Week 1/27 Post

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 your students or UCM activity calendar.

THRIVE Open House:

This past Monday we had our Spring Open House.  We had close to 50 people in attendance. This included school districts, agencies, families and potential students.  They asked many great questions and we’ve already heard back from a couple with more interest in this year and the following year.  The first-year students were in attendance and also were able to show their fairly clean dorm rooms to the families. We also had a few 2nd-year students that didn’t have internships that helped out during this event.  Below is a picture of the event, we had a little snow this week...

First-Year Students:

Workplace & Community Skills (Mrs. Southard & Dr. Manning): Monday was our open house and our students were asked to come and introduce themselves to the prospective parents and school staff that was in attendance. Wednesday topics included information about student job shadowing experiences. Students will be job shadowing in many different locations on campus. Professionalism and dress code was covered. Explained was the importance of being on time. Students were told to ask five questions during their experience.

Learning Strategies (Mrs. Southard): 

Students had a three-question quiz in which two of the questions were on Edmodo.com for them to look at and get prepared. A written assignment was discussed. Notes on Chapter 1 was covered using guided notes and notability.  Every Thursday weekly point sheets are due. This gives students a weekly opportunity to practice depositing thrive money into a practice bank register. 

Personal Math (Mrs. Garnier): Our students are working on setting a SMART goal for this semester along with their regular math practice. One goal is to pass a credit class, another is to have a job set up for the summer by the end of the semester, some are setting dietary goals, and some are setting financial goals. They are working on a written, step-by-step plan that we will begin following next week. (Even I, Mrs. Garnier, have set a goal, so we are all in this together).

Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning II (Dr. Manning):  The students are working on their monthly budgets.  The pictures below are the students paying some of their monthly bills.  The students have $1920 per month and the students are realizing how fast that money goes when you have to pay bills and buy food.  Next week will continue paying bills and making choices on luxury items.

Internship II (Dr. Manning): The students are learning new skills and continue to add on to previous skills.  One thing we continue to stress to the students is to self-advocate for themselves.  The students need to make sure that they are communicating with their supervisors on their availability to work and if they may need some accommodations.  We believe that self-advocating will help our students to be more independent.   

Here are a few pictures of the students in their internships.  Dr. Manning had them starting early and they were working hard.

PLATO (Mrs. Southard): Most students had Plato completed. A couple worked hard to get it caught up.

THRIVE Activities:

Sushma had the students making their own stress balls on Friday night.  Here are a few of the pictures. It sounds like they had many to spare. Great job students and Sushma!!

There are more pictures on our Facebook Page: 

We also had six students that attended a dance put on by "Music In Motion".  I hope to have pictures up on Facebook later this week.

Important upcoming dates:

Interviews for next year’s cohort of 2022:  Just FYI for parents.  During the first week of February and the last week of February, we’ll be having our family interviews for next year’s cohort.  During this time some THRIVE classes may not meet. If we schedule an interview during class time the students will have group classwork to do during this week.  The teachers will make sure that the students are aware and each group will meet during the days that their class would’ve met. 

Athletics to watch:  Men’s and Women’s Basketball games are on.  UCM Mules Wrestling also has some matches in the coming weeks.  Towards the middle of March, the Baseball team will also start their games.  I’ve also copied activities to the students’ 2019 Activity Calendar (Google) that they can access and prepare for.

In addition, the students can participate in Intramural Athletics: Students will need to watch the back table for any upcoming activities.

"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."