Breakfast Club Blog
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!
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The Time Is Now: Lights on Afterschool
As I board a plane to head off to another location for a training, I reflect on how I arrived in the out-of-school time field. It has been 8 years now and I have loved every minute of it. Even though I focus more on adult learning, as I train OST providers, I still have several opportunities to conduct site visits and interact with youth. I am amazed everyday at the dedication of OST professionals, which is why I would like to dedicate my blog post today to effective messaging for Lights On Afte...Read More
Cheers to You, Youth Workers
Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. Wouldn’t you like to get away? Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came. Where Everybody Knows Your Name Lyrics by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo As someone who grew up in the ’80s, these lyrics had a special meaning for me – they meant it was time to go to bed. But this summer, that meaning...Read More
Teaching Students How to ask Deep, Personal Questions
This blog is an additional follow-up resource from J. Branson Skinner and Liz Ricketts’ blog, Experience Inspires Love, originally posted on the Breakfast Club. This blog is a part of our ongoing partnership with Asia Society. The #Collectofus Global Leaders program, part of The OR Network, connects students in Accra, Ghana; Vaalwater, South Africa; Detroit, Michigan; Brooklyn, New York; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Washington, D.C. They create and exchange scarves and videos and then interact th...Read More
Parent Education
My son Oliver celebrated his seventh birthday on Monday. He has reached a stage in his development where he equates the value of his own opinions with those of his parents. Our word is no longer accepted as absolute truth. Every statement of fact is met with skepticism. Every directive requires supporting rationale. It’s pretty annoying. But something happened yesterday that made me wonder if he isn’t occasionally wise to question my authority. One of the gifts he received was a Poké...Read More
3 Lessons on Growth Through After School Programs
Being that this is my first blog as a BOOST Breakfast Club Blogger, I am excited to share my passion for afterschool programs. When I began in the year 2000, there were more questions than answers. It was the age of discovery and exploration. It was before the After School Education and Safety (ASES) programs existed and 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) programs were the only thing we knew. I was hired as a part-time Site Coordinator for an after school program and part-time Campus...Read More
Just Love
I’m sitting here at my computer, with my four-year old son Dylan sitting at the table across from me. He’s on the other computer, playing Peppa Pig games. I’m supposed to be staring at my computer thinking about blog topics for the day, but instead I’m staring at him and thinking about how unbelievable he is. How smart (as he navigates the laptop like a professional, even with his tiny little fingers), how funny, how mischievous, how cunning, how playful, how joyful. I...Read More
Experience Inspires Love
When we were the age of our students, neither of us thought that we would be teachers. Even in 2011, when we first entered a classroom to foster relationships between learners across borders, we didn’t consider the possibility that we would end up working in education. But today neither of us could imagine doing anything else. While our path toward becoming educators has not been a traditional one, our mission as co-founders of the not-for-profit organization The OR Network has grown organ...Read More
Full Participation: A Guide to Being Present
By today’s parenting standards, I did something incomprehensible – I did not take any pictures of my kids during an awesome outing on a beautiful Southern California day! I held it together for a full 1.5 hours and did not pull out my iPhone 6 to “capture the moment” so that my kids could later say how great their dad was. Oh, who am I kidding? I wanted great pics so that all my friends on Facebook could gawk at the status update I would post later on. The critical moment in t...Read More
The Elephant in the Room
If you’re reading this; that means you are involved with or care about the world of expanded learning time. I’m going to start this blog with a generalization. Ordinarily that’s not the best idea, but I’m pretty sure I’m right. Your mission is not to give extra help to the kids who are doing fine. You’re not involved with expanded learning because you want to provide more access and opportunity to those young people who are already clearly on track for success...Read More
Hip-Hop(e): Engaging Youth with Social & Emotional Learning
Some community leaders and I were in shock when teens in our after school hip-hop leadership program came in and told us that they felt like absolute failures at school. The disillusionment came about because these were the same youth who were presenting at regional conferences with Congress members, and opening up for international hip-hop acts. These young people, primarily young men of color, were telling us that they were treated like they were stupid at school, and constantly singled out an...Read More
The Story of Two Wes Moore’s: An Impactful Reading Experience
A few weeks ago, I heard a wonderful speaker at a conference I attended on transformative change. The speaker, Wes Moore, is author of the book, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. Immediately following his presentation, I logged onto my Amazon account and downloaded his book. I was about halfway through chapter two when I realized that this should be the topic of my next blog. If you have not heard of this book or read it, I highly recommend that you do. My guess is that as soon as you re...Read More
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 you are unfamiliar with participating in Twitter Chats you may easily access the #BOOSTChat by visiti...Read More