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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Design Thinking Develops Global Citizens
How might we encourage our students to become global leaders? How might we create agency, or a mindset of action, in 21st century kids? Our students are passive. They are used to “sitting and getting” information. Even as we talk about preparing students for the 21st century, the pressures of college acceptance and testing make it difficult to change students’ (and parents’) mindsets. How might we create a bias towards action in our students so that they understand their ...Read More
The Challenge of the Selfie and the Great Social Experiment
As I write this blog entry, I am driving back on a large charter bus with 50 high school students, after spending the last 3 days exploring the many adventures that the great city of Chicago has to offer. A high-energy experience filled with museums, college tours, tilting over the John Hancock Observatory, deep dish pizza, and even an evening swim. Throughout the last three days of this fun-filled journey, one of the great “reminders” that was stated every time we stepped off the bu...Read More
BOOST Master Class: Leading for Student Engagement
I will be teaching on Project-Based Learning (PBL) strategies, and more, at a Master Class offered during the upcoming BOOST Conference. I hope you’ll join me on Thursday, April 28, from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m., for an interactive session on “Leading for Student Engagement: How to Plan and Sustain Effective Project-Based Learning Initiatives.” What sorts of projects might students tackle during out-of-school time? I’ve seen students design low-cost prosthetic devices to improve...Read More
Learning With Documentary Films: Strategies to Engage Students
Asia Society and BOOST Collaborative are partnering to create a series of blogs on global learning in out-of-school time. This blog entry was orginally published on EdWeek’s Global Learning Blog. Documentaries and film can bring the world to students in very real ways. Cleary Vaughan-Lee, Education Director for Global Oneness Project, tells us how and shares resources and strategies. Why do we need stories? Stories are universal and create connections across time, place, and cultures. Now ...Read More
Helping Kids Step Into Their Leadership
I run a leadership program at a company aptly called The Leadership Program. My colleagues and I run training and coaching every year for more than 150 people, our team of Leadership Trainers, who go into more than 100 schools every year to work with youth and teachers. We continually proclaim that we are committed to creating experiences that inspire people to step into their leadership and make positive change in their lives and the lives of others. Yet, I am never sure we really do it. We rea...Read More
Teaching Students How to ask Deep, Personal Questions
This blog is an additional follow-up resource from J. Branson Skinner and Liz Ricketts’ blog, Experience Inspires Love, originally posted on the Breakfast Club. This blog is a part of our ongoing partnership with Asia Society. The #Collectofus Global Leaders program, part of The OR Network, connects students in Accra, Ghana; Vaalwater, South Africa; Detroit, Michigan; Brooklyn, New York; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Washington, D.C. They create and exchange scarves and videos and then interact th...Read More
Fun for the Zoo: Engineering Enrichment and Enhancement
Fun for the Zoo: Engineering Enrichment and Enhancement. In our Fun for the Zoo class, student “fungineers” are challenged to invent enrichment items that provide stimulation, challenge, and novelty to enhance the behavioral, physical, social, cognitive, and psychological well being of zoo animals. In the wild, animals must forage or hunt for food, and protect themselves against predators, but in the zoo, most of their needs are provided for by the keepers. So, enrichment must be pro...Read More
3 Lessons on Growth Through After School Programs
Being that this is my first blog as a BOOST Breakfast Club Blogger, I am excited to share my passion for afterschool programs. When I began in the year 2000, there were more questions than answers. It was the age of discovery and exploration. It was before the After School Education and Safety (ASES) programs existed and 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) programs were the only thing we knew. I was hired as a part-time Site Coordinator for an after school program and part-time Campus...Read More
Photography Can Transform Perspectives
Asia Society and BOOST Collaborative are partnering to create a series of blogs on global learning in out-of-school time. This month features MaryBeth Jackson, Founder and Director of The Viewfinder Project. This blog entry was orginally published on EdWeek’s Global Learning Blog. Children today have a lot of information to sift through and discern. The media bombards them with images and information, some positive and encouraging, some not. The more time children spend with media, the mo...Read More
Hip-Hop(e): Engaging Youth with Social & Emotional Learning
Some community leaders and I were in shock when teens in our after school hip-hop leadership program came in and told us that they felt like absolute failures at school. The disillusionment came about because these were the same youth who were presenting at regional conferences with Congress members, and opening up for international hip-hop acts. These young people, primarily young men of color, were telling us that they were treated like they were stupid at school, and constantly singled out an...Read More
The Value of the Field Trip
One of my many responsibilities, along with coordinating and maintaining an afterschool program, is to oversee the organization’s field trips. When I was first given this task, I looked at it as more of a side responsibility or least as not requiring as much intentionality as that of the day-to-day happenings of the program. It was not until after I experienced a few of these outings through the eyes of a young person that I truly saw the value of a field trip. Our organization does at lea...Read More
12 Tips to Integrate Academic Enrichment In Afterschool
I have been working with after school programs across the country since 1998. And there are some things that I have learned that make doing academic enrichment activities more successful with kids after school. To meet the goals of this, we need after school not more school and kids should be engaged and having fun. Here are some helpful tips: Meet with your school(s) to find out what areas to focus on, where kids need more time, and how you can work together to align with what they are focusing...Read More