program leader

site coordinator

site manager

youth leader

school program staff

Think Together

I'm not sure how things were at other sites, but my site lacked organization and clear communication, with interpersonal issues occurring frequently, especially when it came to management. My coworkers were really nice and fun to work with, and the kids were great, but poor management left an overall negative experience for everyone.

The new-hire trainings and orientations made the job sound well-coordinated, organized, and supportive, which got me excited to join the team. Unfortunately, the reality didn’t match what was advertised, and I was let down by how unprepared and chaotic things eventually turned out to be.

During the 1st session, we were given curriculum that was either far too complicated (for the younger kids) or far too easy (for the older kids). For the 2nd session (which had roughly four times the number of kids than before), curriculum was either nonexistent, confusing, or unnecessarily complicated.

Staffing was also a big issue at my site since we often didn't have enough people to cover all of the kids, especially in that 2nd session where two other elementary schools joined us. This made everyone frustrated and led to situations where we didn't have enough walkies, were out of ratio with the kids (10:1 for TK/K & 25:1 for 1st-6th), or simply couldn't handle all of the issues (accidents, bathroom breaks, etc.) going on in the classroom. Management also didn't purchase enough supplies and didn't set up consistent lunch schedules and breaks for us, which led to even more frustration. We also had iPads on site, but we were unable to use basically all of them because management never figured out the passcode and never reported it to IT.

Management behavior was also often unprofessional. The site managers were passive-aggressive or dismissive toward staff, especially when we voiced our concerns and suggested changes to improve the site. Many of them also did not follow a decent portion of the rules outlined in training, yet expected us to do so. Furthermore, since almost all of the managers were flown in from different areas, there were conflicting protocols and expectations.

Additionally, halfway through the summer, our grade-level assignments were suddenly changed for no apparent reason, which made everyone unhappy because we all had grown accustomed to the students we had and developed our lesson plans based on that. Later on, things got worse after a conflict between two managers led to one being placed on leave. With one less manager and significant staffing concerns, substitute managers had to be assigned as replacements. Luckily, most of these subs were helpful and supportive, but since they were temporary, most were only present for a few days and enacted changes that were unsustainable to implement after they left.

On the last day of the program, most of the original managers were gone, and we were told to just do whatever we wanted. We were also told to throw away all of our materials (many of which were still in good condition or not even opened), but luckily, we were able to give them away to parents. There is a lot more I could share, but I hope this gives a clear picture of how things went.

Despite the many challenges, I did appreciate that some of the site managers would step in and help out when we asked for assistance on the radio. I also enjoyed getting to meet a lot of the teachers, yard duties, and janitors who were working at the site for their own summer program, and I think many of them appreciated us because of the great work we did despite the poor management. Luckily, it seemed that most of the kids seemed to enjoy the program, and that made it worth it in the end.

When I started my group of people was the first set to get jipped. On our 2nd day of Orientation, after we had been told they never start people without first having them do a shadowing week, they told us that they had just decided to cut the shadowing out of the training. So for the first 3 days you work, you weren't supposed to be on your own. They were supposed to assign you to follow someone so that you could see all the policies and procedures in action, take notes, and really understand what they were asking of you and how to handle the kids. Super helpful if you have never worked with kids in a professional setting like this. 

Since they cut that part of training the day before my group started work, we got thrown in having to try to figure everything out on our own. Luckily for me at least the first school I got sent to, I started as a sub, they went ahead and paired me up with another Leaders group so that I wasn't completely left adrift on my very first day. However, I ended up there for 3 consecutive days and the next day I was in charge of my group by myself. Suffice it to say things did not go well. It's hard enough being a sub trying to follow lesson plans and figure out where everything is when often you're at a different school every day. To do it not having had the chance to shadow someone, I believe that makes it unnecessarily hard. 

Some schools had pretty decent kids and other schools needed HELP. I eventually was offered a permanent PL position. I wish it had been at one of the other schools I had subbed at instead. At this school, there were kids that they admitted had been previously removed from the program due to their atrocious behavior, and yet they were back. Some of them for the 3rd or 4th time by the sounds of it. Still displaying the exact behaviors that got them removed in the first place. Yet they were not being removed even though I had heard that this particular school had a wait list for getting into the program by our own Site Coordinator during our review period. Now perhaps this is because I started merely 3 months before they let out for summer so it was deemed as something that could wait until the new year starts. I am not sure. They even went so far as to say that for some students that acted out that there was no point in giving them reflections because that was what they wanted and we would then be rewarding them. Well, doing nothing about their behavior certainly doesn't teach them anything either does it? It only continues to disrupt and punish those who are doing their best to listen and follow agreements. Not to mention setting the example that they can act however they want to and never experience any real consequences. The steps for being kicked out of the program are there for a reason.

Also, now I can't speak for everywhere, but don't put it past them to write you up for discussion because the kids don't like you and make up lies saying you said or did something that is strictly forbidden. Such as saying bad words or calling them names. Even when they know that these particular kids launching the claim have a history of lying or are the constant problem children. That is not me saying that they should not talk to you but for incidents such as that I don't think you should be formally written up for it. If it keeps happening then of course but if it's the first time I would leave it as an informal conversation. Classify it as a verbal warning if you would. It simply irks me that known problem children could have that much power over you losing your job. 

Something I wish they told people on the applications is that you do not initially get to choose which site you work at. For example, if you know Think Together is already in place at certain school districts, you can state that you have a preference for a certain school or area because of your ability to commute there. However, where staffing places you is based on whichever site has the highest need for a new Program Leader. You can only transfer to a new site after about 6 months of working.

With that being said, Think Together is a genuinely fulfilling place to work. You do watch and support children as they grow. It requires a genuine love for children, though. The program is very structured, and it is not run like a daycare. You must be empathetic, or this job will frustrate you. If you don't have patience, repeating yourself or working with children that require more attention might stress you out. Training will do their best to prepare you for all kinds of situations, but if working with children doesn't already come intuitively to you, you still might not understand or feel prepared by the time you get to site. In my experience, a lot of learning happens on the job.

Training itself is essentially every school trimester for Program Leaders. They broadly go over the expectations of the job, as well as the curriculum for an enrichment cycle. A common complaint I've heard from my coworkers is that they treat us like children at the trainings. A lot of this is done to model the expectations for how we will guide or facilitate the program. For example, you are expected to participate in attention-getters, do power claps, occasionally be a little cheesy. The trainings do provide a good opportunity to talk to other Program Leaders from different sites and work collaboratively about common or reoccurring struggles between the sites.

While I love being a Program Leader, and have been one for the better part of 2 years already, I will note that my role keeps expanding. The expectations I have keep changing. I feel that for myself and my coworkers, upper management and corporate continues to add to our list of responsibilities. They keep accepting grants from potential stakeholders, which means that we have to work to implement more into our job description. That makes our jobs a little more stressful than the job description listed on the original application.

Most people come thinking, "Eh, it's just a part-time. Easy enough." If you treat it like that, it is a difficult job. Most people end up staying if they realize that they really like working kids and are fortunate enough to land a good Site Manager. I'm fortunate enough to have a wonderful Site Manager who cares about team culture and my personal growth over her personal gain, but I've heard the struggle of other sites. No one stays in the Program Leader role at Think Together because they absolutely love corporate or because they agree with every decision that's made by upper management.

It's a fast-paced job. It takes months of practice with before you build the respect and trust with your kids enough to have your assigned group start to run itself completely. Don't come in with the expectation of getting children to blindly obey you. This job requires kindness, receptiveness, intentionality, self-awareness, and a lot of regulation and reflection, both for yourself and the children. I love my job very much, but I do think that it might not be for everyone. 

Overall I love my position of instructional provider I get to work with kids everyday I get to make an impact and change the odds for these children I get to see their personal growth every single day there's nothing more rewarding than seeing one of your class clowns or troublemakers make the switch to be coming in esteemed student eager to learn and even more eager to teach. 

However think together hires you under the umbrella company of the talent collaborative which leaves much to be desired on the HR front I worked all summer school at a new school site and never received my district badge to enter campuses so for the last 4 months I've been going from campus to campus using a paper badge that was printed for me after my orientation. People in positions under me and people newer than me had their district badges and I never received mine after even five emails and lack of correspondence. Also they make you clock in using a separate application and they have you check all of your benefits and pay details in a separate application as well so you have to manage two applications and your email address to keep up to date with everything that has to do with your employment also you're not provided a work email or a district email address so you're unable to use resources like the screens in the classrooms or School site Chromebooks which makes teaching your lesson plan very difficult as you have to use your own personal device to access any of the content that is needed to teach a curriculum. It becomes a bit of a pain when you have to radio support staff to come log into their email so that you can access your curriculum a simple resolution would be to offer think together employees a district email address that is tied to the district and not to the specific school so that we're able to access all of our information that we need on the Chromebooks and on the whiteboards this was a major setback for me this summer and made my job much more difficult than I needed to be also they don't offer bilingual pay which I find weird considering 98% of my student population was of Latino or Hispanic descent. They also do not pay you to teach English which I would say about 20% of my students were ESL kids and I caught myself having to separate them so I can teach them individually as well because not only was I having to teach the whole class in English but having to also teach a separate group of kids in Spanish as well. Though it did prove to be challenging it was also very rewarding when my kids wrote me thank you letters in English. As far as all the complaints about favoritism and clicks I haven't experienced any of that personally I've gotten along really well with all of my coworkers and everybody that I've come across so far with the company has been a joy to work with and extremely helpful but maybe that's just because I'm easy to get along with 

Every place of business has areas that need improvement, but Think Together has a lot to work on. Deadlines are hardly met by upper management, the level of unprofessionalism amongst staff-from upper management to program leaders- is honestly shocking, there is little training available for program leaders, the lesson plans that program managers are expected to pull from are never delivered on time and are often filled with typos, communication is always done at the last minute and it is rare for changes to be communicated to staff on time. As a non-profit organization it is understandable that the job market will fluctuate, but this company has done mass lay-offs on multiple occasions without giving their employees adequate notice, meaning less than a month notice. Their track record with paying employees correctly is also questionable. There were too many times that the company "forgot" to give employees their retro-pay or overlooked overtime and sick time applied. There are worse places to work, and the responsibilities that come with the job are not hard by any means. The role of a site program manager encompasses a lot of risks that you are directly responsible for, and you hardly receive support from your direct supervisors, so the job can become overwhelming if you allow it to be. You will come to rely on your coworkers a lot, but bear in mind that the culture there is unprofessional. I advise you to treat this place like a steppingstone. A lot of school districts are not renewing their contracts with Think Together, which is why the lay offs are occurring. If you accept a position, I advise you to treat it like a year contract and continue to look for work elsewhere. I say this because I have been laid off from this company twice due to district site closures, and both times the company decided to wait until the very last minute to inform us that we would no longer have a contract. Having less than a month to look for a new job is extremely difficult in this economy and Think Together has a track record of doing this to employees. Do not get too comfortable at a site you are assigned to because the district closures are still on the rise. The writing is on the wall that it will occur again for other school districts.  If you are offered a position as a site program manager or higher, take it and continue to look for something better. Think Together is a great place to work on your flexibility, patience, fortitude and enhance your resume with experience. Build connections with the staff at the school you are assigned to so you can apply for District jobs if possible. Because of the way it operates, Think Together is more of a short-term job rather than a career.

VERY IMPORTANT SO PLEASE READ ALL VERY CAREFULLY GET YOUR TEACHING EXPERIENCE SOMEWHERE ELSE. THINK Together is a nice place for children overall at least from where I have been stationed in Rialto, Ca, even though the orientation/interview was in San Bernardino, Ca. What they tell you before you start working is different by 98% from when you actually start to work. Seems like there is some deception on their behalf. THINK Together needs to be more professional. I think my Site Coordinator can be more helpful, she does criticize instead of building you up. She does NOT support you on any level. One would think because she has two children of her own currently that she would be more competent. I do not know how often a Site Coordinator usually stay but as of now she could do better than what I see. You need to give people both criticism and let people know where their positive side is and NOT just one way, the manager over her needs to do the same. The Site Coordinator is a hypocrite - tells me one thing and does another. No one is perfect but the SC should do a better job. Others, but NOT all Program Leaders are too bossy. I am not allowed to be creative; do not be surprised if EVERYTHING you do is considered wrong EVEN though YOU might have a degree or have the experience from somewhere else, maybe both. Be careful when you work at ANY THINK Together program, just look at ALL the complaints on different websites about THINK Tougher. The way it is structured here form what I can see, this is NOT REAL teaching at least 98%, I KNOW WHAT REAL TEACHING LOOKS LIKE!!!! Other people think this is real teaching experience, but it is NOT by 98% they just throw people in there for the most part. That might be OK for a few things in THINK Together, but this should NOT be so overall. How can you put a supervisor over me that just do does not get a clue? Don’t be surprised if you get in trouble over some junk that is not necessary. Do not be surprised if YOU are made to look like a complete loser in FRONT OF THE CHILDREN. If you quit, resign or get fired for no good reason EVEN IF someone lies and make it look like a good reason do NOT worry there are better jobs out there working with children especially if you have the intelligence to do so, I am not worried and neither should you, find a better job if needed, please because too much stress CAN weigh on the human body and cause some REAL DAMAGE on YOUR BODY and YOU do not need that kind of junk in your life. But REMEMBER, however you leave THINK Together the children who have gotten to know you just might miss having you around.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Best part of working for the company is the amount of growth and development that comes with it. Whether it’s you being thrown in there and figuring it out or having a strong previous SPM showing you how a structured program is supposed to look like. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Stressful part usually was the parents and staff not being held accountable when incidents happen. Even when documentation is provided and evidence, statements, and incident reports are ready to go. My associate director barely checked in on my school site. Checked on my site only when major shifts were moving. Never got acknowledged or even simple “you are doing a great job at your site”. When I first started at my site there were so many incidents, communication was horrible between staff and parents, staff were super unprofessional, and very unorganized. We cleans house and now the school site is what Think together expects it to be with their mission and values. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I loved working with my personal team at site. We build a strong culture, communication was great and we all showed up when we needed to for our students. However, the culture between other Site program managers and their assistants they really need to grow up. A lot of them complain about their teams, about work, from being thrown at multiple sites to support and hearing from school day partners, and staff the site program manager is  NOT visible or supportive for their team. Also, the tone from multiple site program managers when talking to their staff is honestly disheartening. I do agree some Site program managers in Moreno Valley shouldn’t be in their roles they are in. Just like students, you need to have patience with staff and coach them, model it for them. If not, proceed to follow the employee log and write them up.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day was doing a lot of observation, talking to school day staff, admins, teachers, and students. Never had time to sit back and chill. Being very attentive with your program and staff makes the program run really smooth. You observe, correct and it gets fixed. A lot of vendors and clubs were always happening at site so my assistant and I were always making sure we had rooms/space available for the instructors. No day was really the same, students kept you busy.

I feel like the students at my site were like show dogs, made to go through rigid, nonsensical motions. It's really simple, after-school programming should not mimic "real school," that's incredibly exhausting for students and Think Together expected us to work magic like teachers.

Yet, no student is going to take a program leader's high academic and behavioral expectations seriously when we are unable to seriously voice concern to parents and staff about a student. The only sort of help/feedback you got was how to put them in straight lines or proper ways to circulate around a classroom while not having your back turned. Ridiculous. Also, very very rarely did I ever receive praise.

There were days when I got the class to be quiet and do homework, and to me that was a miracle and I felt proud to show that my site coordinator. Yet she did not care, she already had her favorite and would always just talk about her.

Rarely does homework get done because program leaders are not allowed to tutor one-on-one and occasionally a volunteer will come.

Also, program leaders are supposed to act like teachers who are constantly engaging students with last minute things they do want to do (for ex: snack time used to be 20 minutes where the kids just eat and chat with friends, hear announcements, all of the sudden 2 months in my site coordinator asks me to start implementing competitive games during snack and tracking points between each group all before recreation time).

Doesn't THINK TOGETHER understand it's an after-school program? AKA - Not school. Making them do math or vocab activities for 45 minutes is unrealistic. Why not just focus on allowing the students to finish their homework, play, and rest a little until their parents come to pick them up?

There's this fake "savior" mentality and ineffective, unprofessional, and unhelpful staff and rules. God this place was awful. My site coordinator insulted me and I feel was manipulative. For example, it would be nice if the site coordinator disclosed who was special needs. I don't have a PH.D in Psychology, so what appears to be bad behavior/inattentiveness is really ADHD - would be helpful to know!

The best part was working with kids, it definitely gives you insight on what you're gonna be dealing with if you want to become a teacher. Working at Think Together keeps you on your feet when it comes to language arts and math.

The worst part was dealing with parents who do not want to hear any feedback that relates to their child misbehaving.  There are parents that will not like you because you complain about their child on a regular basis to them. However, that would not be the case if that child was behaving appropriate in the first place. There are parents that use this program as an after school daycare.  The reason I say this is because they will allow their child to continue to act the way they act without taking any steps to making their behavior better, and if the parent aint on board, then the child aint on board. Thus, making it harder on the Program Leader to take up the task of attempting to change that child's behavior on their own. In a sense some kids are just there, because they have to be, not because they want to be.

This job does not pay Program Leaders enough for the amount of emotional distress we have to deal with on a daily basis with both parents and children. As PLs we have had our fair share of uncomfortable situations either with a parent yelling at us or a child yelling at us. I've seen each PL at my site lose their cool at least once, either in tears in the privacy of closed classroom doors or in walking away in anger.

 Also, there is a lack of support from our Supervisor, leaving Program Leaders with the task of dealing with angry parents, school administrators, event planning, and uncontrollable kids alone. I've had to use my own money to plan some of my activities with my kids, but I do not get paid enough to be doing that all the time. We haven't done anything exciting for them the whole year,  and if you want to keep children involved you have to entice them with surprises once in a while. I wouldn't want to be in this program if I was a child, there's nothing to look forward to.

A tip to management,  audits should be unannounced every month, not two times a school year. It'll work in your favor for the sake of this company.

As a former site coordinator, this is not a company that you want to work for. Depending on which school you end up getting placed in, the company in itself does not honor what they mean nor do they mean what they say. The QAC for the site coordinators are not helpful nor do they provide any positive encouragement. If you're a site coordinator, the maximum hours you're able to work is thirty hours and you're not allowed to use your benefits until after your ninety day probationary period. Along with this, they expect you to get a list of things done within your six hour workday along with you have to go up to the HUB every week to turn in your packets and travel to various sites for meetings. Plus the starting pay for all site coordinators is at $16/hr. If you're a Program Leader, then your starting pay is at $12/hr with a maximum of 18.75 hours. 

The middle school that I worked at, none of the school administrators were supportive, and when it came down to discipline, all they would say is "write an incident report". Some of the students were extremely disrespectful with the way that they would speak to their teachers and treat the after school staff. In addition, majority of the students didn't want to be there because we had to follow a strict THINK Together STEM outline which none of the students were into. 

If a site coordinator or program leader goes over their allocated hours, be prepared to get talked to by a QAC because the company does not want to provide additional hours for either one. Also, if you do not live in the work area, then you should think twice about working for this company because the headquarters for the LA region is in Santa Fe Springs. 

For most after school programs, they give their site coordinators a good starting pay with full-time hours so if you have your degree, this isn't a company that you wanna work for. Thankfully for me, I ended up getting a full-time salary position working with my alma mater at my university so that was why I left only after two months. 

Overall, THINK Together is a horrible company and after school program to work for.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Program leader 554 salaries reported	$20.95 per hour
Site coordinator 127 salaries reported	$23.09 per hour
Site manager 162 salaries reported	$72,165 per year
Youth leader 102 salaries reported	$22.02 per hour
School program staff 64 salaries reported	$21.04 per hour

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