Blog posting for Week 1/25-2/13

 

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.

Notes from the Director:

Just a reminder about confidentiality and our students.  If families have any questions please always contact either Mrs. Southard (First-Year) or Dr. Manning (Second-Year).  I’m always a backup to either one of these.  Please don’t contact other THRIVE students or mentors to discuss matters.  If you have any questions, please contact me.

We also received an update from the university about new mask mandates.  I’ve emailed all families this information and I’ve also asked our teachers to see if any students have questions during their classes.  

First-Year Students:

Workplace & Community Skills - (Mrs. Southard and Dr. Manning): Students are completing their first job shadowing experience. Students were told to have some questions ready for the person they are working with. 

Learning Strategies- (Mrs. Southard)

This week's topic again is time management. We spent some time talking about how stress and time management are related. Students reviewed at this point in the semester if they had good time management. College credits were explained. Students were reminded to check emails three times a day. Also checking grades and edmodo.com regularly. Some of the differences between college and high school were discussed in relation to time management. 

Daily & Independent Living Skills (DILS)-  (Mrs. Garnier)

This is our last week in the Career & Work Ethic unit in DILS. We are finishing up by learning about soft skills and hard skills, how they differ, and their importance in acquiring a job. Our final lesson in this unit is a recap of how to thrive on the job. We have been using interactive presentations on Nearpod, and the students have really been learning a lot through active participation in each lesson. This form of instruction will continue to be used throughout the semester.

Look at them studying…

Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning II: (Dr. Manning)

We are getting ready to start discussing monthly budgets.  This will include revenues and expenditures.  I try to be very realistic about their budgets.  We discuss most likely that they will only be making around $13/hour for their revenue and work 40 hours a week.  Then we discuss expenditures: rent, phone bill, transportation, entertainment, etc..   

I also ask the students to talk to their families about budgeting and how the families make certain decisions on budgets.  

Internship II:  (Dr. Manning)

The students are doing well at their internships.  However, the students struggle with the word “initiative'' and what that means.  We have been talking a lot about that and how showing initiative and going beyond the call of duty helps in a job.  The students see their internships as an inconvenience to their social time and do not want to go to their internships. Therefore, we keep working on this.  Having a good work ethic goes a long way with supervisors.  

Plato- (Mrs. Southard) Last week the students did great. My suggestion for some is to set a timer. Some students work way beyond the time that is required. Which is great but students could use that time for homework. 

THRIVE Activities: 

Some of our students at PE this week:

Mentor Activities: 

This week Lucas had a cooking activity that he and Michael put together.  It’s Chicken Fried Rice for lunch.    

This last weekend, Hope had a group outing to the Basketball games.

Just a reminder that the pictures posted on the blog are typically just a sample of what is on Facebook.  So, if you want to see more and keep more updated, please go to our Facebook page - UCM-THRIVE.

Important upcoming dates:

Spring sports are starting up so the students can take advantage of going to these activities.  A sign up sheet for softball is out…  We have students signing up.

In addition, the students can participate in Intramural Athletics: Students will need to watch the back table for any upcoming activities.  Our next activity will be co-ed softball in about a month.

"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."