The BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is a curated space where bloggers from around the world contribute content on a continual basis about a variety of topics relevant to in and out-of-school time. The BOOST Breakfast Club blog is at the heart of an ongoing dialogue where expanded learning and education professionals share their personal thoughts and stories from the in and out-of-school time field. They also tell us what they ate for breakfast!

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Author: breakfastclubguest

My Why: Our Kids Belong to All of Us

I have not yet worked full-time for a for-profit company. I’m steadily climbing to the mid-point in my professional career, and so far, it’s been a path from museums to schools to non-profits. I sometimes wonder why and how I got started on my work road, though as the child of two public school teachers, perhaps it’s not much of a stretch that I’m a professional out-of-scho...

My Why: Youth Are Assets

I started off as a high school English teacher in an East Harlem school with Title 1 funding. My plan was to become a principal and I knew classroom experience was imperative to being an effective school leader. Teacher training helped me understand how to write lessons plans, use different forms of assessment, and reflect on how my own education may influence the way I “showed up” as ...

My Why: Curly’s Law – A Bearer of Hope

I love the scene in the movie City Slickers where Billy Crystal’s character, Mitch, is riding alone with Curly, played by Jack Palance. Curly gives Mitch some advice about life. Curly: You know what the secret of life is? Mitch: No. What? Curly: [holds up one finger] This. Mitch: Your finger? Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean s**t. Mitch...

Join Our Twitter Chat on Leadership with #BOOSTChat

How Do I Participate? 1. Follow @TEAMBOOST and the hashtag #BOOSTChat on Twitter on Wednesday, March 18th at 6PM PST/9PM EST. 2. Questions will be ordered Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5. To answer Q1, begin your tweet with A1. For Q2, A2 and so on. 3. Include #BOOSTChat to all of your tweets during the Twitter Chat, so others can see what you’re tweeting. 4. Bring questions and/or provide insight! *If y...

How to Keep Applications from Keeping Kids Out

When I write a blog it’s usually when I’ve reached a point where I’ve figured something out, or at least enough about something to feel that I’m ready to share “what works.” This time I am trying something different. I am writing because I have a question that I don’t know the answer to and a challenge that I am trying to figure out. We all have to adminis...

Physical Education Can Promote Global Competence

Asia Society and BOOST Collaborative are partnering to create a series of blogs on global learning in out-of-school time. This blog entry was originally published on EdWeek’s Global Learning Blog. This entry was written by Rich Keegan, author of “Global Games for Diversity Education,” and a physical education teacher at Squadron Line Elementary School in Simsbury, CT. Traditional...

Teaching Artists: Consistency – Care – Commitment

At the end of one of BuildaBridge’s Discovery Out-of-School time classes, this exchange happened between Ty (student) & Seth (Teaching Artist). Ty: “You guys make some sacrifices.” Seth: “Oh, so you mean you appreciate what we do?” Ty: ” Yes…actually I’m just gonna come out and say it. I love this place, and I love you guys. The art and the music...

Social Emotional Learning in Out-of-School Time

For the future, it’s vital to rethink the dynamic relationships between heart and mind within human consciousness and their essential place in the education of all our students. —Sir Ken Robinson, PH.D., author, speaker and leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation In conjunction with academic learning, social emotional learning (SEL) plays a critical role in educatin...

Part 2 – How One After-School Program Prepares Students for the World

Asia Society and BOOST Collaborative are partnering to create a series of blogs on global learning in out-of-school time. Community organizations incorporate global learning into their afterschool programs in a number of ways. Here, Asia Society’s Heather Loewecke interviews Katie Aylwin and Amanda Wells from WHEDco, an organization committed to building a sustainable Bronx, to learn how the...

Part 1 – Beyond School: After-School Programs Bring the World to Young People

Asia Society and BOOST Collaborative are partnering to create a series of blogs on global learning in out-of-school time.  Across the country, afterschool programs are looking at global learning as an approach to engage youth, enhance quality, and advocate for the value of learning beyond school. Alexis Menten, Executive Director, Program Development, Asia Society, shares more on this growing move...

From Ferguson to Our Classrooms: Why Social Justice Education Matters

The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious, one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions… But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a ...

Supporting Afterschool Programs on Your School Campus

In 2008, forty-six percent of public elementary school reported that a fee-based stand-alone program was physically located on campus. -(National Center for Education Statistics, February 2009). Whether or not that figure holds true in 2014 is not yet known, but count yourself – and your students – lucky if you have a program available to your students on your campus. A continually growing body of...