Think Together, Author at Think Together

Education has long been a talking point for politicians without much action for change. Recently with California’s legislators discussing AB104, issues like learning loss, educational and digital inequities are shifting from being the elephant in the room to being in the spotlight.

We know that COVID is having a drastic impact on student learning and that students are falling behind, not completing schoolwork, and are lacking the essential structures needed to succeed in school.

Think Together CEO Randy Barth wrote a guest blog post in EdCal talking about this very issue. Educators have done an incredible job pivoting and adapting to meet the moment, but without additional support from the state and federal governments, the avalanche of learning loss coupled with the physical and emotional trauma the last year that students and teachers alike have faced will be overwhelming.

Think Together over the last year has worked closely with school district partners to help mitigate learning loss as much as possible. Beyond that, Think Together has helped with conducting family wellness checks, connecting families to community resources, assist with meal distribution and more.

Now with AB104 on the docket to supercharge summer learning, Think Together and other afterschool providers are prepared to utilize our infrastructures and partnerships with schools to set up quality summer school programs to bridge the learning gaps exacerbated by the digital divide many students have experienced.

Last week, Think Together General Manager Stacy Galdamez spoke in a panel for PACE alongside Femi Vance from American Institutes for Research, Noreen Iwai-Ito, Senior Director of Support Services for Baldwin Park Unified School District and Jennifer Pack, President and CEO of Partnership for Children and Youth.

In this panel, Stacy and Noreen talked about the partnership in Baldwin Park with Think Together’s in-person learning hubs. With the current success at the elementary and middle school levels, Think Together will soon be opening up in-person learning hubs for high school in the next few weeks. If you have an hour to watch the recording of the panel, we highly recommend it.

We’ve also had success with our in-person learning hub in Temecula, with our hub being highlighted in Patch.

“The positive impact of this new program for both students and parents was obvious and immediate. Think Together has been a valued resource after school for our students, parents, and teachers for the past decade. During these challenging times, this new approach provides students with support and additional learning time in the classroom, parents receive top-notch childcare that is focused on supporting their child’s learning, and teachers have ‘partners’ in the classroom to support their daily lessons provided through virtual learning,” says Temecula Valley Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Jodi McClay.

Even with the vaccine on the horizon, we know that getting students back on track is going to be a long journey this summer and throughout the 2021-22 school year. But we are confident that with strong partnerships, cutting-edge thinking, and state-funding, together we can make an impact.

“LOVE AND KINDNESS ARE NEVER WASTED. THEY ALWAYS MAKE A DIFFERENCE.”

Helen James

Random Acts of Kindness Day is a day to celebrate kindness and to make the world a better place by spreading a little light around and to make kindness a part of our everyday lives. Lift someone up with your words, compliment them on their appearance… even the simplest acts can help to brighten someone’s day.

We’ve collected some activities for you to do today, tomorrow, or every day to spread a little bit of joy.

Activity 1: Thank your mail carriers!

Your mail carriers, post office and delivery drivers have faced a year of unprecedented increase in mail and packages. Did you know every day millions of packages are delivered? Thank them for their hard work by setting out water and granola bars or small snacks that they can take with them.

Print out the PDF sign below to place out with your treats!

Activity 2: Random Acts of Kindness

Be sweet and kind to all, every single day. However, on this day be extraordinary. Have fun with it and be creative and safe, it may be something simple or something you can create for someone. When you do your acts of kindness, do them for the pure enjoyment of being kind to someone.

Do all your chores without being reminded and help your siblings, parents and/or grandparents with their chores.
Organize your closet and/or dresser.
Write a letter to your friend or family member. Become a pen pal.
Pick up trash (with gloves, and a mask) at the beach.
Write a thank you letter to your teacher(s).

Activity 3: Send a care package to a solider overseas

Our armed services protect us every day, whether near or far. Sending a care package is a small gesture to show your thanks and put a smile on someone’s face when they are so far away from home.

Mail packages to:

Support Our Troops*
13791 N. Nebraska Ave.
Tampa, FL 33613

Alexis Ramirez is our site coordinator at McKibben Elementary in South Whittier. She started working for Think Together because she wanted to make an impact in the lives of students and help mold future leaders. We are excited to share Alexis’s story with you.

You’ve experienced both distance learning and in-person learning, how have you seen the pandemic affect our kids?
The pandemic has affected our kids, especially with the social and emotional aspects of the school day. You do your best with distance learning but seeing them in person again was just amazing. I noticed that the kids miss that social interaction aspect and the mentorship they get from our staff. Being in person we can give the students more 1:1 conversation time and support them with their needs that maybe their parents weren’t able to help them with at home like connecting to their online classes and whatnot.

Can you tell us a story about a student you impacted?
When I first started as the site coordinator five years ago, I had a student who had been struggling with his behavior and in school. I developed a relationship with him and learned that he likes to talk things through so you can understand his perspective. A year or so later he was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, so I worked with him and gave him a chance to use his voice and he blossomed and became one of our student leaders. He’s been doing great in our program. He’s now in 6th grade and he’s going to be going off to middle school. To see how much he’s grown with his behavior with his attitude like just being much happier at school and feeling accepted… that’s why I do what I do.

Do you have any goals professionally that you want to achieve in the next year?
I want to keep building those partnerships with my district with my principal and learn from this experience of education with distance learning or what school will look like when in person again. I think it’s a great experience for me to build on so that way if I do become a quality assurance coach for Think Together or if I am a teacher in the next few years, this experience now is just going to help me grow professionally for the future.

Tell us a little about your education, where did you go to college?
I went to Cal State Long Beach and graduated with my bachelor’s in sociology with a concentration in interaction and group relations. I’m applying to go back to school to get my teaching credentials so that is something I’m looking forward to.

How do you feel your relationship with your school’s principal is helping the kids at your school?
My partnership with my principal is really strong in communication, partnering for events, and working together to align with the school day. We let each other know what student needs are occurring and work together to support them with those needs with services like math intervention. Even before COVID we had a good relationship and would partner with the school to run events like a spelling bee that ended up becoming a district-wide initiative. Partnering with her on these events is helping our kids be more confident and strengthen their skills in different subjects.

What do you think the secret is for running a great Think Together program?
My secret for running a good Think Together program is rolling with the punches and being flexible. Things change at any moment and you have to be willing to adapt to any situation. With the pandemic and in general, we have to always be ready to adapt and meet the moment.

Alexis, thank you for all of the hard work you do for your students.

During the pandemic parents are not only focused on their careers but now are also the frontline for their child’s education. They have to work hard to find a balance between the two. Terry Bonilla is one of those parents.

Terry, a mother to a two-year-old and a nine-month-old, works in-person for Think Together’s State Preschool programs in Buena Park as the enrollment clerk. When the pandemic hit, she wanted to make sure her toddler son Nico was still able to get started with his education.

Before joining Think Together, Terry was an AmeriCorps member assigned to our Early Learning programs. She served for two years before becoming a Parent Educator. In her position she provided parents with resources on parenting styles, methods, and guides on how they can be a part of their child’s learning.

When Terry was looking for programs for her son, she already knew what the best for him would be and enrolled in Think Together’s virtual early learning program. “Where I started my love for child development, my son now gets to experience it.”

Terry has the unique experience of at one point being the teacher helping parents and their children learn together, and now experiencing it herself with her husband and son.

“He [Nico] looks forward to seeing his teachers and friends. He is recognizing his letters, colors, animals, and this week he counted 1 to 5. I was in complete shock and so proud. He loves when the teachers do music and movement. He gets to shake his sillies off. I am so thankful for all the hard work the teachers put into virtual learning. They are always smiling, happy, and motivating the children and parents. I can see that they try so hard to make the best for us,” she says.

Now working as our enrollment clerk for Buena park state preschools, Terry goes above and beyond to make sure that families are getting the support that they need. If state preschool isn’t the right stage yet, Terry helps refer them to our early learning programs and other resources within the community.

Terry, like many, has been on an emotional rollercoaster, making sure that she is supporting her family as well as Think together families.

Being the enrollment clerk means that Terry is the one to make sure that families meet eligibility requirement for our state preschool programs. She has seen first-hand through the enrollment process that many families are struggling right now.

One family she worked with recently wasn’t eligible for the program because they were a frontline healthcare worker, and between hazard pay and extra hours, they had just gone over the income threshold. Looking at the hours, the hard work and the risk this family was experiencing, Terry knew that there had to be something Think Together could do and found a solution for them to make sure their child is safe and learning while they were working long hours.

Parents across the country are facing the challenge of balancing work and family this past year. Terry’s advice is to try to slow down and take it all in.

“I’m learning this as a parent, to be patient. They are only so little for such a short time. They grow up, they go off to college. These days go by so fast and you can’t take them back.”

Wendi Quintos, McKinley Elementary School Site Coordinator in Colton Joint Unified School District (CJUSD), would do anything to make sure her students stay on top of their schoolwork. Wendi has been a Site Coordinator in our San Bernardino region for several years, and everyone who knows her knows exactly how much work she puts in to foster a community her students thrive in no matter if in-person or online.

Wendi says, “I want students to know we are here for them, that they matter, they’re heard, and someone cares for them. That they can be anything they want in life and to never limit their dreams. They are the reason I come to work, day in, day out. They motivate me to be the best version of myself so that I can be the leader they need.”

Think Together’s San Bernardino region has been solely providing programming via distance learning since March 2020. Many schools statewide experienced the challenges of connecting with students and making sure no one falls in-between the cracks. At first, this was a challenging new territory for all. However, Wendi says that “seeing kids show up each and every day pushed us to evolve, think on our toes, and see this as an opportunity to grow as educators and as leaders.”

Communities that Think Together serves have been some that have been hit hardest by the impacts of the pandemic; facing technological divides, resource limitations and financial insecurities. One of the greatest challenges has been to make sure students and families are provided for, learning, and most importantly, healthy.

McKinley Elementary School is a mid-sized school with the highest enrollment in comparison to any other schools in the district for the last five years. While statewide the news has reported attendance rates for schools to be far below average, McKinley has remained at 100% attendance. So, what’s the secret?

Wendi takes Think Together’s mission statement “partnering with schools to change the odds for kids” to the next level. She believes the secret is creating an inviting space and positive classroom culture while also building a strong rapport with school admin, teachers, parents and especially the students. Wendi participated in Orenda Education meetings and training to better understand the needs of her students and her role in helping them. With all of this, Wendi has built trust and every student knows she has their back.

“I’m really glad that Wendi is our Think Together Lead at our site, and I’m grateful for her willingness to step up and collaborate and meet our school goals,” says McKinley’s Principal Judith Servin.

One way Think Together and McKinley have partnered together during distance learning is by running a Math Intervention program for grades 2-6. Working closely with school-day faculty allows for a strong support system that families are in need of more than ever, and a safe space that students are eager and excited to come back to each and every day.

Think Together is proud to provide our school and district partners like McKinley Elementary and CJUSD with quality and adaptive programming that meets the needs of both the students and our stakeholders.

This week we celebrated MLK day, but why do we celebrate it?

As one of the United State’s most prominent civil rights activists and Nobel Peace Prize recipients, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr brought attention to civil rights issues facing the Black community through speeches like his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington D.C. and peaceful protests like his crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.

We have collected resources that you can use to have your kids learn more about Martin Luther King Jr and talk about civil rights issues, some of which are still prevalent today. Having discussions about civil rights both in history and in current events is a great way to help cultivate your child’s social and emotional development.

To start, take a moment and listen or read Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Talk to your kids about what stood out to them, and let them know what stood out to you.

Grade-level lessons for MLK Day

These lessons are great resources to have your kids learning about Martin Luther King Jr and Civil Rights.

Grade level: K-5

1. Sequencing Events

2. Dr. King’s Dream

Grade level: 6-8

3. The Power to Persuade

4. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Power of Nonviolence

Grade level: 9-12

5. I Have a Dream: Exploring the Nonviolence in Young Adult Texts

6. How Have Civil Rights Movements Resulted in Fundamental Political and Social Change in the United States?

Additional resources:

Martin Luther King Day
Education World presents a special Martin Luther King Day archive page that includes articles, lesson ideas, books, activities, and much more.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/tag/martin-luther-king-jr/

PBS News hour extra offers different videos and lessons.

Stephanie Ayala is our recruiter for our LA Metro Region. Stephanie joined the Think Together family last year when Think Together acquired YPI. Since then, she has done an excellent job recruiting new staff members for her region. We are excited to share Stephanie’s story with you.

What is your “why” for working at Think Together?
Growing up I always had resources like the ones Think Together provides. All I ever want to do is provide resources to communities like the one I grew up in. At the end of the day for me, it’s about hiring quality staff to support kids. Not many people realize how much of an impact our staff has on these children, my goal is always to provide those mentors for kids.

What has been your favorite memory so far?
My favorite memory would have to be receiving the first Star Thinker award in my region. I felt overwhelmed, and grateful. I wasn’t even aware I was being seen that way by my co-workers.

What are you most proud of accomplishing in 2020?
I would say reaching the one-year anniversary of joining Think Together with my colleagues who have become family throughout the years. The transition was so hard at first but seeing the growth and success from my team really motivated me to keep going. We all want the same thing, to support each other and our sites.

Tell us more about how LA Metro is a family.
I always refer to the LA Metro team as a family because a majority of the staff have been in their role for several years. In program, we have staff that began their careers as part time staff and eventually moved their way up to site coordinators and regional supervisors. In my HR team alone, we range from having been in our role for 4-13 years (yes… I said 13 years… WOW). And for many of us, it’s not only the work that drives us, but the people we work with. We share years of memories and experiences. We have built friendships beyond work.

What is one of your goals for 2021?
A goal I set for myself in 2021, is to push myself. With personal growth , I want to focus on my professional development. My goal is to always want more and be 10 steps ahead.

As one of our recruiters, what is one reason someone should apply to join the LA Metro team?
The kids. We only have a couple of hours every day with these kids, and even with the little time spent with them we help mold these kids for the future. Think Together really does give an opportunity of growth for not only the kids, but for its staff as well.

Thank you, Stephanie for your hard work in helping support Think Together’s work.

COVID-19 has been hard on everyone, but the pandemic has been especially hard for the Castañeda family of seven. Ten-year-old twins Bryan and Ryan Castañeda have been attending one of Think Together’s in-person learning hubs in Baldwin Park while their school continues to offer instruction virtually.

Think Together’s in-person hubs give students a place with stable internet and staff to support them during their regular school day. Students who participate are likely to be experiencing homeless, in foster care or are the children of essential workers. While it is nice to have some interaction with teachers and friends within their in-person cohort, there is one thing that the boys really miss: soccer.

Los Angeles County has laid down strict rules for sports and other events to help slow the spread of COVID-19. The twins were able to play one game in November before things began to lock down again. When asked what it felt like to be back on the field, Ryan said, “It felt like I was in heaven because I haven’t played in a while.”

Soccer and other team sports are not only a great way to exercise and stay healthy, but also build great social and emotional skills like teamwork, communication, strategy, and confidence.

In Think Together’s in-person hubs, students can still practice their skills using the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s adapted curriculum, which was launched ahead of the fall 2020 season. This adapted curriculum allows Soccer for Success program operators across the country to run the program across a variety of settings – from pre-recorded sessions to live virtual sessions to in-person socially-distanced sessions. Throughout the 12-week season, coach-mentors use these sessions to help participants practice their talents, with lessons on ball control, passing, defending, and more.

The Castañeda twins are doing all that they can to keep their skills sharp for when they can get back on the soccer field. When sports begin again, both of them are looking forward to continuing to participate in the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s Soccer for Success program in addition to the other soccer team they play on outside of school.

Ryan and Bryan hope to become professional soccer players for the Los Angeles Football Club and Chivas respectively. Until then, Think Together and the U.S. Soccer Foundation will keep them learning, healthy, and thriving.

Think Together is proud to partner with Inland SoCal United Way and Union Pacific Railroad and is grateful for these two organizations support in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Like many nonprofits, Think Together pivoted to address the challenges presented by COVID-19 by offering distance learning support, in-person program using strict health guidelines and other critical services such as meal and device distribution.

To help meet the moment, Inland SoCal United Way and Union Pacific Railroad stepped up to provide grants that support these initiatives for students in these regions. Collectively, these regions serve in 17 school districts and up to 29,240 students.

Due to local guidelines amid COVID-19, both regions are primarily conducting class using distance learning. Our San Bernardino region was one of our first regions to start our virtual summer learning programs back in May.

One of our San Bernardino site coordinators, Gabriela Lomeli shared what this experience has been like for her:

“At the start of working remotely at home, due to COVID-19 back in March, everything I thought I knew about my role in Think Together did a complete one-eighty. Within a matter of days, our entire working day was now at home, and all online. Up until that time, I didn’t know what Zoom and Google Meet was, nor how to really use it. Like my peers, I had to quickly adapt and get myself and my team ready for the beginning our new normal.

As the end of the school year came to an emotional close, the beginning of summer would at least allow us to feel optimistic and prepare for any possible outcome for the beginning of the new school year. We wanted to be ready for anything that came our way, and if we knew we still had to continue the start the year working from home, then at least we knew this was going to be our chance to finally be able see our students, even if the first day back at program was online.”

Through our front-line staff’s hard work, many students are thriving in the distance learning environment and are recouping their learning loss.

“Distance learning has been a challenge to some students. At Van Buren we have a 3rd grade student who had been struggling with distance learning. Her family stated that due to the language barrier it was difficult for them to support her with her assignments. Within the first week of her attending our Think Together learning hub her school day teacher said that she had noticed a substantial improvement. Not only did her attendance improve, she also accomplished her first completed assignment since distance learning. The student, program leader, site coordinator and teacher are all working together to support this student and help her accomplish a successful school year.” Maria Montes, Riverside Site Coordinator

All of our regions, including San Bernardino and Riverside, have given their 110% effort to make sure that students feel supported, successful and making sure they are still having fun. With support from our corporate and foundation partners like Inland SoCal United Way and Union Pacific Railroad, we are continuously able to adapt to fit the needs of our times and make sure that our students never slip.

Think Together is grateful for our corporate and foundation partners like The Boeing Company for their generous support of our STEM, coding and robotics programs.

Even prior to COVID-19, Think Together students were thriving with the addition of STEM lessons and our robotics clubs. Site staff, parents and students realized they always had the skill to code and do STEM; they just needed the resources, tools, and encouragement to discover it.

In Think Together’s programs, Southeast Los Angeles Region, which includes Compton, Lynwood and Bellflower school districts, one of our middle school site coordinators noticed that their STEM students have had a relatively smooth transition to distance learning compared to their peers.

“The most interesting thing I have observed among our students as they participate in our program in this environment is the quick adaptability they possess. Our students went from turning in and completing assignments in person and on paper to completing the majority of their studies virtually. This is not an easy transition, but given that this generation has indulged in technology, our students seemed to have no issue with this transition.”

These sites serve some of Think Together’s most under-resourced communities and help students pave a path toward college and career with the help of coding and the digital environment the students had already been exposed to.

Knowledge from STEM courses is becoming increasingly more vital for careers out of college. Science, technology, engineering, and math concepts are critical, but so are the traits developed like ingenuity, creativity, problem-solving, resilience, teamwork, the willingness to take risks and understanding how you got from point A to point B.

In Think Together programs, students are exposed to introductory coding, robotics, and logic. In the 2020-21 virtual school environment, students have primarily been using SCRATCH and VidCode. SCRATCH provides students with simulations where students use different steps and commands to complete their objectives, whereas VidCode allows students to practice writing code using JavaScript coding language.

With practice, many students began to transition from videogame players to game makers.

Additionally, The Boeing Company’s partnership supports hands-on personal Lego kits to our Think Together students in grades 4-12. These kits can be distributed for distance learning or used for in-person programming. These provide versatile, tactile and creative solutions for playful learning experiences and rapid prototyping.

Think Together is excited to give our students exposure to skills and enrichment activities that spark interest to pursue college and future careers. Thank you to The Boeing Company for bringing these robust STEM learning experiences to our kids.