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:

https://zoom.us/j/95214069733?pwd=dU5UeVI1d05La0lhRlg4eEMxdTRDZz09

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

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! - 

Teacher Appreciation Video  

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.

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:

Guidance Resources

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 

Better Healthier Stronger Together

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

Have a wonderful week,

Mr. Mandarino

Mandarino Minutes for 5-4-20

Dear Parents/Guardians,



Happy Teacher Appreciation Week -

We have such an amazing staff at UMS!  The staff has built relationships, inspired students, worked tremendously hard, and really has embraced the changes of the last 7 weeks.  Teachers have spent tons of time planning lessons, preparing lessons, hosting online google hangouts, professional development, online meetings, giving student feedback, and much more! We are truly blessed to have such a dedicated group of educators!

I hope you had a chance to see Mrs. Koetsier's eblast sent on behalf of our wonderful UPTO last week on Teacher appreciation, if not here it is:

Check out the itsLearning Calendar -

I have had some emails saying, "I don't know what my daughter/son should be working on?"  An easy solution to this are the following steps: 

1. Have them sit down right next to you with their laptop 
2. Ask them to pull up itsLearning 
3. Click on the itsLearning calendar, and you will see each teacher's expectations for this week.  
4. If you have a question about an assignment after discussing it with your daughter/son, please email the teacher directly.

Ren Baldwin Virtual Technology Festival Entries due by tomorrow -  

Don’t forget to get those projects turned in for the 2020 Ren Baldwin Student Technology Festival!

Deadline - TOMORROW, May 5

13 categories, cash prizes for winners AND a drawing for an iPad for just submitting a project!

Contact Mrs. Burnette if you have questions.

Here is a link to the Ren Baldwin Technology festival items:

Ren Baldwin Virtual 2020 Technology Festival PDF

Middle School Entry Form Link

Free Wifi Areas in SJPS -

If you are looking for free WiFi we have areas around all of our buildings that provide it.  Please see the attached maps of the buildings to know where to go to access it (Note: The green circle areas) :

SJPS WiFi Areas around our buildings

Art at Upton:  Wow!!!!!!!!!! -

We have so many talented artists at Upton Middle School!  Mr. Fralick shared a few pieces of art over the weekend, and I thought it would be great to share them all with you!  Enjoy!

Eliza Kuhlman Art

Ceci Ruchti Art

Diego Gonzalez Art

Isabela Dias Art #1

Isabela Dias Art #2

Jade Murdoch Art

Lincoln Vetne Art

Margaret Maxim Art

Megan Painter Art

Guidance Department Great Stuff -

Our wonderful guidance department has once again provided a wonderful resource.  Please click on the link to view:

The Month of May Guidance Resources

Quote of the week -

Have a wonderful week,

Mr. Mandarino