerates) the program.

I think the workload in 7th is the most rigorous and time consuming. Our student enjoyed the program, but is a humanities kid through and through, is quirky as the PP mentioned, and most certainly found a great friend group there. There is most certainly a ton of work though, but for our kid the work was worth the peer group.

I think you'd find some families would say the more challenging work was worth putting up with the peer group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IME kids tend to either really enjoy it or hate everything about it. Is your child a theatre kid? Do they like to read a lot for fun and write stories or do art projects in their free time? Are they a little quirky and did they have trouble finding their tribe in elementary? The main group of kids that love this program would say yes to all those questions. There are exceptions but every year there is a core group like this.

I think this is pretty fair. The standards are high, as is the workload, particularly in the 6th grade. The kids who are happiest are the ones who would be acting, or making little movies, or reading nonfiction, or writing stories/screenplays in their free time anyway. In that way, it's like any magnet - the happiest kids at TPMS magnet are probably the ones who would learn programming languages and push themselves in math no matter what.

Do you have specific questions or concerns? How long would the bus ride be for your child? How much do they enjoy the core subjects of the magnet (ELA, world history, media)? How much time has your child spent in economically and racially diverse schools?

All of those things will play a role in whether your child loves or hates (or just tolerates) the program.

I think the workload in 7th is the most rigorous and time consuming. Our student enjoyed the program, but is a humanities kid through and through, is quirky as the PP mentioned, and most certainly found a great friend group there. There is most certainly a ton of work though, but for our kid the work was worth the peer group.

I think you'd find some families would say the more challenging work was worth putting up with the peer group.

And some (like me) would say it wasn’t. We did not feel Eastern was worth it compared to our strong middle school (have sent kids to both). Eastern has a lot of problems. I didn’t feel the teachers were amazing, but we do come from a home middle school with strong teachers so I think it also depends where you are coming from.