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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Self-Care Summer: Ideas from 15 Friends in 6 States
If you are diving into this article, your summer program or camp is probably in full swing. Let’s be honest though, along with the fun and flexibility of summer comes stressful situations and strong emotions. Taking time for yourself – a “Me Moment” – is an important strategy to appreciate periods of calm and regulate challenging feelings when they arise. This is even more critical if you are an educator or caregiver supporting others on a regular basis. To bring this idea to life, I...Read More
Find Your Happy Place
I write about energy – whether that is the electricity we use in our homes or the energy we exert when we are physically active. As the Residential Energy Program Manager for a County agency and a part time Aerobics and Laughter instructor, it is all I think about. So much so that if you look closely, you may seem steam coming out of my ears. That is because I am always doing something. In fact, I have a problem saying no. I like to be helpful, I like to feel like part of a team, and I lik...Read More
Self-Care Ideas: Give 1/Get 8 Reboot!
Keeping children at the center of our work means taking care of ourselves. Last year I wrote an article for the BOOST Breakfast Club Blog called Self-Care Ideas: Give 1/Get 8. The idea was to crowdsource ideas from a few educator friends to learn more about the daily self-care practices that help them stay resilient. For this post, I’m excited to share a reboot of that article featuring 7 more friends and their answers to the questions in CASEL’s Give 1/Get 8 worksheet. I hope their ideas inspir...Read More
Using Mindfulness to Transform Self and Students
My love affair with mindfulness began innocently enough. I was working as a primary care provider in an internal medicine office at the time. I was a newly graduated PA and quickly became surprised by how many patients would come in to the office over and over again for the same problems. So many people were continuing to suffer despite getting all the best medical care that western medicine had to offer. What was missing? I was determined to find out. At the time, I had not even done yoga, much...Read More
An Invitation to Unplug: 4 Nature-Based Activities
This month, Healthier Generation is celebrating Park and Recreation Month and the essential role greenspace plays in making our lives better. For example, did you know that trees can reduce anxiety and taking a walk outside can provide grounding and self-awareness when conflict arises? Today, I want to invite you to unplug and take a mindfulness break with me. We’re going to use Healthier Generation’s new Nature-Based BINGO Card. It’s a resource you can share with families, but for today, I want...Read More
Taking Time over the Holidays to Reset
This blog was originally posted in 2018, the content is so relevant we wanted to repost. Self-care over the holidays is a magical way to enter the New Year! _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Many of us have the opportunity to take some time away from work over the end of the year holiday season. While this time usually results in time away from work, it is often over-scheduled and jammed with holiday parties, family g...Read More
When The Earthquake Hits…Navigating Personal Trauma
As professionals in the field of education and youth development, we are often faced monthly, weekly, and even daily, with helping support and manage other people’s trauma. We hear the horrible stories, watch in live-action the day to day responses and behaviors of kids who have been traumatized, and often spend our days and nights urging others to seek out guidance and help for managing these almost unimaginable experiences. But, what happens when the tables turn and that trauma is our own? Thr...Read More
Self-Care Ideas: Give 1/Get 8
Youth development is hard work and often emotionally draining; taking even a few minutes for self-care can be beneficial for our mental and physical health. I know what you’re thinking, self-care is all about juicing, advanced yoga poses, beach vacations, and lavender-scented spa days. Although these absolutely fall into the category of self-care, there are plenty of simple ways to practice self-care without breaking the bank. For this article, I want us to reimagine self-care by bringing one of...Read More
A New [School] Year’s Resolution
Editors Note: Please welcome brand new BREAKFAST CLUB BLOGGER Amy Btiebet, from Open Doors Academy, in Cleveland, Ohio. We are thrilled she has joined the extraordinary BOOST BLOGGING team! — Hi friends! My name is Amy, and this is my first BOOST blog. I debated writing about a wide range of topics that I felt somewhat confident in after 10 years in youth development—how to run engaging summer programming, transitioning from managing youth to managing staff, growing pains in a rapidly d...Read More
Where Oh Where Is The “Honeymoon Period”? 4 Grounding Tips to Start Off The School Year
Fall is here, and another school year is upon us. This is my fourth year at my particular before and after school site, and I like to think in general I have a good idea of what’s going on. I’ve ironed out our daily routine, I know our kids well enough to have supports built in to overcome our most common challenges, and I’ve given the “welcome back to school” speech so many times that some of my older kiddos could probably quote it back to me. But, each year, regardless of my preparedness, I al...Read More
Rest and Restoration: Will You Take a Break This Week?
Editor’s Note: This blog was first posted on The Leadership Program‘s website on July 2, 2018. We have received permission from BOOST Blogger Erika Petrelli (@erikap) to repost. — Happy Fourth-of-July Week! The quintessential marker of “summer” for many of us. Since it’s on Wednesday this week, I’ve heard so many people talk about how it makes the whole week feel like a vacation, even if you just have the one day off. I’m kicking off the holiday by going to see Def Leppard and...Read More
9 Necessary Tips For Managing Stress In An Uncertain World
Seventeen years ago, at the age of 22 years, I walked out of a store in Philadelphia with a small black rectangular electronic device with a built-in antenna and 12 numerical buttons that gave me immediate access to the world at my fingertips. I remember calling my parents in Cleveland as I walked down Walnut street, proudly announcing my first step into the world of accessibility thanks to technology. I remember the sheer excitement I felt, holding a piece of the world in my hand, the incredibl...Read More
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