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 views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Enjoy the brain food.

The BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is Brain Food for In and Out-of-School Time Leaders!

Interested in becoming a blogger? Email breakfastclub@boostcollaborative.org

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Keep Learning Online with BOOST

Dear BOOST Family, We are very much looking forward to “seeing” you at the virtual BOOST Conference April 27-30, 2021. We are planning a vibrant, engaging, and fun BOOST experience for you and your team. Did you know we have been facilitating virtual trainings, BOOSTer Summits, Legacy Summits, and other online professional development events since May 2020? We have conquered the virtual world to make sure that our learning is accessible and engaging – and BOOST online/virtual professional ...Read More

 Fostering a Growth Mindset

I remember extending my right hand up in the air and waving it feverishly. I thought today “I had enough” after being ignored by my fourth-grade teacher too many times, today was the day I was going to speak up. Each day, I eagerly raised my hand to answer a question only to be overlooked. (Know that this is my fourth-grade perception of things.) I would watch her peer out into the classroom and scan all the buzzing hands, including mine, hoping she’d pick me. Ugh! Again, I thought, “she only pi...Read More

“You Will Always Miss 100% of the Shots You Don’t Take”

“You will always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” This is a powerful quote from Wayne Gretzky, one of the most famous and highest-scoring professional hockey players of all time.  It is also a very powerful lesson to share with kids. So many people, kids and grownups, let their dreams stay on their “wish list” instead of putting them on their “to do” list – leaving them there to die as the years slip by. But that doesn’t have to happen! Here are three common “stoppers” that keep peo...Read More

Growth Mindset: Losing is the New Winning

Spending more than half of my life in and out of a locker room, one gets very used to sound of competition. Sayings like, “failure is not an option” and “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” were common echoes in my upbringing. From one coach to the next, it was always about winning, getting better, playing your best, minimizing mistakes, practice makes perfect, etc., etc. It’s no wonder that I wanted to quit after losing my first soccer game ...Read More

Grow Our Growth Mindset: Rethinking How We Praise Kids

The favorite part of my job is getting out of the office to visit after-school programs. I see that kids really do like science and engineering when given the chance to jump into hands-on projects and explore questions that interest them. What has surprised me is seeing the difference in how kids approach challenges in after-school programs. Engineering design challenges can be a great way for kids to experience the practices that scientists and engineers engage in. They start with a real world ...Read More