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 Power Of Children
Last month, I asked Marlowe (my 11-year old) to write another post for me. She’s written here before, on everything from the importance of being yourself to summer planning. This time, I told her that Women’s History Month was coming up so I wanted to showcase a young woman’s voice. And I casually added, “maybe talk something about how powerful young people are, and how they are underestimated.” This was “before.” This was back when the coronavirus was t...Read More
Youth Participatory Evaluation: An Opportunity to Promote Youth Development and Program Improvement (Webinar #1)
In 2019, Indiana Philanthropy Alliance (IPA) hosted a free, two-part webinar series designed to support next-gen leadership and giving. The first webinar, “Youth Participatory Evaluation: An Opportunity to Promote Youth Development and Program Improvement,” explored concepts of Youth Participatory Evaluation (YPE) with Dr. Lori Palen of RTI International’s Center on Social Determinants, Risk Behaviors, and Prevention Science. Sharing Indiana examples of youth evaluative processes that included y...Read More
Raising Kind Kids through Social-Emotional Learning (Webinar #4)
In 2018, Indiana Philanthropy Alliance (IPA) and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy partnered to host a free 4-part webinar series designed to support next-gen leadership and giving. The fourth webinar, “Raising Kind Kids through Social-Emotional Learning,” explores research that points to a decline in empathy, as well as how we can work to foster empathy and kindness in youth. Background In 2014, IPA became involved in social-emotional learning by developing a curriculu...Read More
Back to School? It’s Time To Let The Kids Do The Talking!
There is power in letting the kids do the thinking and the talking and you can make this happen as you are thinking about starting a new year with your kiddos. A successful day for an after-school leader is when s/he goes home rested and the kids are exhausted from all of the thinking and collaborating! I’d like to share some tips for facilitating more and talking less. In short, working on being a “guide on the side” so that the children do the majority of the thinking and talking. There are pl...Read More
Webinar 3: Igniting Leadership in Young People
Editor’s Note: A special thank you to author @jillgordon for sharing the third of four of Youth Philanthropy Initiative of Indiana’s webinar series. Today’s post focuses on youth leadership practices that can be implemented in your program too! Click on the webinar link below “Igniting Leadership in Youth” for the full program. And keep your eyes open in April for the next special webinar from Youth Philanthropy Initiative of Indiana. The Youth Philanthropy Initiative of Indiana (...Read More
Webinar 2: How to Inspire Youth Giving
Editor’s Note: A special thank you to author @jillgordon for sharing the second of four of Youth Philanthropy’s webinar series. Today’s post focuses on youth philanthropy models that can be implemented in your program too! Click on the webinar link below “How to Inspire Youth Giving” for the full program. And, keep your eyes open in March for the next special webinar from Youth Philanthropy Initiative of Indiana. The Youth Philanthropy Initiative of Indiana (YPII) created a 4...Read More
Know a teen who’s social media savvy? Seeking High School Brand Ambassadors: College Board (SAT) Instagram Campaign + More!
Motivate Youth has launched an amazing campaign to promote college test prep, and has an exciting opportunity for high school students! Motivate is assembling a team of amazing teens to be High School Brand Ambassadors to mobilize an Instagram campaign promoting SAT test prep and a $10,000 sweepstakes giveaway. If you know a teen who is active on social media and loves creating and sharing Instagram content, Motivate Youth wants to hear from them! Share this application link with any high school...Read More
Why Schools Should Inspire Students to Do What They Do Best
This is the fourth article in a four-part series. Read the first, second and third articles. Many talented teachers and coaches have a knack for spotting and fostering innate talent in others. They are driven to maximize the potential of every student and athlete who they serve. My daughter Miriam graduated from high school this year, and she was blessed to have such a coach. Four years ago, Miriam was a gymnast who competed successfully at her first regional gymnastics meet. A few weeks later, ...Read More
Working Together: Heroes Through Collaboration
Quick, name any movie you can think of about education. Here are a few that immediately come to my mind: To Sir With Love…Stand and Deliver…Dangerous Minds…Dead Poets Society...Freedom Writers. As you made your list did you notice that they all tell a similar story – the story of a dedicated educator who essentially works alone, often against great odds, to reach out and inspire students? The individual hero-teacher appears not just in movies, but also on television shows, in t...Read More
“Teacher, I’m A 6!” – Thoughts on Children & The Enneagram
Use of The Enneagram – a personality profiling system – has risen in popularity in the past few years. Some scholars trace its use to ancient cultures and religions, but its use in post-modern self-awareness growth can be more attributed to psychological, sociological, and mystical studies beginning in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Serious Enneagram practitioners and scholars would caution people about using it as a parlour trick to amuse ourselves. It was, after all, designed to help us un...Read More
The Red Ribbon
We are going to start with a little game. I am going to quiz you to see how well you know social issue awareness colors. I will provide you with a single color and I would like you to identify all of the social issues that color represents. Here we go: Red. How many social issues were you able to identify? At this point you are probably asking yourself, “Why is he asking such a question?” or “How does this possibly relate to me and what I do?” The answer is: substance abu...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