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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Mic Drop! Celebrating Creative Youth Development
One of my favorite parts of youth development and out-of-school time programs is when we provide spaces for students to CREATE. If anything, this past year and a half has unearthed the importance of providing healing spaces and room for self-expression. As youth development professionals, we can’t turn away from the fact that our students (and us!) have individually and collectively faced grief, turmoil, anger, confusion, depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Take that in for a minute. It’s heavy...Read More
We’ve All Got a Spark. Let’s Light a Fire!
We have the power to light a fire in every child with whom we work. It only takes one person to change a child’s life. Think back on your educational influences and you will likely find someone who lit a fire in you that still burns today. Across the country I’ve asked leaders, “What childhood science experiences do you remember?” People share about baking soda volcanoes, science fairs, field trips, and dissections that lit a spark in them. I never hear about textbooks. D...Read More
Celebrate the Next Landing on Mars!
You’re invited to join the celebration of the landing of Mars Perseverance Rover on February 18, 2021. Participate in the “Mars Student Challenge” with hands-on STEM enrichment activities for the weeks leading up to the landing that can be done by students at home using everyday materials (such as Make a Cardboard Rover), activities that can be done as virtual demonstrations (such as Make a Moon Crater – Perseverance will be landing in Jezero Crater), and fun short videos that explain key ...Read More
Identity Development for Youth – OST Has a Role to Play
My work at pilotED Schools includes designing an identity development curriculum that includes representative history and civic engagement woven together with transformative social and emotional learning practices. A key feature of the adolescence development journey is determining who one is and deciding who one will be through identity exploration and development. Let’s chat about identity development today! One framework that I turn to often in my work is the Foundations for Young Adult Succe...Read More
Remember to THINK
This post originally appeared on the Breakfast Club Blog on November 22, 2013. This year, I had an opportunity to help my sister set up her sixth grade classroom. Outside the door, she had the following poster: T: Is it True? H: Is it Helpful? I: Is it Inspiring? N: Is it Necessary? K: Is it Kind? Although educators, whether they work during in or out-of-school time hours, have many of these mantras in their classrooms, this one struck me as special. It not only encourages students to THINK, but...Read More
When OST Comes Home: What Happens, What Counts, and What Matters?
Both the evidence from the science of learning and common sense tell us that learning and development occur all the time. But typically, opportunities for learning and development are shared and spread over various spaces, places, and delivery modes in schools, community organizations, and families. But ten days ago, most of those places were abruptly shut down – schools were closed, OST programs shuttered, and parks were ordered emptied. Yet learning and development didn’t stop. Millions of fam...Read More
Connection: The Intangible Quality of OST
The first entry in Webster’s Dictionary under the word “Intangible” is “not tangible”. That isn’t really very helpful, is it? The definition under the second entry is in two parts. The first part is “an asset (such as goodwill) that is not corporeal.” (You’re going to have to look up “corporeal” on your own, I’m not going to do all the work for you!) The second part of the second entry is where we’ll focus. Here is our working definition of the word intangible: “an abstract quality or attribute....Read More
We All Count: Out-of-School Time and the 2020 Census
Starting in spring 2020, the US Census will count every person living in our country. Every. Single. Person. How cool is that?! The information collected from the Census is used to decide how many seats each state gets in the US House of Representatives, and how to share $675 billion in federal funds each year. So, getting an accurate count of every person in our country is incredibly important. States that are not fully represented in the Census count will, literally, be shortchanged for the ne...Read More
Reliving The Past (In A Good Way)!
If you’ve ever listened to the Hamilton musical soundtrack, or you had the unique opportunity of seeing the production for yourself, one of their best songs is Yorktown. It describes the battle of Yorktown in 1781; the battle that had the British wave the white flag in surrender! A line in the song reads, “And so the American experiment begins, with my friends all scattered to the winds…” In the Summer of 2016, I was playing that song multiple times a day. Why? As a member of the After-Sch...Read More
New Adventures In Youth Gardening
If you’ve ever watched a child taste and enjoy a vegetable that she grew herself — the same vegetable that she won’t eat at home that’s from the grocery store — you know some of the power of youth gardening. Children and teens benefit from gardening in many ways, from eating more fruits and vegetables and increased nutrition knowledge to improved leadership and collaboration skills. Out-of-school time gardening programs can be connected to school gardens or take place in community ga...Read More