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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A Challenge to Educators
2015! Wow! When I was a kid, in the 70’s and 80’s, we used to fantasize about what it would be like in the 2000’s. There were going to be flying cars and moon shuttles for public use, machines on which you could dial up any type of food and it would instantly appear. Even sports would be different, played in mid-air with jet packs and in stadiums filled with interactive technology. All of these notions seemed so possible then, dreamed up by city kids who watched too many episod...Read More
Part 2 – How One After-School Program Prepares Students for the World
Asia Society and BOOST Collaborative are partnering to create a series of blogs on global learning in out-of-school time. Community organizations incorporate global learning into their afterschool programs in a number of ways. Here, Asia Society’s Heather Loewecke interviews Katie Aylwin and Amanda Wells from WHEDco, an organization committed to building a sustainable Bronx, to learn how they have included global components across their afterschool program from the mission to activities to...Read More
Where’s the Water? Hitch a Ride and Find Out!
In the middle of a severe drought here in California, water is very much on our minds. Kids probably know not to waste water, and maybe you have activities at your site to urge kids and their families to conserve. With 80% of California’s water used for agriculture, and more than half the U.S. fruit, nuts, and vegetables grown here, a drought in California is a nationwide concern. Where does water come from anyway? Kids are taught the water cycle in elementary school – the cycle of rain an...Read More
On Celebrating
Many of us are great at celebrating birthdays and special occasions—retirements and babies and promotions and graduations. We offer cards and cakes and candles and sentiments of love and appreciation. We bring flowers and balloons. We sing. We laugh. But how often do we offer a genuine celebration for the not-so-momentous occasions? The quiet moments that mark the passing of time? Celebrations don’t always have to be splashy and include cake (although a random cake on a Tuesday is never a ...Read More
Music and Arts Programs are NOT Frills
Music is a language that kindles the human spirit, sharpens the mind, fuels the body, and fills the heart. – Erik Jensen The arts are far closer to the core of education than are the more exalted subjects. – Abraham Maslow In this era of standards and accountability, arts are increasingly viewed as a frill and removed from school curriculum. Brain research suggests that arts can lay a foundation for academic and career success. Science, mathematics, and language require complex cognitive a...Read More
Revising Beyond the Bell – A Few Takeaways
I began my career as a consultant and trainer for afterschool and expanded learning programs at PlusTime New Hampshire. While I was there, I had one resource I would turn to time and time again to support the programs I was working with: the Beyond the Bell Toolkit. As a consultant dealing with a variety of program needs and questions, the Toolkit was a great resource for me because there were so many tools available on topics ranging from management to evaluation to program design and delivery....Read More
Safe Schools: Utilizing Youth Leadership Programs to Develop a Safe School Climate
In developing school based approaches to create safe schools and positive school climates the single most important factor that youth leadership programs neglect to focus in on is the importance of developing a sense of belonging to a group identity for young people. We know that “After transition to middle school, peers become primary sources of support and motivation to achieve while the quality of teacher-student relationships tends to decline with time” (Wentzel, 1996). As we set...Read More
Making Connections- Youth Development and Academic Achievement
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
Somewhere along the way we forgot that we are Superheroes…
I remember that it was during middle school that I began collecting Iron Man comic books. I don’t know if it was Tony Stark’s playboy swagger or his awesome suit that rocked me. Almost everyone has childhood memories of their superheroes and one’s immediate desire to “validate” why his/her superhero was the best. Personally, I’ve always been intrigued in how we create and identify with superheroes… especially during adolescence. It was not until recently...Read More