Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Mandarino Minutes for 5-26-20

Dear Parents/Guardians,



The Virtual Variety Show is Here! - 

This incredible show has come together despite the circumstances!  A special thanks to Sandy Krieg (the director), the Fisbeck family for helping to produce the video (especially senior- Will Fisbeck), and of course all the talented performers!  Enjoy the show:









Locker Pickup, Yearbook Pickup, Library book drop-off, and 7th grade time capsules - 

We will be having a drive-up pickup of locker items on Thursday, June 4th.  In your son/daughter's bag will be their hallway locker items and their yearbook if they ordered one.  Times for this will come out later this week/early next week and will be based on your last name.

We will have a station to drop off any library books your daughter/son may have.

We will also have a station for any 7th grader to drop off their time capsule work for their English class.  I know the senior class had a wonderful time reading through their time capsules last week!

An email will come out this week from our IT department to discuss the student laptop computers as well.





8th grade message - 

A FlipGrid called “Farewell to 8th Grade” has been created to celebrate your final days as an 8th grader at Upton Middle School. There’s a space for you to send a personal message to your classmates: Meet the 8th Grade Class. Please follow the instructions in the topic, keep your message to 30 seconds or less, and have it done by Sunday, May 31st. If you have any questions, you may contact Mrs. Cabanilla-Sinnett
rcabanilla-sinnett@sjschools.org or Mrs. Nicholson knicholson@sjschools.org Thank you!







8th grade Baby Photo -

The Upton 2020 Eighth-Grade Farewell Committee is collecting baby pictures of the eighth graders to combine with their yearbook pictures in a celebration of how far they've come.  Ordinarily, this would be a photo display on the walls at the eighth-grade farewell, but this year, it's a virtual celebration!  Please submit a digital copy of one of your student's baby pictures on this google form: https://forms.gle/8T2DzqMA2NXDAAQeA. Be sure to enter your child's name on the form as well.  If you have trouble submitting, you can also attach a photo to an email to kdrsault@yahoo.com or contact Kristen Robinson at kdrsault@yahoo.com to figure out a way to get your student's picture in there.  Thanks!







Virtual Ren Baldwin Tech Festival -


Check out the 2020 Ren Baldwin Tech Fest Website!  It was a phenomenal display of talent!  

Congratulations to all of the participants and thank you SJPS Foundation for your support!








Community Corkboard - 

Is soccer something you son/daughter might be interested in?  Summer reading opportunity?  Camps, etc.?  Check out the community corkboard on our district website:





Virtual Jogging Club - 

Are you tired of lounging on the couch?  Are you running out of Netflix options?  Do you feel like there's more to life and you can't quite put a finger on it?  

Well, maybe it's time for you to get on Strava.

Strava is a fitness app that can be installed on most devices.  It uses GPS to track your latest and greatest activities.  Anything from running to biking.  Windsurfing to roller skiing.  You name it, Strava will track it.  

I have created a Strava group named "Upton Runner's Club" to serve as a community for our Upton students and staff that want to get active, do some good for their bodies, and encourage each other along the way.  

Here's a quick vid to help you get set up.



If you're having trouble, but really want to get connected in this way just reach out to me.  I'll do everything I can to get you set up.

Thanks,
Mr. Maier    Mmaier@sjschools.org







Honor Credit Union Student Winner -

Congratulations to Isabella Bowen for winning the drawing for the iPad from Honor Credit Union!  Isabella's name was drawn from a group of students who made a deposit in the Upton Bear Student Credit Union this school year.







From Your Guidance Department - 

Please click on this link to take you to the Guidance news and this week's wellness Wednesday information:  





Quote of the week -






Have a great week,
Mr. Mandarino





Monday, May 18, 2020

Mandarino Minutes for 5-18-20



Dear Parents/Guardians,


Finish Strong -

We have just three weeks of teaching and learning left for this school year!  Please continue to encourage your daughter/son to engage for the remainder of the year.  Next Monday being Memorial Day we will not have lessons, google hangouts, etc.  I will also not have a blog posting next Monday.





Ren Baldwin Virtual Technology Festival -

This Wednesday evening (May 20th) beginning at 7:00 PM will be the virtual Ren Baldwin Technology Festival. See your daughter son's projects, see other students' projects and tune in and see who will be the lucky winner of a brand new iPad! That evening just prior to the event a link will be posted on the district website, itsLearning, Facebook, and Twitter.  Many students districtwide have entered some amazing projects!  Please plan to take a look.





Wellness Wednesdays -

  From the Guidance Department                               

 
Reminder, May is Better Healthier Stronger Together.  We hope you are taking time to take care of yourselves. We continue to add information to the Covid-19, Guidance & SEL site and hope you are finding what it offers helpful and useful.

There will be no Wellness Wednesday this week. Rather, we hope students will join the Technology Festival festivities. See the blog for more information.

Have a great week!





8th going into 9th Parents -

For those parents interested in the early college, and dual credit classes offered at SJHS the following online meeting is being offered.  You also received this same message yesterday from SJHS.

Topic: LMC Dual Credit/Early College Presentation for SJHS
Description: This presentation will review the different types of early college, the pros and cons of signing up for an early college class, and how to register for dual credit courses offered at SJHS (including Accuplacer testing required).

Time: May 20, 2020 6:00pm

Join Zoom Meeting:


Meeting ID: 952 1406 9733
Password: LMCSJHS






Schools of Choice Applications -

Due to the current restrictions related to COVID-19, St. Joseph Public Schools has postponed the schools of choice window which was originally open from May 1st- May 22nd.  When restrictions are lifted, we will advertise the application window.  In the meantime, please continue to monitor our district website and district Facebook page.  





Something to Read? - 

Does your middle schooler need something new to read?  Check out our new eBooks!  Just in -- 50 new digital titles have been added to the UMS Media Center online catalog. Just log in with your stjoebears email address, check one out, and READ, READ, READ!





Quote of the week  (In honor of our veterans this coming Memorial Day) -





Have a wonderful week,
Mr. Mandarino









Monday, May 11, 2020

Mandarino Minutes for 5-11-20

Dear Parents/Guardians,



State Champion!! Congratulations!!  -

7th grader, Braden Miesse, is a state champion and will be representing Upton Middle School at the National History Day National Finals!  He is one of only two Michigan students will represent Michigan in the Junior performance division of NHD!  This is an incredible accomplishment!!!!


Braden Miesse


We also have a winner of the special award for use of family history with Maren Barfus and Ginny Weykamp's exhibit.  Maren and Ginny were also recipients of a District 6 special award for the exhibit at the district competition.  


Maren Barfus
Ginny Weykamp


We had a total of eight students qualify for the NHS state competition, and all these young ladies and gentleman worked independently (due to COVID 19) to fine tune their projects before submission to the state competition.

A special thanks to Mr. Brown, Mrs. Wiesemes, Mr. Bacolor, Mr. Catania, and Mr. Leonard for their support along the way!




Thanks for sharing your appreciation! - 










Wellness Wednesday -

This Wednesday evening beginning at 7:00 PM will be "Name that Tune" with host Mr. Matt Maier.  This will be open to all middle school and high school students.  The link with the access to this will be shared at 6:30 PM Wednesday evening to all students via itsLearning and is also being shared on the Wellness webpage.


Name That Tune | CHAPIN MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Saint Joseph Public Schools - Saint Joseph Public Schools ...
Mr. Maier



From the Guidance Department -

I also wanted to share out the resource page from our wonderful guidance team.  It has many useful resources.   If you have any questions, concerns, or just need to talk please reach out to them. Here is the link to the resource:







From the Guidance Department                               

As we enter into our 7th week of learning at home, we’d like to take a moment to
thank you parents & families for ALL your hard work and support!  
We know that this has not been easy and we truly appreciate all of the time and effort you are putting in to help your student(s) stay connected and involved - we couldn’t do it without you!  
As Jack Johnson sings, we are “Better Together”!

We hope that May is off to a good start for you and you are finding some balance during this “new normal”.  We know that being a caregiver/parent is hard under normal circumstances and appreciate the added stress we are all experiencing right now makes it even more challenging.

With that in mind, please check out the “parent trapped” podcast in our google site 
Covid-19, Guidance & SEL - it’s full of real world tips & stories for these challenging times. 
We also added some links in the app section with daily uplifting & short videos.

And remember to  join us this month as we are 






Quote of the Week -

(In honor of the awesome ladies in our students' lives. Happy Belated Mother's Day!)

"A mother's arms are more comforting than anyone else's." 
- Princess Diana of Wales
Princess Diana - Death, Wedding & Family - Biography



Have a wonderful week,
Mr. Mandarino
The Best is Yet to Come


Mandarino Minutes for 6-9-23

  Dear Upton Middle School Families, Thanks! - We thank you for sharing your daughter/son with us this school year!  We also appreciate your...