How does the social stuff work if everybody is taking long bus rides to school? How do the kids get together to socialize outside of school? It seems like a lot of kids would just be too geographically spread out. How does it work?

Anonymous wrote:I'm also interested in knowing more about the school. For those who have sent their kids, are the experiences/academics really worth the long commutes and being pulled out of their local community. We have an okay decent option, and I'm leaning towards turning down our spot, but don't really feel informed enough about the advantages.

Just be careful here. There are people, subtle, sophisticated, trying to cause people to decline offers. This improves waitlist chances. There is no penalty for accepting now, and declining in a few months if that becomes your , by then , well informed, decision.

English and history were big disappointments at TPMS for my kid. Science and math were top notch - great teachers and motivated/capable peer. English and history -- much worse than W district middle schools.

Anonymous wrote:We’re coming from PBES and I can say with certainty the kids are good kids. My kid has CES and non CES friends and they are all lovely kids. I love the cohort.

About the TPMS magnet teachers: without naming names, are they experienced, charismatic, do they have doctorates? Do they add value to the experience?

There was an excellent teacher who unfortunately left this year, and he had a doctorate. The others have masters' degrees, as far as I'm concerned. While I wasn't quite as impressed with the 6th grade teachers, I think they get better in 7th and 8th.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I really want to know is how people get their kids to TPMS. As best I can tell, it's a bus to Eastern from the west side of the county, and then a shuttle to TP. Both of us work and Silver Spring is not on the way for either of us, so carpooling would be very difficult, unless we find a really accommodating set of families.

Accommodating - they do all the driving and your only contribution is your child.

No - Accommodating in the sense that they are willing to do all the afternoon pick-ups (and we do only morning) because it'd be really hard to regularly take off in the middle of the work day. Sorry you lack the ability to conceptualize such a thing.

Why can't your kid just take the bus like everyone else? Jeez, entitlement much? I don't know anyone who does afternoon carpools. That's unheard of. At least driving to school in the morning means more sleep for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I really want to know is how people get their kids to TPMS. As best I can tell, it's a bus to Eastern from the west side of the county, and then a shuttle to TP. Both of us work and Silver Spring is not on the way for either of us, so carpooling would be very difficult, unless we find a really accommodating set of families.

Yes all of the buses go to Eastern first (from everywhere) so it’s a long commute from the west side of the county. Many people do carpool or drop their kids off from farther away. We’re not as far, DC doesn’t mind the bus, and it’s an opportunity to see friends who go to Eastern since they share buses, so this hasn’t been an issue for us. But getting on a bus at 6:30 to go far does require commitment and passion for the program.

Actually, the buses go to. Blair first, not Eastern. They drop off the Blair high school kids and then either go to TPMS or Eastern. They don’t all go to Eastern.

I'm 10:51 -- my answer is yes, despite the mediocre English/SS. Being in the magnet classes half the day, with other smart kids mostly without behavior problems and great magnet teachers, is very relaxing. Extracurriculars at Takoma are also top notch.

I'm also interested in knowing more about the school. For those who have sent their kids, are the experiences/academics really worth the long commutes and being pulled out of their local community. We have an okay decent option, and I'm leaning towards turning down our spot, but don't really feel informed enough about the advantages.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is in 6th grade at TPMS- the kids definitely don’t need prior computer experience. We are very happy with the magnet teachers and most of the non-magnet teachers as well. There are a lot of smart kids outside of the magnet program as well and DC is thriving there. The English curriculum is not challenging, but this is true everywhere in MCPS except for Eastern. A lot of kids get into both programs these days so it’s not like the TPMS kids are only into math/science and vice versa at eastern. There are a lot of all around smart kids in both of these programs.

Can you tell me more about the English program? My kid is fed up of pointless worksheets in 5th grade and could do with a lot more challenge in English. I was hoping middle school would help esp as he got in to TPMS.

English, history are not going to be that good at TPMS

Do you actually have experience here? If so can you share more than “not that good”?

NP here— it will be a continuation of what you’ve seen so far, I imagine. I think there are occasional MCPS middle school teachers who are so good AND don’t have a really huge range of learners in their classroom (big, just not really big) that they can provide good writing instruction, but in general the teachers just have too many restrictions and challenges for it to be good — except at Eastern. It means that they are usually only taught to write on a rudimentary level (“The evidence in support of my claim is xxx.”) and not held to higher standards (yes, yes, there are exceptions). Not much writing and not much required reading overall. Not taught enough grammar. Not taught how to transition between thoughts with sophistication. Not taught how to be precise in making a claim. Not taught how to properly embed supporting quotations within their claim, and then comment on the evidence. But TPMS is no worse than the other middle school we have experience with. And, you will have the advantage of the enriched class for SS, which should make it better.

Anonymous wrote:We’re coming from PBES and I can say with certainty the kids are good kids. My kid has CES and non CES friends and they are all lovely kids. I love the cohort.

About the TPMS magnet teachers: without naming names, are they experienced, charismatic, do they have doctorates? Do they add value to the experience?

Glad you’ve had the experience. It’s not been my kid’s experience at PBES, unfortunately. Not in the CES.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is in 6th grade at TPMS- the kids definitely don’t need prior computer experience. We are very happy with the magnet teachers and most of the non-magnet teachers as well. There are a lot of smart kids outside of the magnet program as well and DC is thriving there. The English curriculum is not challenging, but this is true everywhere in MCPS except for Eastern. A lot of kids get into both programs these days so it’s not like the TPMS kids are only into math/science and vice versa at eastern. There are a lot of all around smart kids in both of these programs.

Can you tell me more about the English program? My kid is fed up of pointless worksheets in 5th grade and could do with a lot more challenge in English. I was hoping middle school would help esp as he got in to TPMS.

English, history are not going to be that good at TPMS

Do you actually have experience here? If so can you share more than “not that good”?

It stands to reason that a DCC schools can't be as good as our W feeder, but I think they may be starting the enriched humanities there next year.

We’re coming from PBES and I can say with certainty the kids are good kids. My kid has CES and non CES friends and they are all lovely kids. I love the cohort.

About the TPMS magnet teachers: without naming names, are they experienced, charismatic, do they have doctorates? Do they add value to the experience?

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, TPMS will have HIGH next year, so the social studies should be better than in years past.

English? I guess that's just going to be the normal curriculum even for the magnet kids.

We are in-bounds for TPMS and I can attest that there are great kids inside and outside the magnet program. There are 50 kids coming out of Piney Branch who've had two years of the CES program at that school. There are another 30+ kids from East Silver Spring who will either return from the regional CES or who have been doing the Enriched Literacy Curriculum at their home school. There is going to be a critical mass of kids with a lot of exposure to high level writing and critical thinking.

TPMS has HIGH this year too, although half of sixth graders are in it... but it’s definitely true that there are tons of smart kids both in the magnet and non-magnet.

FWIW, TPMS will have HIGH next year, so the social studies should be better than in years past.

English? I guess that's just going to be the normal curriculum even for the magnet kids.

We are in-bounds for TPMS and I can attest that there are great kids inside and outside the magnet program. There are 50 kids coming out of Piney Branch who've had two years of the CES program at that school. There are another 30+ kids from East Silver Spring who will either return from the regional CES or who have been doing the Enriched Literacy Curriculum at their home school. There is going to be a critical mass of kids with a lot of exposure to high level writing and critical thinking.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is in 6th grade at TPMS- the kids definitely don’t need prior computer experience. We are very happy with the magnet teachers and most of the non-magnet teachers as well. There are a lot of smart kids outside of the magnet program as well and DC is thriving there. The English curriculum is not challenging, but this is true everywhere in MCPS except for Eastern. A lot of kids get into both programs these days so it’s not like the TPMS kids are only into math/science and vice versa at eastern. There are a lot of all around smart kids in both of these programs.

Can you tell me more about the English program? My kid is fed up of pointless worksheets in 5th grade and could do with a lot more challenge in English. I was hoping middle school would help esp as he got in to TPMS.

English, history are not going to be that good at TPMS

Do you actually have experience here? If so can you share more than “not that good”?