Dear Friends and Neighbors,

All of our kids are back, and it’s inspiring to see our classrooms in full swing!

Our teachers are ready to support our kids and help them get back into the groove of school-day learning. Take Adriana Hernandez-Perez, GCC after-school teacher who spent the summer with second graders. I had a chance to talk with Adriana about this school year.

“Some of the kids not only missed nearly two years of academic skills, they’re noticeably behind in social skills,” she told me. “A nice thing about Goodman is we can focus on fun and building community. When the kids get here, we have a meal together and check in about their day. Then we do fun, disguised learning activities. I know the kids learn as they play, and I'm excited to watch our kids do some serious catching up this fall.”

I visited Miss Adriana and the Red Room kids over the summer as they did their end-of-day check-ins, a time when everyone shares the good and bad things from their day. Nasia went first. “I had two goods and one bad. Good was we got to go to the Dream Park with the Teal Room. And we had a water balloon fight,” she said. “The one bad part was we had to walk a LONG way and it was REALLY hot.” (Turns out that “LONG walk” was from where they parked the van, one block from our Ironworks building where their class is. Ha!)

Check-ins help kids learn words for their emotions. They sometimes problem solve together, and if someone has a problem, Miss Adriana will help that child work through it so she can start the day with a fresh start.

And that’s just one teacher in one classroom. We have so many other incredible members of our staff doing work just like this at every grade level every day. They and our kids need your support. Will you make a gift today?

Take care,