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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There’s something you need to know about me, I love all things energy-related!!! I love eating food (especially broccoli) because it gives me energy to live, dance, and laugh. I love talking about electricity because it heats my showers, cooks my food, and keeps my house at a comfortable temperature year round. And I love thinking about how energy connects us all and without it, our lives would be a lot less eventful. My entire job is to talk about energy – where our energy/electricity com...Read More
Editor’s Note: Happy New Year! What a great time to honor Leaders Who Inspire Us! Keep an eye out for more inspirational people in our field who are change makers. If you want to recommend someone, please send a note to [email protected]. Today’s featured leader is Dr. Erin Browder, a Leadership and Organizational Development Consultant. She specializes in building safe and supportive workplaces, leadership development, organizational culture, and capacity building. She has p...Read More
I’ve had the pleasure of being involved with youth development and out-of-school learning time since 1998. For the past eight years, I’ve been the Program Director of the Youth Philanthropy Initiative of Indiana (YPII). In that time, I’ve watched as YPII built a strong local, national, and even international reputation as a thought-leader and become a significant resource for training on youth philanthropy, young people sharing their time, talents, and treasures. Through numerous collaborations...Read More
Editors note: This blog was first published in January 2018. We believe the content of this blog is as relevant today for 2019, as it was for 2018. Let’s keep asking these questions… ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ January 1 is really our second “New Year” with our kiddos. Happy New Year, take two! As educators, we really have two new years. First, we start the year in August or September when our kiddos r...Read More
In 2017, more people watched the League of Legends Championship than Game 7 of the World Series and the final game of the NBA Finals that year. This statistic was shared by ESPN, who—for the first time this past September—featured esports player, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins on the cover of its ESPN The Magazine. But what exactly is esports? Is it just kids just shooting at each other in online video games? Well, it can be. But esports can also be strategy card games, like Hearthstone, which is set in ...Read More
“Go further than you planned. Ask for the moon: you will be surprised how often you get it.” These words of Paulo Coelho are certainly what we want our kids to hear and feel – to reach beyond and become the best person they can be. And we want to be there to help give them opportunities to reach their full potential. The Moon serves as a source of inspiration – influencing aspiring poets, writers, musicians, artists, scientists, explorers, traditional knowledge-keepers in cultures such as Native...Read More
Winter weather can prove to be a significant challenge for keeping kids physically active, particularly when indoor space is relatively confined or not readily available. While large format activities and games may not be ideal in this situation, there is still a wide variety of simple physical activities that can be included in stations, circuits, and other formats to get kids moving. Below are five fun physical activities for kids that require little to no space or equipment and are ideal opti...Read More
This blog is being republished with permission from TGR Foundation. It was originally posted on November 1st, 2018. —————————————————————————————————————————————————– October presented me with multi...Read More
For all the popularity of STEM activities outside of school time, engineering remains something of a neglected stepchild. “Full STEM Ahead,” an America After 3 PM survey, found that the favored siblings in the STEM family, science and math, feature in a preponderance of available programs, 60 and 45 percent, respectively. Technology and engineering share the table scraps, named in less than a third of program offerings. And with the greater share of these programs focused on computing and progra...Read More
Reviewing resumes, setting up interviews and hiring new employees is a routine task for afterschool directors and supervisors; however, failure to recognize signs of a possible lousy hire can reap damaging consequences for your afterschool program. Selecting the right candidate cannot be a hit or miss. Frontline staff plays a critical role in ensuring students are learning in a safe and supportive environment. While experienced leaders understand that everyone has a learning curve, season...Read More