9/2 (Holiday) so it's 9/3 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.  Also, if you are interested in learning more about assistance with your son/daughter learning how to drive please contact Mr. Brunkhorst.  

Director Notes:

It was a great first weekend.  We had 24 out of 33 students attend Colten’s Movie Night!  Attendance was great.  Also, all the students had at least one activity that they went to.  This is another first for the program.  It’s great to see all the students getting out.  We wanted to remind the families that if you hear something from your son/daughter that concerns you please let your student’s teacher know.  Mrs. Southard for First-Year students, Dr. Manning for Second-Year students, and Mrs. Garnier for 3rd and 4th Year students.  We have had several conversations with the students about who to go to in the dorms and during the day.  It can take some time to get everyone to understand where to go for assistance. 

Upcoming Intramurals:

We have five upcoming intramurals that we've had posted for the students. It looks like we have enough for softball, Ping Pong, and possibly Sand Volleyball 4 v 4. But still need some to sign up for Singles Tennis and Disc Golf. Sign-up will end for Softball, Singles Tennis, and 4 v 4 Sand Volleyball on Friday the 6th. The other two will stay up until the 13th. We'll have more coming up in October/November.

Also, for 2nd and 3rd-year families.  Since they are working on their independence please let them get to class on their own and have fewer conversations about what they need to do.  Sometimes it’s a good experience to have to be late to class or internship.  We’ve all had those days.  We know they can do it but it will take practice.

Lots more pictures on Facebook.  If you haven’t joined our page, please go to THRIVE - UCM and you can see more of what our students are doing.  Families don’t forget to ask if your son/daughter has signed up for intramural sports.  We have five that we’ve posted on our lobby wall.  They have until September 6th for three of them and until September 13th for the other two.  We’ll have more up in October…  

First-Year Students:

Just hanging out…

University Foundations: Debra Southard  

This week we continued to go through reminders, check emails, look at the schedule for the day, and remember when to complete which Plato topics. Students turned in a writing assignment about themselves. For the most part, all first years are doing very well. They are all trying and wanting to be successful and that is most important. Students were reminded to stay out of the dorms during the day. There are a lot of great places to get schoolwork done on campus.

Individual Relationships and Health:  Joni Shelton

This week we discussed the 8 Habits for overall health and wellness, which we will explore more in depth throughout the year. We also discussed how to write a SMART Goal, which we will also be doing throughout the year. On Wednesday, we had a guest speaker, Chrissy Hall from the UCM Health Center who spoke to students about the services provided by the University Health Center and how to access them. On Friday we started our more in-depth discussion of habit number 1 of our 8 habits with the importance of good sleep habits, and how to establish good sleep habits.

Technology Literacy:  Lisa Garnier

Our students are really getting the hang of the necessary tech for college life. We talked about email safety and recognizing scam/phishing emails, we set up folders for all of our class work on desktops, we uploaded pictures to Gmail and Blackboard, and we learned how to attend a class using Google Meet if it becomes necessary to do class virtually. All in all, things are going well.

Career Exploration: Gary Manning

This week we discussed self-determination skills. Being self-determined will allow you to accomplish your goals.  We all have setbacks in life but being self-determined will allow you to overcome the setbacks.    

Just hanging out at the Rec.

Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning I: Gary Manning

We continue to discuss the students' SMART goals for the semester.  Within that discussion, the students are figuring out how to accomplish their goals.  Are there resources they need to utilize to accomplish the goals? How can they be independent and responsible to accomplish the goals?  What are the positive and negative consequences as you make choices to accomplish these goals?  Unfortunately, sometimes we have to fail at our goals at first and learn from their failures to be able to accomplish our goals in the future. 

Internship I: Gary Manning

The students are realizing that having a job may take away from being able to do other activities.  The students just cannot go to their jobs so they can go do other things.  This is hard for the students to understand at times and frustrating for the students.  We try to make their internships as realistic as possible in having a job.  Some of our students have never had a job and where they are responsible for going to their job and working at the job.  Again, this is a learning experience for the students.  Further, the students are learning at their internship, they may be doing tasks that they do not want to do or the students do the same tasks a lot.  As we discuss in class this can be a normal event at a job but you can still learn from this. 

Foods & Nutrition II: Mrs. Southard

This week we concentrated on the features in a cookbook. What is a cookbook? How are cookbooks different and how are they divided up?  

Just walking through the Rec…

Third-Year Students:

Transition Planning III: Lisa Garnier

We talked in detail about time management this week. Working from the knowledge that we all have 168 hours each week, the students did a time analysis to see how many hours a week they think they spend working, cleaning, doing homework, socializing, and so forth. All of them found that when they did the math they had time left over. Hopefully, this analysis will help reduce some of the stress they experience thinking they “don’t have enough hours in the day.” 

Internship III: Lisa Garnier

Half of the students have started their internships and I expect the other half to begin next week. 

Foods and Nutrition III: Mrs. Garnier

We had quite the week in the kitchen. On Tuesday we made oatmeal waffles and on Thursday we made ham and cheese sliders. Both meals were delicious!

Plato: Debra Southard

Students are doing much better learning Plato and we had some Mastery last week.  Great work!

THRIVE/Mentor Activities: 

I forgot to add this from last week’s Movie Night…

The mentor activity this past week was a trip to Downtown Warrensburg with Jaymee, to make sure the students know what our Downtown has to offer.  We had many students go home but it looks like everyone that stayed went…

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

Important upcoming dates: 

We’ll be sending out a Google form to the students soon on what intramural activities they are interested in.  Then I’ll have sign-up sheets in the new THRIVE lobby for students to sign up for the events.  

Next Mentor Activity:  

“Get the Red Out” with Shannen. This event is a great UCM memory builder.  Before our first football game, all students on campus enjoy a street fair.  Lots of fun and entertainment before the game.  Then they can head right to the game at 1 pm. 

UCM Athletics:

Football, Soccer, and Volleyball are starting soon.  The games are on your son/daughter’s THRIVE Activities Calendar on Google.

Get the Red Out- Street Fair before the first game, September 7th.  

Family Weekend - THRIVE Meet n Greet is scheduled for 9:30-11 on September 28th…  This is a time to meet the teachers and then help with our THRIVE Float for Homecoming.  The mentors will have things set up so that the families and students can help paint the float.  Then there is a home football game, UCM will play Nebraska Kearney at 1 pm.  It’s a fun time to see how your son/daughter is doing and enjoy the game. 

"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."