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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The Elephant in the Room
If you’re reading this; that means you are involved with or care about the world of expanded learning time. I’m going to start this blog with a generalization. Ordinarily that’s not the best idea, but I’m pretty sure I’m right. Your mission is not to give extra help to the kids who are doing fine. You’re not involved with expanded learning because you want to provide more access and opportunity to those young people who are already clearly on track for success...Read More
My Why: Kickball
This is probably the most important question that I continue to ask myself…it’s a question that has to be asked with a series of “Why’s.” Each one peeling back a layer of a deeper meaning. It’s a question that I toiled with for months. It wasn’t until a few days ago, when I sat discussing character development and social and emotional learning, that a colleague of mine, Mary Jo Ginty, made a poignant statement. She said, “Kickball isn’t just ...Read More
My Why: Pleasurable and Meaningful Work
There are those in my family who still don’t “get” what I do and wonder, sometimes audibly, if I will ever get a real job. They ask, “Why form a non-profit organization. Do you want to be poor all your life?” I am someone who didn’t plan to work in this profession. When I was in college, studying biology and chemistry, I knew working with kids would someday make me a better Dad, so I took a part-time work-study job in an afterschool program. Then I got hooked ...Read More
F.O.C.U.S.: The Facilitative Feedback Flywheel
Treat your staff like children. Do you disagree with this statement? Is this notion shocking to you? We give children quality supervision and boundaries. We empower them to make decisions, and hold them accountable for their choices. We help them develop their skills. We give them feedback on their performance. We do the same with our staff. It comes from a place of love. Leadership is not about love – it is love. We love our staff like we love our children. We genuinely care about them. We want...Read More
Join Our Global Learning Chat on Twitter with #BOOSTChat
How Do I Participate? 1. Follow @TEAMBOOST and the hashtag #BOOSTChat on Twitter on Wednesday, January 21st at 6PM PST/9PM EST. 2. Questions will be ordered Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5. To answer Q1, begin your tweet with A1. For Q2, A2 and so on. 3. Include #BOOSTChat to all of your tweets during the Twitter Chat, so others can see what you’re tweeting. 4. Bring questions and/or provide insight! About the Panelist: Asia Society is a non-profit, non-partisan organization headquartered in New York C...Read More
Polo Shirts & School Master Keys Were the Beginning as a Site Coordinator
It was a typical day in my elementary after school program. I was the newly appointed Site Coordinator after 5 years of being a line staff program leader working with 20 youth at the same school. I remember how excited I was to be promoted to the Site Coordinator position. I felt like for the first time someone had recognized my talent in working with youth. I remember how I felt when I received my staff collared polo shirt; line staff wore regular t-shirts. Somehow the collar told everyone arou...Read More
Celebrating Learning Opportunities in the Out-of-School Time Field
I woke up today, and while I was eating my English muffin, having coffee, and waiting for my own kids to finish getting ready for pre-school, I saw a Facebook post by an old friend from high school who is now a sixth-grade teacher. The post displayed a note on a white board, written by a student, and it read, “Mr. G is the best teacher ever!” In a time when there is so much discussion about holding teachers accountable and using test scores to distinguish “good” from R...Read More