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!

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Enjoy the brain food.

The BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is Brain Food for In and Out-of-School Time Leaders!

Interested in becoming a blogger? Email [email protected]

Click here to Register for a free account or click here to Login to your existing account.

Author: Chad Furlong

Love in Your Voice

It’s not always easy to be yourself. Maybe you can relate to this. I’m in a café with a cup of tea. It’s funny actually. There’s a trendy wooden table beside me. As I sit to write the first words of this blog project, in my head I hear the voices of writers I’m reading and speaker types famous for dumb one-liners. They are a crowded group in a room somewhere in my bra...

Dream, Baby, Dream

As you may know, I am privileged to do school assemblies across the country speaking to all kinds of students. Even when I start driving onto the school campus I begin to feel those “dad emotions” coming up in me. I want to hug every person. I want to spend hours with each of them individually just to hear their story. They’re all–every one of them–amazing kids. We all do what we...

What’s Trending Now with our Students?

This past month, our iTHINKBIG.ORG school assembly team completed 50, thirty-minute interviews, with High School and Middle School students across San Diego. Participants crossed economic and racial backgrounds. The question was, “What’s trending now?” This is what we found out. Hang on, the results are surprising: Favorite Music • R&B, Pop, Hip Hop, Rap – 40% • Country...

3 Questions for Confused Students

Existentialism. I’m fascinated by that topic. I’m a big picture guy who talking about the details is like being attacked by a soul-stealing dragon. But get me on the big picture, and there’s light in my eyes and passion that keeps me going for hours. A lot of us are like that. I’d even argue that all of us are big picture at our core. The most detailed people have to resurf...

6 Reminders for Maintaining your Leadership Rhythm

As I write, it’s one of those times where I must focus the lens for the gritty and most meaningful things to tell you about. We only have a few sentences to share before our time together is up, and it’s important to make them count. So that leads us to rhythm. There’s nothing like a band that plays together, a motor in with proper timing, a NFL team operating as a unit, and espe...

4 Quick Thoughts on Leadership

“Whatever you are, be a good one.” –Abraham Lincoln I love people who push themselves to perform at the highest level possible. Because I’m a child of the 80’s, where we proudly rocked mullets and tight rolled our jeans, I think about Michael Jordan. The game was over and you’d find him in the gym shooting 500 free throws. He had an internal drive to do better. He wan...