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I went through all of the episodes of the podcast and reached out to

teachers on Twitter to share the best professional book they have read

recently.

Are you looking for the most impactful, the most inspiring, the most beneficial books

that will help you succeed in the classroom? Perhaps you need ways to improve the way

in which you motivate students. Perhaps you want to build a better classroom culture.

Need new ways to teach reading and writing across the curriculum? Or, you might be

curious about trends like Genius Hour and project-based learning.

Boy, do I have a list for you.

THE LIST -- The Top 15 Educational Books Recommended by Master

Teachers

   1. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success -- World-renowned

Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, in decades of research

on achievement and success, has discovered a truly groundbreaking

idea–the power of our mindset.

Dweck explains why it’s not just our abilities and talent that bring us

success–but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth

mindset. She makes clear why praising intelligence and ability doesn’t foster self-esteem

and lead to accomplishment, but may actually jeopardize success. With the right

mindset, we can motivate our kids and help them to raise their grades, as well as reach

our own goals–personal and professional. Dweck reveals what all great parents,

teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create

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a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every

area.

2. Teach Like a Pirate: Increase Student Engagement, Boost

Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator --

Based on Dave Burgess's popular "Outrageous Teaching" and

"Teach Like a PIRATE" seminars, this book offers inspiration,

practical techniques, and innovative ideas that will help you to

increase student engagement, boost your creativity, and

transform your life as an educator. You'll learn how to: • Tap into

and dramatically increase your passion as a teacher • Develop

outrageously engaging lessons that draw students in like a

magnet • Establish rapport and a sense of camaraderie in your classroom • Transform

your class into a life-changing experience for your students This groundbreaking

inspirational manifesto contains over 30 hooks specially designed to captivate your class

and 170 brainstorming questions that will skyrocket your creativity. Once you learn the

Teach Like a PIRATE system, you'll never look at your role as an educator the same

again.

3. Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading -- Kylene

Beers and Bob Probst introduce 6 "signposts" that alert

readers to significant moments in a work of literature and

encourage students to read closely. Learning first to spot

these signposts and then to question them, enables readers

to explore the text, any text, finding evidence to support

their interpretations. In short, these close reading strategies

will help your students to notice and note.

Notice and Note will help create attentive readers who look

closely at a text, interpret it responsibly, and reflect on what

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it means in their lives. It should help them become the responsive, rigorous,

independent readers we not only want students to be but know our democracy

demands.

4. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a

Teacher's Life -- This book builds on a simple premise: good

teaching cannot be reduced to technique but is rooted in the

identity and integrity of the teacher. Good teaching takes

myriad forms but good teachers share one trait: they are

authentically present in the classroom, in community with

their students and their subject. They possess "a capacity for

connectedness" and are able to weave a complex web of

connections between themselves, their subjects, and their

students, helping their students weave a world for themselves.

The connections made by good teachers are held not in their methods but in their hearts

— the place where intellect, emotion, spirit, and will converge in the human self —

supported by the community that emerges among us when we choose to live authentic

lives.

5. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us --

Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with

rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a

mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human:

The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this

provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the

secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at

school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our

own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by

ourselves and our world.

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Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the

mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects

every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy,

mastery, and purpose-and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into

action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.

6. The End of Molasses Classes: Getting Our Kids

Unstuck--101 Extraordinary Solutions for Parents and

Teachers -- Ron Clark is widely known as “America’s

Educator” and was Oprah Winfrey’s first pick as her

“Phenomenal Man.” He is a New York Times bestselling

author and has been featured on the Today show, CNN, and

The Oprah Winfrey Show. He challenges parents, teachers,

and communities everywhere embrace a difference in the

classroom and uplift, educate, and empower our children. Read this book to find out

why so many across the country have embraced these powerful rules.

· Set the electric tone on day one

· Teach your children how to study—don’t expect it to come naturally

· Don’t constantly stress about test scores

· Not every child deserves a cookie

· Lift up your teachers. No, really, lift them up!

· If kids like you all the time, you’re doing something wrong

7. This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and

Education

-- José Vilson writes about race, class, and education through

stories from the classroom and researched essays. His rise from

rookie math teacher to prominent teacher leader takes a twist

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when he takes on education reform through his now-blocked eponymous blog,

TheJoseVilson.com. He calls for the reclaiming of the education profession while

seeking social justice. This Is Not a Test is illustrated by stories from his own life and the

lives of his students. Vilson’s deconstructed anecdotes cut through the platitudes of

politicians and the endless alibis of central office admins, into the heart of America’s

unresolved contradictions: public education and democratic principles; equity and

privilege, race and class.

8. Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who

Will Change the World -- Harvard education expert Tony

Wagner explores what parents, teachers, and employers must

do to develop the capacities of young people to become

innovators. In profiling compelling young American innovators

such as Kirk Phelps, product manager for Apple’s first iPhone,

and Jodie Wu, who founded a company that builds

bicycle-powered maize shellers in Tanzania, Wagner reveals

how the adults in their lives nurtured their creativity and sparked their imaginations,

while teaching them to learn from failures and persevere. Play, passion, and purpose:

These are the forces that drive young innovators.

Wagner takes readers into the most forward-thinking schools, colleges, and workplaces

in the country, where teachers and employers are developing cultures of innovation

based on collaboration, interdisciplinary problem-solving, and intrinsic motivation. The

result is a timely, provocative, and inspiring manifesto that offers crucial insight into

creating the change-makers of tomorrow.

9. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop

Talking -- In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically

undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so.

She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the

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twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also

introduces us to successful introverts—from a witty, high-octane public speaker who

recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into

the power of questions. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with

indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see

introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.

10. The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in

Every Child -- Donalyn Miller says she has yet to meet a

child she couldn't turn into a reader. No matter how far

behind Miller's students might be when they reach her 6th

grade classroom, they end up reading an average of 40 to 50

books a year. Miller's unconventional approach dispenses

with drills and worksheets that make reading a chore.

Instead, she helps students navigate the world of literature

and gives them time to read books they pick out themselves.

Her love of books and teaching is both infectious and inspiring. The book includes a

dynamite list of recommended "kid lit" that helps parents and teachers find the books

that students really like to read.

11. Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking

20% Time to the Next Level -- You've heard the complaints too

many times: When am I ever going to use this in the real

world? Why are we learning this? When are we going to learn

about something interesting? But what if your students came to

class excited? What if they were passionate about their

projects? What if they grasped the connection between today's

work and tomorrow's careers? In classrooms across the nation,

innovative teachers are employing passion-based, open-source

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learning to improve their student's education. In Pure Genius, Don Wettrick encourages

teachers and administrators to collaborate--with experts, students, and one another--to

create interesting, and even life-changing opportunities for learning.

12. Teach Like a Champion 2.0: 62 Techniques that Put

Students on the Path to College -- Teach Like a Champion

offers effective teaching techniques to help teachers,

especially those in their first few years, become champions

in the classroom. These powerful techniques are concrete,

specific, and are easy to put into action the very next day.

Training activities at the end of each chapter help the

reader further their understanding through reflection and

application of the ideas to their own practice. The book

includes a DVD of 25 video clips of teachers demonstrating the techniques in the

classroom.

13. With Rigor for All, Second Edition: Meeting Common

Core Standards for Reading Literature -- Again and again

the Common Core Standards state that students must read

"proficiently and independently" but how do we achieve

this when students are groaning about having to read

demanding literature and looking for ways to pass the class

without turning pages? Carol Jago shows middle and

high school teachers how to create English classrooms

where students care about living literate lives and develop

into proficient independent readers. Students need books that mirror their own

experiences and if you teach literature that you love, your students will be more likely to

love it too.

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14. The First Days of School: How to Be an

Effective Teacher, 4th Edition -- The best-selling

book ever on classroom management and teaching

for student achievement with over 3.7 million

copies sold. The book walks a teacher, either

novice or veteran, through structuring and

organizing a classroom for success that can be

applied at any time of the year at any grade level,

pre-K through college.

The book is used in thousands of school districts, in over 120 countries, and in over

2,114 college classrooms, and has been translated into 5 languages. It's practical, yet

inspiring. But most important, it works!

15. Understanding by Design, Expanded 2nd Edition -- This book

poses the core, essential questions of understanding and design, and

provides readers with practical solutions for the teacher-designer.

The book opens by analyzing the logic of backward design as an

alternative to coverage and activity-oriented plans. Though

backward from habit, this approach brings more focus and

coherence to instruction. The book proposes a multifaceted

approach, with the six “facets” of understanding. The facets combine with backward

design to provide a powerful, expanded array of practical tools and strategies for

designing curriculum, instruction, and assessments that lead students at all grade levels

to genuine understanding.

 

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