Union Middle Weekly Update V2.15!
November 28th, 2021
A Message From Mr. Feinberg
Week 15.
I hope everyone had a wonderful week and are excited to get back to UMS for a full three weeks until our winter break.
One of the highlights from the pre-Thanksgiving week at UMS for me personally was visiting Mrs. Zangwill's 5th and 6th period debate classes. Each class had challenged me to a debate and both classes did phenomenal! While I may have "won" the debate (per the judges) on whether or not UMS should revamp the school dress code, there was some confusion on the outcome of the 6th period debate. There, students argued they should be able to listen to "non explicit music" in classrooms. Perhaps not surprisingly, both classes argued in favor of students' having more input and choice into these school-wide rules and expectations. They did so well; I was quite proud of our students for so persuasively arguing their points. I suspect we have a good number of future attorneys in our current debate elective classes. I'm looking forward to challenging semester 2's students. I'll report back then.
Monday, November 29th, we have Safeway providing shot #2 for those individuals/students who received their first shot on November 8th after school in the UMS cafeteria. Thank you in advance to our parent volunteers for helping make this event happen!
An additional thank you to Claire Kalia for leading our Thanksgiving Food Drive at UMS. Over 220 families received boxes of food due to our shared support of our community. The YMCA battered women's shelter, local elementary schools, and farm workers in Watsonville were all beneficiaries of our community's generosity. A special thanks to the UMS volunteers who helped make this happen!
As always, the usual short reminders are below. Please take a moment to review.
The Weekly Reminders:
There is information below in the HSC section regarding our Spring Musical / Drama Club. Please review!
Don't forget: Union Middle School now has their very own covid-19 rapid response and PCR testing hub for the school community. It's placed by the bike cage in the parking lot. Community members will be able to stop by and get a quick 15 minute covid-19 result from 7:30 am to 7pm daily. And yes, it's completely free. The more we test, the safer we as a community will be. Thank you to our district office and Grapefruit for adding this community testing pod to UMS.
If you haven't already filled out the following link as soon as possible in indicate if your student has received their vaccination card or not, please take a look and consider doing so. This Google Form simply asks for their basic information and if they're vaccinated. You can also "decline to state" if you so please.
Don't forget to sign your student up for Grapefruit. Here's the link.
Mask guidance continues to be for both indoors AND outdoors for all individuals, vaccinated or otherwise. Thank you for your support here.
Please visit the sports website for athletics information.
Todd Feinberg, Principal
Upcoming Events
11/29 - 2nd Dose of Pfizer Covid-19 Shot 3:30 - 7:30 @ UMS Cafeteria (must have received 1st dose at UMS on 11/08)
11/30 - Drama meeting at 6:30 pm via Zoom (bit.ly/DramaZoomLink)
News & Information @ Union Middle
HSC Updates!
Union Middle School is hosting an event for USD students to get their Second Dose of the Covid-19 (Pfizer) shot on Monday, November 29th from 3:30 - 7:30 pm in the cafeteria. We are looking for 8 volunteers to cover each of the two shifts. Volunteers need to wear a mask while helping on campus. Please review the available slots below and click on the button to sign up. Thank you! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4da5ae2ca4f8c16-vaccine
Good news! The district has approved vaccinated volunteers on our school campuses and on campus in-person events. We are planning to begin some of our in-classroom volunteer programs, such as MPower and Art Vistas in early 2022. If you are interested in participating as a volunteer for MPower, Art Vistas or any other potential HSC events, please sign up using this link to let us know how you can help. A committee chair will reach out to you with more information and training.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSec8wR0MPBG-pBqnyjqqrMzrQK5wiCC8g815jtbJ-sCLSjSzw/viewform Thank you in advance for your support of UMS students!
If your student is interested in auditioning for the Spring Musical (Matilda Jr), please join us for a parent information meeting covering all the details on Tuesday, November 30th at 6:30 PM over Zoom. Registration opens Thursday, December 2nd. Auditions will take place the weeks of December 6 and 13. Students will need to prepare a 1 minute monologue and a 30 second (16 bar) song performed a cappella. You can check out the UMS drama website (https://www.unionhsc.org/drama.html) for additional details.
Please fill out the following form to be added to the distribution list for drama club announcements:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdjMrmO-aGLl1Hs7Y0-Nz9PS_parcsLpSGno38esNovVHNJFA/viewform
Parent Information Meeting Zoom link:
Topic: Matilda Jr Parent Meeting
Time: Nov 30, 2021 06:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83875924675?pwd=b0dZd3Roa3pRTFVGYXQ3bk1sMDRUdz09
Meeting ID: 838 7592 4675
Passcode: 945630
Another way to support UMS Home & School Club!
Parents – The holidays are approaching! Did you know you can support UMS HSC with your Amazon holiday purchases? Follow these easy steps from your phone or tablet to select UMS HSC as your AmazonSmile Charity.
(1) Open the Amazon app, (2) go to Settings, (3) go to AmazonSmile and then select “Union Middle Home & School Parent Teacher” as your selected charity. Do this with all devices you use to order from Amazon as it’s specific to the device.
That’s it – now, UMS HSC will receive a % from AmazonSmile for all eligible purchases you make through the app on your registered devices. Thanks so much for taking a few minutes to continue to support UMS HSC. Happy Shopping!
SUPERINTENDENT'S UPDATES
Washington DC Trip
There is more information available on the Washington DC website: bit.ly/dcwebsiteums
Note: The Washington DC Trip is NOT affiliated nor sponsored by Union Middle School nor the Union School District. All communications should go directly to the Washington DC Trip coordinators; our UMS front office is NOT able to provide any information or reminders regarding anything related to the Washington DC trip. Again, please visit the DC website linked above for any/all information and utilize the contact information therein.
8th Grades! Important News!
You might have questions; that's to be expected. CUHSD has shared with me that all inquiries can be referred to their website: www.cuhsd.org. Please note that I do not have any other information that what I've shared here, so please do contact CUHSD if you have any questions. I'm the messenger...
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) @ UMS
This year our school is excited to implement a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum called Character Strong. In the spring, our district provided funding for all of the school sites to purchase SEL materials and we chose Character Strong because it matches with our school goals of promoting a collaborative school environment, explaining and supporting empathy & compassion amongst our students, developing goals for both social and academic growth, and establishing our values and purpose as part of the UMS community. Perhaps most importantly, this curriculum discusses leadership and teamwork and how to develop agency as we work together to support ourselves and one another. For more information on Character Strong please visit Character Strong. I will continue to update you throughout the year about the implementation of this program!
Covid-19 Testing @ UMS via Grapefruit
As shared in that letter, our health partner Grapefruit and their direct partner Predicine will perform the no cost COVID testing at all our school sites and our Community testing pod at Dartmouth school. Students will only participate in the no cost COVID testing if families have submitted the one-time consent form at least 24 hours prior to your school’s testing day. I would like to encourage families to sign their child up for Grapefruit no cost COVID testing through the following link: http://bit.ly/usd-testing.
Aside from being free for all involved parties, our partnership with Grapefruit also takes the burden off of our families from having to either attend early mornings at UMS for any close contact warnings or address finding a local provider for a covid-19 test. When you sign your student up via weekly Grapefruit, they'll be escorted to the cafeteria during their PE period to take the covid-19 test. It is a short process that won't disrupt their physical education class. It will be seamless as possible. Please note that for close contact situations, we may have those students test during non-PE periods, based on testing availability. Also, just FYI, we no longer test early in the morning; everything is handled during the school day.
And if you have signed up your student but for whatever reason do not want your student participating, simply have your student inform their PE teacher that they do not want to be tested that day. If your student provides that response, they will be excluded from having to participate. Simple as that.
If you have questions, please reach out. If I can't answer them, I'll find someone who can.
Morning Clinics
Morning Clinics are a place to:
1) ask a UMS teacher specific questions on the previous night's homework
2) ask a UMS teacher questions regarding an upcoming assessment
3) get re-teaching of the previous day's instruction
Morning Clinics are NOT a place to:
1) hang out with friends
2) play on your cell phone
3) stay warm because it's cold outside
There are limited spots in these clinics, so we do expect students to be using the time effectively to participate.
Here is our schedule:
ELA: Monday & Thursday in Room 4
MATH: Wednesday & Friday in Room 3
SCIENCE: Tuesday & Friday in Room 30
All clinics are held from 8:05 to 8:25 in the morning.
UMS Daily Announcements
As many of you know, we start to keep our UMS community updated on all things UMS. As one parent said in the Help Desk Zoom from back to school night, "there is so much information and everything is so long and there's no way I can read it all." One way to keep updated in a daily digest is to read the daily announcements... and starting soon, we will begin emailing a copy of the student morning announcements to all parent/guardians listed within PowerSchool.
To keep emails clutter down in your inbox and help with organization, we suggest that you create a folder for UMS Announcements and then create a rule/filter directing ALL emails with UMS Announcements in the subject line be sent to that folder. Read, delete, ignore as you wish. Please do not unsubscribe as doing so will end all email communications from the school and district - not just the daily announcements.
If you have questions, contact Mrs. Adams adamsj@unionsd.org.
UMS Sports Website
As the seasons progress, more information will be added for whatever after-school sports become available. Please visit the website for tryout information and other key topics. Questions: Mr. Barbara is our athletic director and would love to hear from you: barbaraM@unionsd.org is his email.
Parking Lot Reminders Below
1) Only drop off against the curb or from the parking spot areas.
2) Always pull forward. When done pulling forward, pull forward some more.
3) There are two lanes to enter the parking lot. Please use both.
4) Only use the crosswalk to get from the parking lot to campus and visa versa.
5) Exit from the curbside of the car at all times (right side).
6) Drive slow. Phones down. Eyes up.
7) No scooters, e-bikes, skateboards, etc.
8) See #2
9) Don't cross the entrance or exit of the parking lot by bike or walking
10) Please consider walking the last lap to get to school tomorrow; the parking lot will be full.
Thanks everyone!
Teacher Team Websites
This means that thought one click, you'll be able to see the daily slides of what happened in each of your student's classes. This will be helpful as often homework assignments and due date reminders are included in these daily slides. I believe it is a lot easier for parents to stay current with assignments coming due rather than dealing with the aftershocks of the inevitable "0" put into PowerSchool because your student didn't complete the work.
The links are available through Teams & Staff on our homepage (via unionms.unionsd.org) and listed below. Your student should know which team they're on. And of course, please bookmark the below link for usage throughout the school year.
Have you visited the UMS Store yet?
1) PE Uniforms, Sweats, & PE Lock
2) Donation Requests for HSC
3) ASB Kit (includes yearbook & planner & more)
Please do take a minute to venture to the store and place your order so your student can start day 1 with everything they need.
Also, there's a glitch where you can only use a credit card if you go through PayPal first. I'm working to correct this... Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Tech Help?
Got Texts?
7th grade families: text @ums2023 to 81010
8th grade families: text @ums2022 to 81010
UMS FAQ
Union Middle School
Email: feinbergt@unionsd.org
Website: Unionms.Unionsd.org
Location: 2130 Los Gatos Almaden Road, San Jose, CA, USA
Phone: (408) 371-0366
Twitter: @goteamums