Blog 9/2

 

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:

I’ve been impressed with the work that students are doing and the number of students who are already trying to find places to study and asking for help.  It’s been a great start to the year.  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. Shelton 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. 

Rec Leagues are starting up soon. We’ve put up some sign-up sheets for the students earlier this week. One of them is softball, and we have enough to make a team. We will find out soon when the games are and will share on Facebook. So please remind your students to bring their ball gloves back with them from the Labor Day holiday on Monday. Also, we won’t have Sunday study hall this coming weekend, but we will have Monday night study hall.

UCM Football will have its first home game next Thursday night, September 11. Before the game, there will be a street fair. We'll have pictures to share on Facebook that night. It's a great time to be in the Burg.

First-Year Students:

University Foundations: Joni Shelton

This week, we continued learning about procedures and policies here at UCM and in the THRIVE Program. We talked about the course syllabus, points system, our THRIVE store, plagiarism, and cheating. We also reviewed how to use WEPA, the University's Printing service. We also talked about the Office of Accessibility and how to use it. On Friday, students completed a questionnaire to discover their learning styles. Next week, we will discuss what those learning styles mean.

Individual Relationships and Health:  Sandra Swainston

So far, we have worked on different types of relationships, from acquaintances to intimate friends.  We are working on the 8 Healthy habits and how to work them into everyday life.  We had some glitches with technology, but everyone is getting their footing.

Technology Literacy:  Lisa Garnier

This week, we installed extensions in Google Chrome that provide Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text. We also added an extension for Grammarly. We set up iPads so everyone could access them with their Apple IDs, and we created computer desktop file folders for all their classes so they could keep their work organized.

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 them.    

Second-Year Students:

Transition Planning I: Gary Manning

We are currently reading/discussing pages 3 - 28 in the 7 Habits book. These pages discuss what a habit is, what a good habit may look like, and what a bad habit may look like. Further, we are discussing paradigms/perspectives from an individual and how these habits, perspectives, and paradigms affect an individual and their lives.

The students are working on three SMART goals for the semester.  These goals can be academic, personal, or internship-related.  As we progress through the semester, the student and I will discuss these goals to see how they are progressing on the goals.  

Internship I: Gary Manning

We are discussing and practicing professional development and skills during class. Some of those skills include professional emails, dress, appropriate body language, and communication. Further, we are discussing personal/sick days for a job or internship. During the semester, the students have four personal days they can use at their internship. We have this in place because we want the students to have a realistic view of a job.  

The students will start working on their internship logs, reflection papers, and interviews for their internships this week.  

Foods & Nutrition II: Mrs.Shelton

This week we discussed safe food handling practices in regards to food storage and proper cooking and storage temperatures. We visited the UCM James Kirkpatrick Library and learned how to find resources in the Library, found the cookbook section, and students selected and checked out cookbooks. We also discussed how to read a recipe and how various cookbooks are organized, and the additional information found is the wide variety of cookbooks. Next week, we will discuss knife skills.

Third-Year Students:

Transition Planning III: Lisa Garnier

We set up a new Budget Simulator that they will use throughout the semester to practice paying bills and handling unexpected expenses that pop up when we least expect them (think doctor appointments, traffic tickets, car repairs). I’m excited about this real-world application to help them really practice money management.

Internship III: Lisa Garnier

Schedules are being set, and it looks like everyone will begin working next week!

Foods and Nutrition III: Mrs. Garnier

We learned about meal courses and their components, from an everyday breakfast, lunch, and dinner to a full formal dinner. We also had our first cooking lab of the semester, where the students made ham and cheese sliders (the ones using Hawaiian rolls and the Worcestershire Sauce and butter drizzle, then baked them to ooey-gooey goodness.)

Plato: Joni Shelton

Students completed their diagnostics and started working on lessons in Math, Reading, and Language Arts. Each week, students must complete 60 minutes of Math, 60 minutes of Reading, and 60 minutes of Language Arts work in Edmentum.

THRIVE/Mentor Activities:

The mentor activity was Breakfast Burrito with Jamee.

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

Important upcoming dates: 

Next Mentor Activity:  

Chiefs’ watch party with Kamryn…

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, Thursday, September 11th 

Family Weekend - THRIVE Meet n Greet is scheduled for 9:00-11 on September 27th…  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 Missouri Southern 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."