10/5 Blog

 

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.

Notes from Mr. B:

This week is Week 8 on our school calendar. This is important for the parents to know.  This is midterm week.  This means that our first-year students will have finals in their 8-week classes of Bowling and Valuing Differences.  We’ve alerted our mentors and volunteers that assist our first-year students to give them a hand.  This may mean that we have some students that are more nervous than normal.  This is also midterm for our other students which may mean a Midterm Test and/or paper for some of their classes, it all depends on what their elective teacher does.  Then the other point that First-Year parents will need to know is that this means the first-year students will have a new class in Week 9.  Mrs. Southard will work hard to let them know next week where they are going and make sure they know what students are going to the same class.  

This also means that all parents will be getting a Progress Report from the THRIVE team.  The week after Midterms (October 12-16th) the THRIVE group will be going over the progress of each of our students and getting any added information from their elective classes and (2nd-Year Students) their Internships.  We will attempt to get them out to students and parents by the 19th of October.

First-Year Students:

University Foundations: Debra Southard  

We talked about how important the THRIVE program is to everyone. We watched the movie Door to Door, a real story about a man with cerebral palsy with determination, and using patience and persistence was able to become sales of the year for his company. Students turn in their weekly point sheets and many students are doing well with that. Chapter four notes were covered using notability. Group studying was advised. Mrs. Southard showed students how to look at possible classes for next year. Students were asked to pick five classes they might be interested in. No due date was given for this assignment yet. 

Daily & Independent Living Skills:  Lisa Garnier

Our discussions this week centered on how good personal hygiene and a clean environment affect our health and well-being both physically and mentally. We talked about regular showering, hair washing, clean clothes, and basic appearance, then we learned about how to clean our living spaces which included the supplies to have on hand, the proper cleaning tools, what to clean, how to clean it, and when to clean. We reviewed a simple cleaning schedule that breaks down cleaning chores into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. (Parents, if you get a request for cleaning supplies and equipment, it’s my fault.) We also talked about setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals for everything from improving study habits/grades to keeping dorm rooms cleans. I used as an example my goal to deep clean my kitchen over the weekend. They got a laugh when I explained how I HATE cleaning, but it’s something that must be done, so I set a goal with specific tasks to complete that will help me accomplish my cleaning goal. I’m hoping they will try a similar method. 

Technology Literacy:  Lisa Garnier

In Tech, we used quite a bit of time to catch up on homework. We also played a Kahoot quiz game on Powerpoint slide creation and presentation skills as they have presentations coming up soon. Since the library is such an important part of college, students honed their website skills by completing an online library scavenger hunt. They had a list of 10 questions to answer and they had to search the campus library web page to find the answers. It was a great exercise in finding information on a web page and learning what the library has to offer.

Relationships 101: Debra Southard

We discussed Red flags in relationships. Deal breakers in relationships and treatment of others. We watched a video that illustrated some of these and discussed each of them. 

Plato: Most students complete Plato. The students that do not get Plato completed are unfortunately the basically the same students every week. Students attend study hall plus to complete it from the previous week. 

Students in Bowling class-Lecture time for finals

Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning I: Gary Manning

We finished Habit 1 being proactive and starting Habit 2 - Begin with the end in mind.  What I like about this book is that the concepts are very relevant to our students and what we go through every day.  For example, if we are in reactive mode all the time, we start being high stress and overwhelmed.  We need to continue thinking about what needs to be done and have good time management so we can have balance in our life.   

Internship I: Gary Manning

We are starting to discuss internships for the spring semester.  The students need to send 3 - 5 places they would like to intern at by next week.  We also discuss how this internship will help them in their future careers.  We want to make sure the internship is relevant to them and what their career interest is in.  

Shahd at her internship at the Union and Kaitlyn built a display in the Union while at her internship.

Plato: Debra Southard

Michael studied hard before bowling class.  Great job!

THRIVE Activities:

Mentor Activities: Goin Downtown with Kim-

This past Saturday night, Savanna led our students in making Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo.  Here are some of the pictures.

Great Job Everyone!!  For more pictures please join our THRIVE Facebook and/or Instagram pages.

Important upcoming dates:

The next activity is Cooking with Abbie-Pancakes!   I’ll let you see what they did next week.

October 9th- End of the first half of the semester and midterm for many students.  

October 12th-Second-half of the semester classes start.  If your student is a first-year student this means that they will switch from Bowling to Valuing Differences or from Valuing Differences to Bowling.  Class times may change some of the students' meeting or study times.  They will get new Fixed Commitment Calendars during this week.  

October 16th-19th-Progress Reports will be emailed out to students and parents.  

"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."