Week of 4/15

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.

First-Year Students:

Workplace & Community Skills:

Covered this week was a lesson on the determination. The importance of being a self-advocate and decision making was discussed. Wednesday Mr. Brunkhorst demonstrated how to use Missouri Connections web site and work on a program called a reality check. This was very enlightening to students as to how much it will cost to live on their own. Students continued working on the program on Friday. Each student figured their personal estimated cost of living. Students wrote a paragraph about their findings.

First-year students are also deciding on internships for the fall semester.   The students have written a paper on where they would like to do their internship at and why they believe this internship will help them for their future goals.  We have meetings set up with possible organizations/businesses to collaborate with the THRIVE program on internships. The students have been working hard on resumes/cover letters to help with this process.

The career center dropped by on Monday to talk to the students about their department.

Wednesday’s Class:

Learning Strategies:

Chapter 7 Reading your textbook was discussed. Several assignments were due in the class last week. General strategies for reading college textbooks, differences between college, textbooks becoming a critical reading and thinker and different ways to study what a student has read was all covered. There was a test on Chapter 7 on Friday. Each student was to make an appointment over in the OAS office to take their test with accommodations. Students were allowed to use their resources including their notes, textbook and index cards.

Personal Math:

In Personal Math Class, students have been learning How Do You Calculate Your Income When You Make Tips?, What About Expenses on the Job? , and learning how to Finding The Percent of a number. Students also learned how to calculate a tip on the total cost of food order.

Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning II/Internship:

Second-year students are getting very excited about the end of the semester and graduation.  However, the second year students do have assignments to work on and finals to get ready to take.  The students were assigned a 5 page paper on their entire year internships. The students were given a rubric/directions on the paper that the student can use to help with the paper.  The paper is due on May 6th. Further, the students have an end of the year interview and a final in the Transition and Internship class.

- The students are seeing that their hard work over the past two years is paying off.  One of our students has been offered a position working with the Special Olympics starting this month.  A couple of other students have job interviews coming up in the next couple of weeks.

PLATO:

Most students completed their work on plato. Just a few went to mandatory student hall.

Study Time:

Students are still doing great at utilizing the classroom to study.  Great job everyone. Here is a picture of one instance.

THRIVE Activities:

Due to the holiday weekend, many of our students left the dorms on Friday afternoon.  So we gave our mentors a well deserved Weekend off. But, here is a picture of an empty hallway and classroom.  It’s so quiet here in the THRIVE Suite…

We hope all of you and your families have a great weekend!  Then on Monday be ready, the THRIVE Softball team has made the playoffs.  Please make sure you get all your Plato and homework done over the weekend.  We’ll need all softball players and fans to cheer them on.

Important upcoming dates:

Instructions for the end of the Year:

First-Year Students will take finals during Finals week.  This will mean that they will be here until the week of May 6-10th.  Each student will have different elective final times. So you’ll want to get with your students the week of the 22nd to find out when their last final is.  They will be required to stay until the day of the last final. I’ll send check out information as soon as I receive it. All rooms will need to be cleared and cleaned before they leave.  

Second-Year students will have finals during the week of May 6-10th.  They will be required to stay until the day of their last final.  We ask that the students let Dr. Manning/Mr. Brunkhorst know when they are leaving the dorms.  We realize some students may leave early and then come back the day of graduation. I’ll send out checkout information as I get it.

Graduation items: Yes, I’ll be getting items and dates put together over the next month for our THRIVE graduates and families.  The Commencement date is May 11th from 10-12. We’ll then have a THRIVE Reception and presentation of THRIVE Certificates of Success to the new Graduates, from 12:30 - 3:30.  This is an exciting time and Mr. Brunkhorst will be sending out emails to 2nd-year students and their families in the coming weeks to start getting a count of how many will be attending.  I’ll have more information I’ll email 2nd-year families closer to the date.

Athletics to watch:  Men’s and Women’s Baseball, Softball, Bowling,

In addition, the students can participate in Intramural Athletics:

• We had enough students to have a Spring Softball team.  I’ll keep you updated on the dates of the games.
• The students can also look to their Spring Student Activities calendar that was left for them the first week.  We also have copies in the THRIVE Classroom.

"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."