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!
Interested in becoming a blogger? Email [email protected]
Click here to Register for a free account or click here to Login to your existing account.
Bringing at-home STEM success into focus
STEM has left the building For a long time, advocates of STEM education have worked to bring STEM learning closer to students’ lives outside of school. This year, though, COVID has made STEM learning a part of students’ lives outside of school in ways nobody ever imagined or wanted. The pandemic has forcibly ejected STEM from the traditional in-building school environment and strewn it about in a great blurry mess spread out variably and amorphously among the home, Zoom sessions, mask-, distance...Read More
How to cheat at Zoom!
With the transition to online learning, meetings, and trainings, platforms like Zoom have been getting a lot of attention. The definition of Zooming has been expanded beyond just moving quickly, to also mean that state of participation in web-based video calls. Zoom Bombing and Zoom Fatigue have become things we are aware of – things that were not on our radar at all just 4 months ago. So how do you Zoom all day? Really, this was a big question that came up in our household. My daughter wa...Read More
2,500+ Free Online Resources for Learning
We’re in an unprecedented moment. The ways we teach, and how students learn, are shifting in ways they never have before. It’s hard to stay connected, focused, and on-plan with so much change happening daily. But, fortunately, we also have tools, technology, and community keeping us all together. TEAMBOOST has collected a wealth of free, online resources that teachers, afterschool program staff, youth workers, and families can access to keep the kids in your life learning and growing...Read More
Youth Development Showdown: Nature vs. Technology
Take a moment to reflect on the last time you went on a hike, a camping trip, or any other type of outdoor experience. What was your mindset? How would you compare your attitude and outlook to your typical 9-to-5 self? I would bet there’s a stark difference. I experience this consistently with my two girls. The last time around was a Spring Break trip to Mammoth Lakes, a mountain town nestled in the Eastern Sierras. As much as my family loves the outdoors, my kids are not immune to their own 9-t...Read More
How to Start the Afterschool Engineering Club You’ve Always Wanted
For all the popularity of STEM activities outside of school time, engineering remains something of a neglected stepchild. “Full STEM Ahead,” an America After 3 PM survey, found that the favored siblings in the STEM family, science and math, feature in a preponderance of available programs, 60 and 45 percent, respectively. Technology and engineering share the table scraps, named in less than a third of program offerings. And with the greater share of these programs focused on computing and progra...Read More
Books to Help Build Elementary Students’ Understanding of Engineering
Thoughts Turn In Springtime … For the last several weeks, the view from my office on the third floor has been of treetops filling out with leaves. Looking down to the ground, I can see flowers coming into bloom, bushes becoming green, and animals of all kinds scurrying, hopping, or flying about, urgently concerned with their appointed, springtime tasks. It’s a delight and a wonder to see the natural world coming to life in such vivid fashion. … To Tech? But here’s what I have been touching and u...Read More
BOOST Master Class: Program Transformation: Rethinking Scannables
I’ve very excited to host a Master Class on Scannable Technology at the BOOST Conference this April. My new book Deeper Learning with QR Codes and Augmented Reality: A Scannable Solution for Your Classroom includes lots of ways teachers can use #ScannableTech with students. Many of the ideas and activities I share are perfect for educators working outside of the classroom or in nontraditional learning spaces. Here are three ways to use #ScannableTech in after school programs. Let Kids Desi...Read More
Vive La Digital Revolution
One thing I have learned throughout my life is that we remember our defining moments. Well, two things happened in 1984 that changed my life forever (I know….I’m getting up there!). Anyway, the first was my family taking a trip to see Walt Disney World’s E.P.C.O.T. and the other was our first computer purchase, the Apple IIc. No longer were the visions of Star Wars, Buck Rogers, and Battlestar Galactica mere fantasy. They were architectural maps for the future of mankind. These...Read More