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 Five Stages of Post Application Rejection Syndrome
On May 3, the California Department of Education posted its “Intent to Award” list for Cohort 7 of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Programs, and like many of my colleagues, I was disappointed to learn that none of the applications I had helped to prepare were on it. Having spent the last few years working as an intermediary, it had been some time since I’d had a personal stake in an application process, and I had forgotten how painful failure can be. As with any los...Read More
Walking the Walk
“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” – Oprah Winfrey “Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.” –Stephen Covey, The 8th habit The two quotes above speak so powerfully to the importance of having a mentor alongside you in your life’s journey. I’ve been fortunate to have had a few mentors beside me in my journey and as I consider our work in after sch...Read More
4 Steps to Make Student-Centered Learning Come Alive!
The purpose and potential of Expanded Learning Programs have changed radically in the last 20 years. The process began with the passage of California’s first comprehensive afterschool legislation, which Carla Sanger of LA’s BEST and I initiated in 1997. This paved the way for hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for elementary and middle school programs and resulted in a growing body of knowledge about what it takes to make a real difference in students’ lives. As part of this process, man...Read More
The Importance of Being Intentional
Sue, an energetic afterschool staff member, rushes into the school premises precisely at 2:30 p.m. She had just come from a school located across town, where she had been working as a substitute teacher all day. With a brief but friendly “hello” to the school’s administrative assistant, Sue quickly signs in for the day and wastes no time as she heads straight to the cafeteria. In a whirlwind of efficiency, Sue gathers the snacks, arranges the attendance sheets neatly on the caf...Read More
The BOOST Conference: By The Field, For The Field
This year the BOOST Conference was beyond measurable and loaded with learning opportunities, networking receptions, film festivals, Town Halls, Pop-Up Dinners, Inspiration Stations, and so much more. Our small but mighty team of dedicated volunteers, the BOOST Leadership Team (BLT), worked for a year to welcome all the BOOSTers to sunny Palm Springs! In this blog, we want to provide you with a quick glimpse of the magic that goes into building this wonderful and inspiring conference. WANT IN? CL...Read More
6 Meeting Makeovers to Try This Fall
Our friends at the Born This Way Foundation hosted #BeKind21 this September. It is a global call to action to practice acts of kindness with the mission of building kinder, more connected communities that foster mental wellness. At Healthier Generation, we love this concept so much we want to continue the spirit of #BeKind21 and keep building our “kindness team” into the fall. Ready to join in? Below are 6 meeting makeover ideas to cultivate self-kindness and kindness to others! 1-2, Start Your ...Read More
5 Simple Ways Youth Can Inspire Change
This blog was originally published on August 27, 2019. Youth voice in the advocacy space is still timely and relevant so we wanted to share it again. Enjoy! I believe in the power of youth voice because youth can inspire change. Young people are experts on their own lives, and their lived experiences should be heard and used to advocate for change. We live in a time where advocacy and grassroots movements have been instrumental in highlighting social issues and bringing about positive change. W...Read More
5 Ways to Use BOOST Cafe for Professional Development
We thought it was a good time to re-share about BOOST Cafe and how you can use it to BOOST your professional development! Since its launch, we have added some incredible new resources! Check out the FREE online learning opportunities Need resources to reconnect with yourself, look no further than the Virtual Calming Room Find FREE e-BOOST downloads to use with your staff, youth, and communities Make someone’s day and send them a BOOST E-Card Want to explore BOOST Cafe further, then fill ou...Read More
Why Every Student Needs Entrepreneurship
Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” -Peter Drucker Ever since high school, I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. But traditional education rewards a college degree into a stable job. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you do it on your own time and take a huge risk to start a company. So that’s what I did. I completed the traditional core high school curriculum, got a finance degree and became an analyst in commercial banking. After three years...Read More
Should Everyone Get a Trophy?
When I was a kid, the winning team took home the trophy, and the MVP got the medal. That was that. When my kids were growing up, everyone got a trophy. There was no MVP because they all succeeded and did their best. I see the value of both, especially when you’re talking about young children. There should never be losers when you work in the nonprofit sector, especially with kids, because all kids win when everyone gets the trophy. Here’s why. This past summer, our organization formed a strate...Read More
A Little Bit of Normal Please
This morning I continued my push for health and wellness by skipping the pancakes and opting instead for yogurt and berries for breakfast. Speaking of the push for health and wellness … I was a conscientious mask-wearer for the entire duration of COVID-19 in California, never wavering in my support for the shutdown or the mask mandate, or any of the other guidelines. Though I got impatient toward the end, I fixed my sights on June 15, 2021, the date our governor said business was “getting back t...Read More
Community Educators: What’s In a Name? A Lot, Actually
We are introducing the field to a new idea – the consideration that our afterschool staff are Community Educators at the heart of their work. To clarify, it is not a new idea but is a new way to think about the way we can refer to our staff. And we recently captured video stories of some inspiring Community Educators in California. Check out the first of the videos and see how Diego Arancibia, ASAPconnect Director, answered interview questions posed by Julie Sesser, ASAPconnect Specialist and Co...Read More