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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Teaching the Holidays: The December Dilemma
It’s December, which means the holidays are upon us—but how do educators best address them in the classroom? December is a joyful time for many Americans—and not just those who celebrate Christmas as a sacred holiday or cultural event. Jews celebrate Hanukkah, Buddhists celebrate Bodhi Day, many African Americans celebrate Kwanzaa, and cultures across the world celebrate the Winter Solstice. For educators, however, the convergence of so many holidays can create the December dilemma: how to...Read More
Boldly Digging into Diversity
In a large urban district like Metro Nashville Public Schools, my biracial children felt rather comfortable. There were other brown faces in their classrooms. For the most part, they didn’t stand out as “different.” Of course, they did encounter the occasional question about ethnicity from a peer. One of my sons even had a white teacher treat him unfairly because of the color of his skin. But, for the most part, my kids felt like they belonged in their diverse schools. When my kids transferred t...Read More
Make Your Surveys and Enrollment Forms More Inclusive
Equity and inclusion are on everyone’s minds these days. Out-of-school time professionals across the nation are taking a good look at their practices with an eye toward assuring that all young people and their families feel welcome. Don’t forget to review your program’s enrollment forms and surveys as part of this process – it’s a common, yet overlooked, spot for unconscious bias to have a field day. Small changes to the words you use in these materials can make a difference in the experiences y...Read More
A Relevant Repost! Tilling the Soil: Staff Turnover
Corn as high as an elephant’s eye? Why stop there? How is farming equivalent to staff turnover? The seeds are bought. The seller promised a yield surpassing anything ever seen before. Acre upon acre of corn growing much, much higher than an elephant’s eye. The new tractor had been purchased. Much better than the old tractor. And just for show, you bought new work gloves and some new boots. The rains had been good, the weather fair for growing. The table was set for record yields and...Read More
It’s Time to Reframe the Narrative around Black Youth — and Youth Work Has Some Tools to Do So
This post originally appeared on the Breakfast Club Blog on June 9, 2017. His name is Jordan Edwards. And Jayson Negron. And Darius Smith. He was fifteen years old. He was unarmed at the time of his untimely demise at the hands of law enforcement. He was a young man of color caught on the wrong side of the thin line between potential and death. He should be participating in a summer jobs program, playing hoops at the Y, or compiling an initial list of colleges. He – Jordan, Jayson, and Darius – ...Read More
Creating Community Post Election
These last few days have not been normal. I have spent my morning breaking up political fights. Not in Washington, not in my community or at a protest, but in my K-5 before and after school program. And that breaks my heart. The day after the election, my kids were either devastated or elated as they walked through my door, with only a few falling somewhere in between. On one side, this in itself makes me proud. Proud that we are encouraging our kids, no matter the age, to be a part of the polit...Read More
Teacher to Student Bullying and a Call for Critical Teacher Education
The outrage over the viral video of Success Academy’s first grade teacher, Charlotte Dial, intimidating and berating her students during a math lesson, unleashed a wave criticism from countless parents, advocates, and educators. The video, recorded in November 2015 by an assistant teacher, shows Dial exhibiting noticeable hostility toward a particular student who fails to explain a math problem to her standard. She proceeds to rip up the girl’s paper and with a raised voice, orders h...Read More