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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Hear the Whole Song
I’ve mentioned before my love of the band Mumford & Sons, and I have been delighted recently that my five-year old son has been similarly taken by them. The other day we were listening to “Roll Away Your Stone” and I was telling him how that was the first song of theirs I had ever heard, and recounted the first time I heard it. He made me tell him the story twice, somehow as rapt by it as he was by the song. I told him that I was in the car driving when it came on. I told ...Read More
Words Matter
“You look like a clown,” my dad said as I got ready for picture day. Time froze. Tears poured down my face. Elementary school me was devastated. (Though, to be fair, my outfit matching skills needed a lot of work back then and using a headband for a scrunchie probably wasn’t the best picture day choice. Sorry Dad!) MANY years have passed, and that memory now makes me laugh a little, but the fact is… I still remember it. Every word. Most of the feelings. DEFINITELY the out...Read More
Tips from 7 Experts on School-Community Collaboration
This month the Alliance for a Healthier Generation is celebrating America’s Healthiest Schools. Schools recognized by the Alliance have met stringent guidelines for serving healthier meals and snacks, getting all children active and empowering school leaders to become healthy role models. Schools are essential partners for out-of-school time organizations. According to the Afterschool Alliance, 73% of parents report that their child’s afterschool program is located in a public school...Read More
The Rest of the Story
Perhaps you remember as well as I do the Big Hair Bands that dominated the charts during the 1980s. These bands were known for their big hair, big concerts, big displays of pyrotechnics, big guitar solos, and big personalities. One of the bands that exemplified the image of the Big Hair Band was Van Halen. The stories of the antics that occurred off-stage were often as newsworthy as the music they performed onstage. One such story was that the band – get this – demanded that M&Ms be placed b...Read More
Student Recruitment Tactics: Part Two
This is the second installment of our two-part blog series focused on practical student recruitment strategies. You can read the first part blog here. #6: Think socially Create opportunities for participants to bring their friends. It’s not always about your students coming to their class everyday. Create events or opportunities for registered students to go through a little bit of your program’s experience. It could be team building games at lunch, or a scavenger hunt after school,...Read More
Student Recruitment Tactics: Part One
This is a two-part blog series focused on practical student recruitment strategies. This first installment features five tips and five more tips will be shared on Friday. Here are some common strategies when dealing with recruiting students for your program. Remember, you HAVE to be comfortable with the idea of the numbers game if you are going to succeed in achieving your attendance goals. Great programs worry about quality AND quantity. The New Yorker wrote an article shortly after the 2008 p...Read More
BOOST Breakfast Club 2015 Recap
Thank you for sharing 2015 with us! We look forward to this coming year and creating opportunities for change in educational and social services agencies serving youth in the out-of-school time hours. Our blog has a wealth of resources you and your organization from professionals in out-school-time, youth development, and education from across the globe. Our topics include: 21st Century Learning, Advocacy & Policy, Building Relationships, Closing the Achievement Gap, Common Core, Community C...Read More
Fully Resourced Schools and Youth Development
A little more than two weeks ago, a video depicting an altercation between a school resource officer and a high school student went viral as millions watched the footage of an unarmed female student at Spring Valley High (South Carolina) being pulled from her desk, flipped backward, and dragged across the room. For nearly everyone who saw it, the video was jarring. As a youth development professional, my thoughts went to wanting to understand the steps and decision points that preceded this trou...Read More
10 Tips on How Parents Can Step Into Leadership
What does it mean, as a parent, to “step into your leadership”? Beyond the stereotypical “because I’m the parent and I said so” form of leadership, how am I most effectively leading my children? What does it even mean to lead our children? Is it teaching them right from wrong? Is it telling them what to do? Is it pushing them to get good grades and achieve great things? Of course that’s part of it. But the problem with limiting our definition of parent leaders...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