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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Connection: The Intangible Quality of OST
The first entry in Webster’s Dictionary under the word “Intangible” is “not tangible”. That isn’t really very helpful, is it? The definition under the second entry is in two parts. The first part is “an asset (such as goodwill) that is not corporeal.” (You’re going to have to look up “corporeal” on your own, I’m not going to do all the work for you!) The second part of the second entry is where we’ll focus. Here is our working definition of the word intangible: “an abstract quality or attribute....Read More
Enhancing SEO in the After School Space
The purpose of student engagement and outreach (SEO) is to provide holistic student-centered programs and services that enhance student life. Creating lasting memories through community engagement, connection building, and creative exploration is what after school is all about! Strong attendance with engaged students are signs of a successful after school program. It means that your program is inclusive, interesting, and valuable for children and parents alike. On the other hand, a lack of solid...Read More
What Is So Special About After School?
After 20+ years of working in after school, I have learned that there are many things that make after school special. Some might be apparent, but others might be less obvious. One go-to resource for me is information from the Afterschool Alliance, This is Afterschool, which reminds us of all of the benefits of after school. They sum it up in a few words. “Decades of research prove afterschool helps kids attend school more often, get better grades, and build foundational skills, like communicatio...Read More
Staff Meetings: Lackluster To Brilliant
When was the last time you left a staff meeting thinking, “Wow, that was a great staff meeting!” Are those crickets I hear? Believe it or not, just the other day I left the office thinking just that. How you ask? This is how… Staff participated. Staff dictated the pace of the meeting. Staff cared. Here are the things that make our staff meetings successful. Strategic & planned ahead: The staff meeting was planned with a goal that the team could accomplish – something small and at...Read More
3 Family Engagement Resources to Try this Month
Community gatherings, potlucks, and school parties are great opportunities to re-engage the caregivers, older siblings, and families that your program supports year-round. These events, in addition to being fun and light-hearted, can build protective and supportive factors for families and children experiencing adversity. The benefit of out-of-school time goes beyond the social-emotional to the physical needs of families. According to the Afterschool Alliance, more than 4 in 5 parents in communi...Read More
We All Count: Out-of-School Time and the 2020 Census
Starting in spring 2020, the US Census will count every person living in our country. Every. Single. Person. How cool is that?! The information collected from the Census is used to decide how many seats each state gets in the US House of Representatives, and how to share $675 billion in federal funds each year. So, getting an accurate count of every person in our country is incredibly important. States that are not fully represented in the Census count will, literally, be shortchanged for the ne...Read More
Why Wellness is Important
I am lucky enough to work for an organization that values health and wellness. They know that the most important form of healthcare is preventative, so every quarter we can make up to $85 through an app called Virgin Pulse. It’s an awesome tool, but not everyone has access to this app, and even in my office, contractors do not qualify for the program at all. As the Wellness Champion for my department, I make sure that the activities I promote can be used by all! While not every workplace, or eve...Read More
New Year…New What?
This blog was originally posted in 2014, we think it is timeless. Happy New Year from BOOST Collaborative. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ It is one day before the end of the year and most people are trying to figure out how to improve themselves for next year. We are working on resolutions that are usually long forgotten by the second week of the New Year. Yet, we still do it! Before we all go mad trying to convince oursel...Read More
Encourage Staff Well-Being: 3 Things to Try This Week
I recently spoke at the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) Conference alongside partners from the National Summer Learning Association, Afterschool Alliance, and Grow Appalachia. A common theme of our 3 workshops was the interconnectedness of physical health and social-emotional health to promote overall well-being. While at the NRPA Conference, we released an exciting new brief, Afterschool: Fostering Protective Factors that Can Last a Lifetime. The resource emphasizes the importan...Read More
What’s Driving Your Work?
I recently had the honor of participating in an executive transition for the California School-Age Consortium (CalSAC). It was my first executive transition, so admittedly I don’t have anything to compare it to, however, I was inspired by how we, both board and staff, continued to keep values at the center of the process. Every step of the way we asked ourselves, does this align with the values of the organization? In the end, that resulted in an authentic interview process and a new executive d...Read More
Three Simple Solutions to Get Kids to Quiet Down
The new school year is about to begin. Kids are excited and staff is reenergized to start the year off on the right foot. Unfortunately, trying to calm kids down and organize them in a physically active environment proves to be extremely frustrating. What staff tends to do is start yelling louder and then find they are losing their voice AND losing their battle of getting everyone to quiet down. The solution is to have some simple and fun techniques that will immediately get their attention and ...Read More