Weekly Top for 9-28-18

Folks,

ArtPrize-

Joe Fralick and Matt Culver once again organized a really well-run day in Grand Rapids for our district art students.  A trip to Grand Rapids is always worth it for this event!

No meeting Monday-

We do not have any meeting after school this Monday, October 1st.  October 8th is a self-directed technology meeting.  Amy will be in the media center for anyone who needs assistance.

Today's Herald Palladium-
Today on page A3 is the district picture and story of of our "ONE" theme for this year.  Take a look: http://heraldpalladium.mi.newsmemory.com/

2 days left for SafeSchools-

Remember this Sunday, September 30th is the deadline for your SafeSchool courses.  

Student Count Day Wednesday (No late start)-

Next Wednesday, October 3rd is Student Count Day. Please take accurate attendance each hour.  

NO TARDIES in PowerSchool on this day!

Go Time Thursday-

Next Thursday, October 4th is our first GO time of the school year.  Math has priority.  Please go over the quick guidelines that Kara sent yesterday before next Thursday, October 4th with your 1st hour classes.   

BLT Tuesday-

We have our first BLT of the school year next Tuesday, October 2nd at 2:50 PM.

Team-Up Against Cancer-

Friday, September 28, 2018

Football Game- Portage Central Mustangs vs. St. Joseph Bears

5:00 p.m.     Gates Open. Enjoy Dinner at the Food Trucks!

                   Zoup, Mimi’s Cupcakes, Piggin-N-Grinnin, Panther’s Grill

6:20 p.m.     Survivors meet the Cheerleaders at the NE corner of football field

6:30 p.m.     Survivor Walk with Band & Cheerleaders

7:00 p.m.     Game Kick-Off

9:00 p.m.     Post-Game: Pink Jersey Exchange and Formation of Memory Ribbon

Upton staff once again knocked it out of the park with their performance for the dance.  

Here is the link again:  Beat it district dance

Mike Wagner Glow in the Dark 5K-

There is still time to signup for the Mike Wagner Glow in the Dark 5K until midnight tonight.  Here is the link:

https://runsignup.com/Race/MI/SaintJoseph/MikeWagnerMemorialGlowintheDark5K?rsus=100-200-30021905-7567-4dfa-a288-d6fe984fd67f&remMeAttempt=

The Ultimate Gift-
Hopefully you have read through pages 1-39 so far.  The Gift or Work. I think this staff does a great job in knowing what is most important in our jobs!

Quote of the week-

“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” - Albert Pine

(Thanks to Will McComber for passing this quote along to me!)

Have a great weekend,

Chad

Weekly Top for 9-21-18

Folks,


School Improvement Meeting Monday-
We will meet at 2:55 in the media center for our first school improvement meeting of the year.  We will also have some department time built in as well.

Photos distributed to 1st hour classes-

Please send home your pictures with your 1st hour classes today.  Stress to them to make sure they are put in a safe place so that they do not get bent, etc.  If you missed getting your picture taken at start-up day, you will get your picture taken this Wednesday, September 26th.

Flu Shot Clinic-

Mark your calendar for the flu shot on Tuesday, October 23rd from 3:00-5:00 PM at Upton Middle School.  Flu vaccination registration forms are in the office, and must be filled out ahead of time and brought with you to the clinic.

SafeSchools Training-

Just a reminder that you have 9 days left to complete your online training modules for SafeSchools.  Directions were in an email and previous blog post.

ArtPrize 2018-

The Studio Art students, high school art students, chaperones, Joe, Matt, and I will be at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids this Tuesday, September 25th.  The students know they are responsible for what they miss in your classes. This is such a great opportunity for the students and they get to witness a lot of talent.  Thanks to our wonderful foundation for their sponsorship of this!  

Dates to remember in October-

October 3rd- Fall Student Count Day

October 4th-  First GoTime of 2018-2019 school year

October 11th-  First Choir Concert of 2018-2019 school year

October 23rd- First Planetarium Show of 2018-2019 school year

October 25th-  First Orchestra Concert of 2018-2019 school year

Quote of the week-

Have a relaxing weekend,

Chad

Weekly Top for 9-14-18

Folks,

Great week-
Thanks for your time at Back to School Night, administering the NWEA, and your first full week back!  I see relationship building all over the place!  (Student-Staff; Staff-Staff, etc.)

Staff Meeting Monday-

We will talk be discussing the plan for The Ultimate Gift, looking at a little data, and discussing a few nuts & bolts items.

JB Request-

I loved JB's email request yesterday for submitting your favorite song to be played before classes.  Please submit your song to him.  As John mentioned, this is a great addition to the Emoji board.

Flu Shot Sign-up-

We will go ahead and do a flu shot clinic in October here at Upton.  I know need to give a ballpark count.  If you still want to be a part of this, please sign your name in the office on the sheet near Teri's desk.

SafeSchools required clips-

Instructions for SafeSchools

Please log in to SafeSchools using the instructions below.  

Please do NOT print the certificates.  We will run reports and keep on file.    

SafeSchools website = http://stjoseph.mi.safeschools.com

Username = firstname.lastname

Password = not required

If you have any questions or problems, please contact the business office.

Constitution Day-

Monday is Constitution Day.  Each student in their social studies class will have a lesson on the United States Constitution.

Late-Start next Wednesday, September 19th-

Our first PLC/Late start Wednesday is next week 9-19-18.

Mike Smith Assembly-

I thought I would share the following three emails about the assembly Monday.  Greg B. and I have received several emails like this.  A huge kudos to our guidance team for making this possible!

Mr. Blomgren and Mr. Mandarino,

I wanted to let you both know that my 2 high schoolers and middle schooler came home talking about the assembly they attended this week.

They all agreed, Mike Smith, was “cool” and had some really good take away messages.  My senior actually said he was “inspired”.

It’s not often that they come home saying much about their school day - this was a refreshing change of pace and I thought worthy of an email to you both.

Thanks for providing our students with motivation and inspiration!  A great way to start off the new year!

------------------------------------------------

Good morning, Mr. Mandarino,
I just wanted to be sure and let you know that both my middle schooler and my high schooler came home and were so excited to tell me about the speaker they heard from the other day. They loved him!  So much so that they were arguing over who got to tell me which parts of his story. Mike Smith made a big impact on them!

Thank you!

---------------------------------------------

Thank you for the Mandarino Minutes update! Having Mike Smith as a speaker at the assembly was a great idea.  We need more people speaking into our children's lives like this. 

Morning drop-off-
I would really like to commend Craig for his relentless pursuit of making the morning drop-off as safe and efficient as possible.  Wednesday and Thursday were the two best days we have had so far.  

Go Bears, Beat the Lancers-

If you venture over to Al Stockman Stadium this evening, I think you might see a game that will showcase just what high school football should be all about.  Go Bears!

Teacher Tuesday-
Just passing this along....


Quote of the week-

Have a great weekend,

Chad

Weekly Top for 9-7-18

Folks,


Great first week-
Thanks so much for the great first week!  The students really seem happy, staff has really worked hard at expressing our relationship theme (O.N.E.), love the emoji bulletin board, and our math department has really come together to be very unselfish to do what is best for kids (More to follow on that).  

Mike Smith Assembly-

The Mike Smith assembly will begin promptly at 8:00 AM on Monday morning.  We will have to take an accurate attendance and get students down to the Blue Gym.  We will run the late start/one-hour delay schedule after the assembly.  Here is a link on Mike:

http://www.mikesmithlive.com/#intro

Back to School Night-

We want to make our parents feel good next Tuesday evening (September 11th) about their children being in your classroom.  For many of them this is their first impression of you and we want that to be positive.  Each 11 minute session goes by really quickly.  We will begin at 7:00 PM.  I will come on first with some announcements.  The evening will wrap up around 8:30 PM.

NWEA next Wednesday and Thursday-

We will do the math NWEA on Wednesday(September 12th) and the reading NWEA on Thursday (September 13th) after which we will run the alternate schedule/two-hour delay/schedule D on those days.  This will give each class approximately 40 minutes each. I know this really plays havoc on our morning itinerants, but we really do not have a better solution.

Two openings-

The spelling team(formerly Chris Greissinger) and math counts (formerly Kelly Latta) teams are two paid club openings we have for this school year.  Day of the week, times, etc. are negotiable. If you are interested, please let me know.

Quote of the week-

"I'm just thankful I am surrounded by good people." - John Pardi

Have a wonderful weekend,

Chad