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!

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On-Site Staff / Opinion / Partnerships and Building Relationships / Program Design, Development, and Quality / Staff Leadership and Management

Who Do We Need To Become For Our Children’s Sake?

Sonia M. Toledo No Comments

How often do we take the time to focus on ourselves? Focus on our dreams, visions, and desires… Unless we are intentional about creating the life we want, we will not take the time to develop our emotional intelligence to match our personal passions in life. Not minding your own emotional intelligence can create havoc and upset with the people closest to you, especially with your children. Our role in the youth development world is to develop our children’s social and emotional capac...Read More

On-Site Staff / Program Design, Development, and Quality / Staff Leadership and Management

Are We Modeling Social Emotional Skills?

Daren Howard No Comments

Social-emotional learning requires the same kind of intentionality as academic learning and as adults, we have to model the social-emotional skills we hope to build in our students. Here is a painfully ironic example: Joshua Trump is an 11-year-old who was one of President Trump and first lady Melania Trump’s guests at the State of the Union. He is not related to the President but has been bullied over the last few years because of his name. “He said he hates himself, and he hates his last name,...Read More

On-Site Staff / Program Design, Development, and Quality

Character Building with Esports Programs

Matthew Farber, Ed.D. No Comments

In 2017, more people watched the League of Legends Championship than Game 7 of the World Series and the final game of the NBA Finals that year. This statistic was shared by ESPN, who—for the first time this past September—featured esports player, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins on the cover of its ESPN The Magazine. But what exactly is esports? Is it just kids just shooting at each other in online video games? Well, it can be. But esports can also be strategy card games, like Hearthstone, which is set in ...Read More

physical fitness activities, push-ups physical fitness activities, push-ups
On-Site Staff / Program Design, Development, and Quality

The Science and Art of Helping Kids Love Physical Activity

Brett Klika No Comments

Creating a physical activity program for grade schoolers that engages all children involved is both a science and an art.  The science of child development, motivational psychology, and human behavior help us create an enriching program. The art of creating a fun, play-like, inclusive environment gets all kids excited to participate. Using imaginative, play-based activities to introduce critical developmental skills is a perfect culmination of the art and science behind getting kids to enjoy bec...Read More

youth development youth development
Program Design, Development, and Quality

Making Connections- Youth Development and Academic Achievement

Dr. Gale K. Gorke No Comments

For many afterschool programs having an academic piece that really does make a difference in the lives of their students seems an elusive goal. With more and more stress being placed on afterschool programs demonstrating how their activities improve the academic achievement of their students, it has become increasingly important to understand what fosters this kind of success. One way to evaluate whether academic activities will produce the desired results is to look at them through the lenses o...Read More