Eastern MS magnet electives

[Anonymous]

DC recently got off waitlist of Eastern MS magnet, now need to choose electives, I search the old posts, I am wondering is the "literature in the humanity" the great reading class by Mrs. Ray that many people recommended? kid also want to do band,

any information about electives or after school activities would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC recently got off waitlist of Eastern MS magnet, now need to choose electives, I search the old posts, I am wondering is the "literature in the humanity" the great reading class by Mrs. Ray that many people recommended? kid also want to do band,

any information about electives or after school activities would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

My daughter will be starting at Eastern in the fall, and the open house presentation of "literature in the humanities" was great. Yes, it's the reading class, and the kids were raving about it and saying that it was one of their favorite classes. If I recall, they said that ~80% of the humanities kids took the class as an elective, now that it isn't required. My daughter signed up for that and also for the after school band because she wants to continue her instrument. We are hoping it is a manageable load to do. Would love to hear from any experienced Eastern parents about this.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks for the information! We was not able to go to the open house so had limited information about Eastern, but heard a lot of great things about the program, DC want to give it a try, hopefully it will work out fine

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC recently got off waitlist of Eastern MS magnet, now need to choose electives, I search the old posts, I am wondering is the "literature in the humanity" the great reading class by Mrs. Ray that many people recommended? kid also want to do band,

any information about electives or after school activities would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

My daughter will be starting at Eastern in the fall, and the open house presentation of "literature in the humanities" was great. Yes, it's the reading class, and the kids were raving about it and saying that it was one of their favorite classes. If I recall, they said that ~80% of the humanities kids took the class as an elective, now that it isn't required. My daughter signed up for that and also for the after school band because she wants to continue her instrument. We are hoping it is a manageable load to do. Would love to hear from any experienced Eastern parents about this.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations! You may want to call the school and ask them to send you the info pack they gave out to parents/students during the open house earlier this year. The Literature in the Humanities Elective is highly recommended and goes along with the Humanities curriculum. From what they said at the open house, it used to be a required part of the curriculum, but is now just highly recommended. It sounds like most magnet students take it. It is only for 6th grade.

As for band, Eastern offers an after school band class for students who want to be in band. The class, which they receive a grade for, is held on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays from 3:00-4:15. There are also after school clubs such as Orchestra Club and a before school club (Jazz ensemble). So there are ways to get band/band experience and still take the Literature in the Humanities elective in 6th grade.

One of the info sheets they handed out at open house was actually all about the music programs and how to they work at Eastern in terms of Magnet Students.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks! I will call the school and ask for the info pack..
It looks like for DC, Literature in the humanity plus after school band is the way to go..

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations! You may want to call the school and ask them to send you the info pack they gave out to parents/students during the open house earlier this year. The Literature in the Humanities Elective is highly recommended and goes along with the Humanities curriculum. From what they said at the open house, it used to be a required part of the curriculum, but is now just highly recommended. It sounds like most magnet students take it. It is only for 6th grade.

As for band, Eastern offers an after school band class for students who want to be in band. The class, which they receive a grade for, is held on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays from 3:00-4:15. There are also after school clubs such as Orchestra Club and a before school club (Jazz ensemble). So there are ways to get band/band experience and still take the Literature in the Humanities elective in 6th grade.

One of the info sheets they handed out at open house was actually all about the music programs and how to they work at Eastern in terms of Magnet Students.

[Anonymous]

Yes, LIH as an elective and afterschool band sounds good! DD is an 8th grader at Eastern and even though Literature was required, she was bummed that she couldn't take band (afterschool scheduling conflict). However, she now says Literature is integral to Humanities!

[Anonymous]

It is also the easiest of the formerly 4 core classes. A good boost to GPA.

[Anonymous]

My older dd did the Literature class when it was still required and raves about it still. She also did after-school band; I think very highly of Mr. Puckett, the band teacher. It's unbelievable how much work he puts into the kids at Eastern.

My younger dd will start Eastern next year and will follow the same path. She did cello in 4th/5th, but she will quit and start over on a new instrument to do after school band, as after-school orchestra is a club that only meets once a week. I don't have any grand ambitions for her to be a music superstar, but if she's going to continue an instrument in high school (or have the option) the after-school band is a lot more hours than the after-school orchestra.

It is a bummer that there aren't activity buses that get all magnet kids back to their bus stops after band, although I can certainly understand why. We have made after-school band work with a carpool, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can find a carpool for next year as well.

[Anonymous]

op here, thanks all for sharing your DC's experience, it is really helpful! Will look into the activity buses schedule and carpool possibility too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:op here, thanks all for sharing your DC's experience, it is really helpful! Will look into the activity buses schedule and carpool possibility too!

Here's the activity bus schedule for this year, if you haven't found it already: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/easternms/students/BLAIR%20MAGNET%20ACTIVITIES%20(002).pdf
and the calendar of which days it runs: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/easternms/departments/2018-2019%20ACTIVITY%20BUS%20CALENDAR(1).pdf

I've also been poking around the Eastern website and found this parent handbook to have useful info (my kid will be starting at Eastern next year): https://sites.google.com/view/parent-handbook/home

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My older dd did the Literature class when it was still required and raves about it still. She also did after-school band; I think very highly of Mr. Puckett, the band teacher. It's unbelievable how much work he puts into the kids at Eastern.

My younger dd will start Eastern next year and will follow the same path. She did cello in 4th/5th, but she will quit and start over on a new instrument to do after school band, as after-school orchestra is a club that only meets once a week. I don't have any grand ambitions for her to be a music superstar, but if she's going to continue an instrument in high school (or have the option) the after-school band is a lot more hours than the after-school orchestra.

It is a bummer that there aren't activity buses that get all magnet kids back to their bus stops after band, although I can certainly understand why. We have made after-school band work with a carpool, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can find a carpool for next year as well.

Is this because the band ends too late for the students to catch the activity bus, or are you referring to those days (like Mondays and Fridays) when there will be no activity bus at all? (Is the after school band class conducted every day like a regular class as opposed to only Tue/Wed/Thu like other after school activities?)

[Anonymous]

After-school band is T/W/Th, during the regular after-school activity period. Technically there are magnet activity buses, but most of the routes shuttle to Blair first, then pick up another route there.

We tried the bus thing for the first week or two of 6th grade, but even after my daughter eventually managed to find the right one (after being stranded at Blair a couple of times!), we decided it was easier for us to pick her up on those days. Between the Blair transfer and the walk home from the elementary school with her instrument, it was way too late to get homework and dinner done comfortably.

That said, she really likes Mr Puckett, and after school band in particular. It's fairly relaxed compared to the regular band classes, and as long as they're practicing at home and coming prepared every day, he's usually understanding about the occasional missed class for a project meeting or something. And they perform with the advanced band for concerts.

She generally seems to get homework done pretty easily, now that she's learned to plan ahead for those nights where she'll have less time to work on multi-day assignments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After-school band is T/W/Th, during the regular after-school activity period. Technically there are magnet activity buses, but most of the routes shuttle to Blair first, then pick up another route there.

We tried the bus thing for the first week or two of 6th grade, but even after my daughter eventually managed to find the right one (after being stranded at Blair a couple of times!), we decided it was easier for us to pick her up on those days. Between the Blair transfer and the walk home from the elementary school with her instrument, it was way too late to get homework and dinner done comfortably.

That said, she really likes Mr Puckett, and after school band in particular. It's fairly relaxed compared to the regular band classes, and as long as they're practicing at home and coming prepared every day, he's usually understanding about the occasional missed class for a project meeting or something. And they perform with the advanced band for concerts.

She generally seems to get homework done pretty easily, now that she's learned to plan ahead for those nights where she'll have less time to work on multi-day assignments.

PP here: I should also note that after-school band is technically another class, with a grade listed on the report card. But I think as long as they're practicing at home, being attentive and cooperative in class, and uploading the occasional video assignment, Mr Puckett is fairly relaxed with the grades.

[Anonymous]

DC got off the waiting list of Easter and we are considering the afterschool activities.
The band class sounds pretty dominant as it takes up three days' afterschool time. Even though DC learns music instruments but none of them are applied in the band or orchestra …
So I don't think it's a good approach to have DC learns a third instrument all over again in the band.

What are some other afterschool/before school activity choices? Since we were not able to attend the open house, the information we have is very limited. Is there a Jazz band (DC plays drum set)?

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC got off the waiting list of Easter and we are considering the afterschool activities.
The band class sounds pretty dominant as it takes up three days' afterschool time. Even though DC learns music instruments but none of them are applied in the band or orchestra …
So I don't think it's a good approach to have DC learns a third instrument all over again in the band.

What are some other afterschool/before school activity choices? Since we were not able to attend the open house, the information we have is very limited. Is there a Jazz band (DC plays drum set)?

Thank you.

Here's the list for this school year:
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/easternms/students/activities.aspx