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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Lead People, Not Programs
If you are in any sort of leadership role in any type of organization running any type of program and managing any number of people, I’m asking you to do something. I want you to copy the sentence below, paste it into a Word doc, increase the font size to about 200, bold it, italicize it, and post it somewhere in your office where you read it every day. Here it is: NOTHING INCREASES STAFF MORALE AND JOB SATISFACTION MORE THAN A WELL RUN ORGANIZATION. Do it. Seriously. Do it. Now. I’l...Read More
You Are Changing Lives!
Every day I’m reminded of how fortunate I am to work with such amazing people who are doing such incredible work! Whether I’m consulting with program directors, meeting with leadership members, talking with colleagues or visiting sites, my passion is continually re-ignited, my sense of purpose is re-confirmed and my commitment to doing my best to make a difference in the world is strengthened. I’m blessed to be a messenger but it is you who are creating the messages. So, I̵...Read More
The Benefits of Working with At-Risk Youth
Two months ago I finally recognized it happening; I could never forget the needs and the gleam in their eyes. As I began to pull my supply cart back to my car and pull out my keys to open the trunk a young man yelled my name “Mark!” It was at that moment I realized a seed had been planted, watered, and began to sprout. This was a rare occasion. I had been visiting this site for three years now, the youth there were on probation, had been kicked out of traditional school and have even...Read More
Ode to Site Supervisors
I began to reflect on my career and realized that my days as a site coordinator have been the most defining and empowering. I dare say that this experience, as a site coordinator, prepared me for the biggest challenges of not only my career… but my life. So, I have written this ode, in honor of the site coordinator… The one who is a part time employee with a full time attitude. The one who has survived the bullets of lock downs and who also rose to the occasion to help supervise 1400...Read More
IF IT’S TO BE, IT STARTS WITH ME
I heard a story recently that I’d like to share it with you. One day a mother came to Gandhi with her little boy for help. She asked Gandhi, “Please, Bapu, will you tell my little boy to stop eating sugar. He simply eats too much sugar and will not stop.” Gandhi told the mother to leave and come back with the boy in three days. The mother returned with her son and said to Gandhi, “We have come back as you asked.” Gandhi turned to the boy and said, “Young boy, ...Read More
Got Alignment?
“Honeeeeeeeeeeeey, I’m hoooooooooooome. What’s the plan for dinner? Did you make it to the bank to take care of the girls’ accounts? Where are the kids?” Sound familiar? Well, it should. It’s common daily conversation in many homes. In fact, this is the exact verbiage that came out of my mouth when I arrived home to my stay-at-home hubby yesterday. His answer: “There’s no dinner plan, girl’s are doing homework, and yes, I went to the bank but...Read More
Go Team, Go!
The daughter of a manicurist at a local Orange County nail salon was visiting her mom at work. She overheard that I had been a teacher and a principal, picking this up from parlor chatter — a charming cultural overlay to having nails done. Julie came right over to engage me in conversation during my manicure. Her mother had told me she loves school. As a fifth grader, she turned out to be a great conversationalist. (Her real name was Tuyen, she mentioned later.) When I asked Julie what sub...Read More
Marketing to the Middle
In California, state and federally funded after-school programs that fail to meet their attendance targets are subject to grant reduction. In the most recent round of adjustments, middle level schools received a disproportionate share of the cuts. While they receive only about a quarter of the ASES and 21st CCLC funds allocated to K-9 schools, they accounted for more than half of the reductions. Clearly, we have a problem engaging middle school kids in our programs. And do you know why? Because ...Read More
Safe Schools: Utilizing Youth Leadership Programs to Develop a Safe School Climate
In developing school based approaches to create safe schools and positive school climates the single most important factor that youth leadership programs neglect to focus in on is the importance of developing a sense of belonging to a group identity for young people. We know that “After transition to middle school, peers become primary sources of support and motivation to achieve while the quality of teacher-student relationships tends to decline with time” (Wentzel, 1996). As we set...Read More
Never Underestimate the Power of Relationship Building
As a technical assistance and professional development provider, I often receive vague requests for “classroom management training.” It usually goes something like this: Program Director: My tutors need training on classroom management. Me: Okay, tell me a little bit about your tutors and your program. Program Director: I use certified teachers to tutor the students in my program. School is dismissed at 3:15 and tutoring takes place from 3:30-4:30. We used to have a lot of participat...Read More
It’s Time to Think and Act Differently
Over the past several months I’ve met with leaders at the White House, the Senate and Congress and with high level federal department officials and executives of national organizations. I’ve spoken with California’s top policymakers, sat next to the Governor on a flight to Los Angeles and presented at several conferences across the country. With few exceptions, I’ve been surprised by how little folks know about the impact of funding for afterschool programs and the impact...Read More
Girls and the Scary World of Relationships- How Your After School Program Can Encourage Healthy Choices
There comes a time in a girl’s life (and boy’s for that matter) when the opposite sex no longer have “koodies.” Once girls discover that they like boys, there is no turning back the hands of time- they have entered the point of no return. By this I mean that all common sense is out the window. Girls enter this “boy crazy” stage in about 6th grade and it gets severely out of control in middle school- trust me! However, it is important to work with our female st...Read More