Blog 9/12

 

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.  Also, if you are interested in learning more about assistance with your son/daughter learning how to drive please contact Mr. Brunkhorst.  

Director Notes: 

We hope that the families had fun on Family Weekend and got to see how your student is doing.  We had our first softball game of the year on Wednesday and the kids had a blast.  We hope families that are in the area can come down for our next game.  It’s Wednesday night at 8.  Its at the Jennies Complex off of DD highway.  We are entering week 6 of the semester.  Our teachers have been having discussions about students’ grades and whether they are where they’d like them to be.  Trying to help the students get some motivation to get their grades up if needed, before our Progress reports go out in Week 9.  Most students are doing well and learning how to cope with college stressors like homework, roommates, and other dorm things.  With all the sports going on we hope that the students will start to watch some of the various games (Football, Women's Soccer, and Women’s Volleyball.   

First-Year Students:

University Foundations: Debra Southard  

We have Shane Lewis, a student who graduated from the THRIVE program last year speak to the students. First-year students asked questions and Shane gave students some helpful hints. We took a practice test this week. Students got to experience an online blackboard test. We all worked together on that. 

Individual Relationships and Health:  Joni Shelton

This past week we continued our discussions about communications, finishing up discussing listening skills, we also talked about Gossiping and Rumors, Non-Verbal Communication, and Body Language. We will be shifting back to Health this coming week focusing on Nutrition and eating habits.

Technology Literacy:  Joni Shelton

On Monday, this past week, we had a guest speaker from the University Health Center share with the class the services the Health Center offers on campus, and how and when to access these services. The rest of the week we focused on writing skills, first writing a complete sentence and then a complete paragraph. With our writing skills, we also worked on using Microsoft Word and submitting assignments through Blackboard. This coming week we will focus on Google Apps and Notability, which is an App that all students can access on the IPAD.

Career Exploration: Gary Manning

This week in class we continue to discuss goals and have realistic goals.  The students continue to research different careers and how those careers may relate to what they are interested in.  We discuss the different aspects of a career.  For example, if you want to go into education, what are the different jobs you can do in education:  teach, paraprofessional, pre-school, daycare, coach, etc.  

Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning I: Gary Manning

This week we started to discuss Habit 2 “Begin with the end in mind”.  I had a picture of the UCM graduation ceremony up and talked about how graduation is the end in mind.  How will the students accomplish this goal? All Of them said to study, get school work done, and to take care of our business every day. 

Foods and Nutrition: Debra Southard

Students finished up making macaroni and cheese (not from a box). They realize now they can make Alfredo sauce too.  We got together on Wednesday to talk about what each group needed to improve on. They went on to plan funnel cakes. Due to time constraints and ingredients, students can keep for a longer period of time which does limit the recipes we cook. But we still learn a lot. 

Looks like Monkey Bread is what's for snack…

Internship I: Gary Manning

Internships are going very well.  Supervisors are very pleased with the student's work ethic and their soft skills.  However, we still need to work on not having their cell phones out during internship times.  As for hard skills we are still working on these skills.  Hard skills are harder to learn and take time.  Some of the hard skills that students are learning are to operate equipment, use technology and customer service skills.  

Third-Year Students:

Transition Planning III: Lisa Garnier

We took a break from life design this week to do a lesson on time management. Students filled out a short worksheet on how they spend their time each week. It is based on the 168 hours in a week model. Right now they (and I) are tracking everything we do for seven days. We started on Thursday, September 14th, and will end at midnight on Wednesday the 20th. We will compare this detailed information with the short worksheet with the goal being to use our time more efficiently. 

Internship III: Lisa Garnier

We’ve started thinking about where they would like to work in the Spring semester, and I am beginning to reach out to possible job sites.

4th Year Seminar/Portfolio: Lisa Garnier

They are working on their September budget, tracking their spending, and getting ready to work on practicing how to tailor cover letters to specific jobs. They are working hard and really getting into the groove of being 4th-year students and the responsibilities that entails.

Plato: Debra Southard

Almost all second-year students are completing plato during the time allowed. First years still need to practice working on one subject per day.

THRIVE Activities:

Family Weekend Activities:

Thank you to all the families that were able to make it to our campus this weekend.  We had lots of families participate in the fun activities.  I’ve tried to share some below.  If you weren’t able to make it or weren’t able to talk to one of the teachers please don’t hesitate to email them.  

THRIVE Softball Team: 

We have enough players to play softball again this semester.  It looks like our games will start next week.  I haven’t received the exact days yet, but it looks like the next four Wednesday nights we will have students and mentors on the field.  I’ll share the dates/times on Facebook for those families that would like to come.  If your student has signed up, we have asked that they bring their gloves so we have enough for everyone to play who wants to.  Then parents/families try to make sure your student gets any work done over the weekend.  

Get the Red out…

Mentor Activities:

The mentor activity was a  cooking activity, Smoothies.  Here are the pictures.  It looks like it was a hit.

 

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

Important upcoming dates: 

THRIVE Softball started last week and we’ll have 3 more games on Wednesday nights at 8 pm.  The games are at the Jennies Complex off of DD highway.  If weather is a factor I’ll use Facebook to let families know.  Also, the students should know.  

Tennis-Singles - we had two students sign up for Singles Tennis so we’ll find out in the next day or two when their games are.  They should start Sept. 18th.  

Flag Football didn’t have enough players to make a team this semester.  

Disc Golf sign up sheet is still up until next week.  We dont’ have anyone signed up yet…

Next Mentor Activity:  

Cooking with Lucian…English Muffin Pizzas

UCM Athletics:

Soccer and Volleyball are starting soon.

Get the Red Out- Street Fair before the first game, September 9th.  

Family Weekend - THRIVE Meet n Greet is scheduled for 9:30-11 on September 16th…  more details to follow.

IT looks like the students had lots of participation this weekend…

"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."