Blog 9/7-Sorry it's a bit late this week.

 

THRIVE Director Notes

Posts on this Blog will be directed to help families see what is going on in our THRIVE Program.  Items discussed on the Blog have already occurred.  To keep updated on what’s coming up please refer to the THRIVE activity calendar or UCM activity calendar.

We are hearing good comments from parents after this past weekend.  Thank you for letting us know what you are seeing.  I also wanted to add something about students’ independence.  Part of our program is working on students doing more on their own.  Please let their teacher Mrs. Southard (first-Year) or Dr. Manning (second-year) know if your son/daughter is still asking you for lots of help with homework.  We have mentors in the dorms and are starting to add multiple volunteers in the study halls and other times, as well.  It’s great to see how much the students can start doing on their own when they have to do things themselves.  Thank you for you assistance with this.

First-Year Students:

University Foundations: Debra Southard

We are finishing up chapter one. We have discussed the connections students are making on campus with others, goal setting and learning to become a better thinker. Mrs. Southard demonstrated how to complete an assignment. She also emails students a question that will be on the test everyday this week.  We ask students to check their emails at least three times a day. Reexplained was the activity app and discussion board. Several students did not earn points for those. It's a learning experience and we’ll try again this week. Students arranged their own study groups and met with each other to study for the test which was Friday. 

Today was their first test in University Foundations Class.  

Daily & Independent Living Skills:  Lisa Garnier

DILS has had a great week. We used Career One Stop to identify careers that match our current skills and interests. Our personal safety discussion was centered on household safety and emergency numbers like fire, police, ambulance, poison control, etc. On health and wellness day we started a unit on healthy eating and making good food choices with a focus on reading and understanding food labels. For personal finance day, we talked about income, fixed and variable expenses, debt, and budgeting. I emphasized the importance of paying bills and meeting needs before spending money on “wants” and talked about budgeting and tracking where we spend our money.

Technology Literacy:  Lisa Garnier

In Tech Lit we practiced uploading assignments in Blackboard. Students learned the different methods for uploading documents from their computer files and for uploading from documents from their Google Drive. We also did a third week review using a Kahoot game that covered everything we’ve learned in Tech Literacy in the first three weeks of the semester.

Relationships 101: Debra Southard

Relationships topic this week was about gossiping. We covered the definition of gossiping. How to know when someone is gossiping. How to stop gossiping. The problems that can make for a person. We used the THINK before you speak acronym. T- Is it true, H-If it helpful?,I- Is it inspiring?, N- Is it necessary?, K- Is it kind? 

Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning I: Gary Manning

We have been discussing what THRIVE stands for and what it means to the students.  Right now we are concentrating on the R (Responsibility) and I (Independent).  We are discussing that their family/staff/professors are here to support them but not to do their work or continually reminding them about doing their work, being in class, meetings or at their internships.  The students’ need to show their responsibility and independence to do these things on their own.  If the students miss an assignment, miss a class, or late for their internships then there are consequences and from those consequences is how we learn.  

We are also discussing paradigms (perspective, point of views).  This has brought on interesting discussions about different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences.  It is important that we learned from each other in transitioning from being a college student to being an adult.  

 

Internship I: Gary Manning

We have been discussing communication skills/emails and being professional.  This includes how you address certain individuals with their particular titles.  For Ex: Dr., Mr., Mrs..  You should not address a professor, your supervisor by their first name unless they tell you that you can.  

Plato: Debra Southard

 For the most part students are working hard on plato. Some students have difficulty with figuing their time on tasks. Plato does not count if they have it open but not work on it. Students should write down their time on each subject on Mondays and add 2 hours to each. They can also send a timer. Some have shared that Plato Math is too difficult for them. Next time students take assessment (first part of October) I can make individual adjustments if students let me know ahead of time. 

THRIVE Activities:

Mentor Activities: Archery Activity on Friday-Cooking BLT’s on Sunday!

This weekend Claire had two activities to keep the students busy.  Archery on Friday afternoon and lunch on Sunday.  Here are some of the pictures.

Then Claire also had a cooking activity on Sunday, the students made BLT Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.  

We have more pictures on our THRIVE face

We have more pictures on our THRIVE Facebook page.  Please ask to join on Facebook.

Last Week’s Bowling Activity, Kept the pictures in for another week.  Looks like some great bowling scores.

Great Job Mentors!!  For more pictures please join our THRIVE Facebook page.

Important upcoming dates:

This coming weekends activity: Labor Day Weekend Claire has two activities.  One is Archery on Friday afternoon and the other is BLT Grilled Cheese on Sunday.  I’ll have pictures next week.  Then on Sept. 12th Ooey Gooey MonkeyBreak by Katie.  The students that are involved have already accepted the invitation.  I’ll let you see what they did next week.

October 25-27th: Family Weekend:

There is a listing of activities on UCM’s website (https://www.ucmo.edu/current-students/student-experience/special-events/family-weekend/ )  THRIVE is also looking at adding our own family activity at this time.  Please continue to watch emails and/or the next blog.

UCM’s Intramural activities will be starting soon. We had sign up sheets in the back of the room and we didn’t receive enough students that wanted to join to create a team.  We will continue to let students be aware and try to get them involved.

"This blog is a programming blog written by the director and staff of the THRIVE Program on the University of Central Missouri campus.  This blog doesn't accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. 

The views and ideas expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners.  This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.  We are simply telling you what we plan to do in our program and using the blog to help spread what we are doing on a weekly basis."