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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4 Things You Can Do Right Now to Promote Meaningful Participation in Afterschool
Research tells us that if we hope to make a difference in young people’s learning, we need to provide opportunities for learning that is meaningful. This is especially important as youth return to afterschool programs after a year of isolation. If young people are engaged in meaningful participation, they are empowered to be self-directed, make responsible choices about how to use their time, and participate as group members in making decisions that influence the larger program and what they lea...Read More
Love in Your Voice
It’s not always easy to be yourself. Maybe you can relate to this. I’m in a café with a cup of tea. It’s funny actually. There’s a trendy wooden table beside me. As I sit to write the first words of this blog project, in my head I hear the voices of writers I’m reading and speaker types famous for dumb one-liners. They are a crowded group in a room somewhere in my brain, an indecipherable rumble. “No Chad. Be you. Find your voice. Don’t write like them.&...Read More
Playing in the Leaves
I cried after watching a commercial last night. No, it wasn’t a commercial with babies in tires, or one about a service member who makes it home in time for the holidays, or even a Hallmark movie special. It was a Toys’R’Us commercial. A group of kids were going on a field trip to the forest. While on the bus the guide tells the rather disinterested group that instead they are going to Toys’R’Us- the bus goes wild! Granted if I was being driven to jury duty and the ...Read More
A Case For That Softer Side Of Leadership
When we talk about leadership, and the skills needed to be an effective leader (which is a different conversation than what it means to effectively manage a team or project), we’ve only recently started to give proper space and focus around Emotional Intelligence and some of the “softer” skills that go into impactful and transformative leadership. But, what exactly is the softer side? Well, it’s the human side. More to the point: it’s the human-connecting-to-another-human side. There are a lot o...Read More
Social Emotional Leadership: A Game Changer
You may have heard of social and emotional learning, or SEL. Defined and predominately shaped by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL, more than two decades ago, social and emotional competencies have become an essential avenue for developing key skills in our young people. SEL is defined specifically by CASEL as “the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage e...Read More
Hi Miss Tiaaaana
Recently, I posted a picture of myself on Instagram, and to my surprise, I received likes from folks I have not seen in quite a while. One of them, a young lady who attended the middle and high school after-school program I managed five years ago, commented on the picture by saying, “Hi Miss Tiaaaana.” She shared photos of her daughter with me, and in one of our messages, told me that some other girls who attended 20 West wanted to reunite to catch up. Hearing that my old students wa...Read More
BOOST Vibes – Messages of Hope, Love & Inspiration
In recognition of the week we would have been together, we’ve asked the BOOST Leadership Team, BOOST Ambassadors, and Breakfast Club Bloggers to share messages of hope & inspiration with the field, to connect our community until we can gather together again. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ For many of us in the movement, the end of the day comes around 6PM, some a bit later, especially the family that cons...Read More
BOOST Conference Dreamin’
We’re continuing our week-long celebration of the time we would have been together in Palm Springs for the 2020 BOOST Conference. Today, we hope you’ll enjoy these highlights and reflections from BOOST Conferences past. This post originally appeared on the Breakfast Club Blog on December 18, 2015. It’s about this time of year when the cold starts setting in, holiday lights start going up and everyone is busy making their plans for the big holiday that I find myself drifting off...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
Breakthrough Episode Two Recap: More Than Human
Breakthrough is produced by Hollywood power players Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and their Imagine Entertainment company. Each week a different actor or director will delve into real world, human stories that connect the ways that science impacts our lives. The directors include actors like Angela Bassett and Paul Giamatti, Producer/Directors like Ron Howard, Bret Ratner (X-Man) and Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind; I, Robot) and Peter Beg (Friday Night Lights). BOOST Collaborative will be publis...Read More
Breakthrough: Q&A with Executive Producer Kurt Sayenga
Breakthrough is produced by Hollywood power players Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and their Imagine Entertainment company. Each week a different actor or director will delve into real world, human stories that connect the ways that science impacts our lives. The directors include actors like Angela Bassett and Paul Giamatti, Producer/Directors like Ron Howard, Bret Ratner (X-Man) and Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind; I, Robot) and Peter Beg (Friday Night Lights). BOOST Collaborative will be publ...Read More