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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From a Learning Disability to a Ph.D.: A Life-Changing Journey
As I opened an email titled “Congratulations! Your dissertation is approved.” I felt tears of happiness slowly running down my cheeks. I smiled, closed my eyes, and took a long, deep breath. It had been a long and difficult journey, but somehow, I felt that it was only a beginning – of a new era, the one where I officially had no reason to doubt myself. “I am a doctor now,” I thought to myself. “I did it, I proved them all wrong.” For as long as I can remember I was told that I wasn’t good enoug...Read More
Persistence: Why It’s Hard Before It’s Easy
I’ve written about this very thing before, but I’m struck once again at how HARD things are before they become EASY. My son and daughter took a few rounds of swimming lessons this summer. For my son, who only recently turned three, this was his first experience with swimming lessons, and they came at a time when he was only just beginning to enjoy just simply playing in the water. Here’s how the first round went for him: During his first lesson, he cried hysterically from the f...Read More
You May Sputter, But You Must Start
When I was in high school, my dad tried to teach me how to drive a stick shift. I like to think I’m really good at it… once I’m in like third gear. Once I’m cruising, driving a stick makes me feel so accomplished—like some kind of race car driver, like a really good driver. Once it’s easy. But getting started? That’s an entirely different story. The perfect coordination of movements required in getting a stick shift from neutral to first gear—the dance between the clutch and the brake that must ...Read More
The Common Core and What Children Need
I was recently introduced to this quote from Robert Halpern of the Erikson Institute: “… children need times and places in their lives where the adult agenda is modest, if not held at bay; where the emotional temperature is low, and acceptance is generous; where learning is self-directed, experiential, and structured to be enjoyable; where talents can be identified; and where possible identities can be explored without risk of failure or ridicule” (Halpern, 2000, p. 186). It so...Read More