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 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: Erika Petrelli
Be Like Spring
Ah!! I love spring. Everything has gotten so green, just in the last week, and suddenly buds are bursting out of the ground and off of the branches. The grass is growing like crazy. Morning birds welcome us with their non-stop melodies. The days are lighter longer. Windows are open. Fruit and Veggie aisles are more abundant. Sidewalks and playgrounds have come back to life after a dormant winter. ...
ExScaredEd: Fear & Excitement of the Unknown
This post originally appeared on the Breakfast Club Blog on September 5, 2017. My son Dylan just started first grade a few weeks ago. In the weeks leading up to it, he coined a new word to describe how he was feeling: ExScaredEd. A combination of excited and scared, he said that was the best way to express how he was approaching this new year. I love it. I love, love, love it. Since then, he added...
A Case For That Softer Side Of Leadership
When we talk about leadership, and the skills needed to be an effective leader (which is a different conversation than what it means to effectively manage a team or project), we’ve only recently started to give proper space and focus around Emotional Intelligence and some of the “softer” skills that go into impactful and transformative leadership. But, what exactly is the softer side? Well, it’s t...
Intentional Self-Awareness In Leadership
“If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk.” Benjamin Hooks I’ve always loved this quote, because for me it cuts straight to the core of true leadership—which has absolutely nothing to do with the title on your business card. True leadership, to me, is about impact. How much of an impact do you have on those around you? And how willing ar...
Social Emotional Leadership: A Game Changer
You may have heard of social and emotional learning, or SEL. Defined and predominately shaped by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL, more than two decades ago, social and emotional competencies have become an essential avenue for developing key skills in our young people. SEL is defined specifically by CASEL as “the process through which all young people and a...
Persistence: Why It’s Hard Before It’s Easy
I’ve written about this very thing before, but I’m struck once again at how HARD things are before they become EASY. My son and daughter took a few rounds of swimming lessons this summer. For my son, who only recently turned three, this was his first experience with swimming lessons, and they came at a time when he was only just beginning to enjoy just simply playing in the water. Here...
You May Sputter, But You Must Start
When I was in high school, my dad tried to teach me how to drive a stick shift. I like to think I’m really good at it… once I’m in like third gear. Once I’m cruising, driving a stick makes me feel so accomplished—like some kind of race car driver, like a really good driver. Once it’s easy. But getting started? That’s an entirely different story. The perfect coordination of movements required in ge...
More Than Ever… Grace and Space
This post originally appeared on April 7, 2020 on the Wings & Whimsy Blog at The Leadership Program. Oh, it’s starting isn’t it? Our human need to examine and comment on how everyone else is “doing” this, and whether or not they are doing it “right.” This person is not worrying enough. This person is not experiencing it as deeply. This person is cleaning their closets… how dare they? This pers...
The Power Of Children
Last month, I asked Marlowe (my 11-year old) to write another post for me. She’s written here before, on everything from the importance of being yourself to summer planning. This time, I told her that Women’s History Month was coming up so I wanted to showcase a young woman’s voice. And I casually added, “maybe talk something about how powerful young people are, and how the...
The Beginning Of Wisdom: Part One
Editor’s Note: This blog was first posted on Tuesday, January 14, 2020, and is being reposted with permission from The Leadership Program. As we are in the middle of another January, many of us are also already likely facing a reckoning of the status of our new year’s resolutions. Already, they may be sputtering; they may even still be stuck at the start. Resolutions are tricky because they ...
Bullying Prevention Starts With Me
This blog was originally posted on The Leadership Program’s website on Thursday, October 3, 2019. It has been reposted with permission from Breakfast Club Blogger, Erika Petrelli. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ October is Bullying Awareness and Prevention Month. This is a really important topic for me—it stirs ...
Showing The Broken Places PT 1
This blog was originally posted on https://www.tlpnyc.com/blog/the-broken-places on Friday, September 13, 2019, and has been reposted with permission from Breakfast Club Blogger Erika Petrelli. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I’ve come to understand something in the last few months that is in direct opposition to ever...