In my previous district, we occasionally talked about what we were reading. I read a lot of fiction for fun, aligned my reading to a host of Young Adult books so I could share insights and hear insights from my students in my classes and in my homeroom class. I had a group of big readers in my homeroom and loved it! But for professional learning books–we really didn’t do a lot. I followed blogs, keeps up with an rss feed in google reader (before they discontinued it) and occasionally checked out a book about teaching social studies. Fast forward a few years and move to a new city, new job, no students (but still in education)–now, in my job, EVERYBODY reads professional books. Or at least pretends to read them, ha!
I started this job in August of 2015. It’s now January of 2017, so 17 months later and I’m looking at a stack of books that I’ve been given either as part of a book study or suggested reading, or I’ve pulled to read myself and the stack is tremendous! I’ll post a picture next week when I can gather all the books from my home and work so you can see the size of it! I’ve enjoyed most of the readings and book studies, but definitely miss that stack of Young Adult fiction (like Legend, Cinder, Candor, Unwind, etc) and the students to chat with it about.
I’ve posted previously about meeting Eva Kor in October. Eva and her museum do a book study program where you can purchase 30 books for students and set up a Skype date with Eva. Finally!! I can squeeze in some time with students to talk about reading and about history, my 2 favorite things!! I miss keeping up with Young Adult fiction, but I think Eva’s book is so powerful that it is easily filling that void of talking about books with students. We started our book study last week. We’ll meet every week to discuss the chapters until the end of February when I will get to experience the students talking with Eva herself. I’m feeling like the start of 2017 is going amazingly well!
What books are you reading? For fun? For work? Share your ideas so I’ll have new suggestions on what to read!
I’m reading:
- Surviving the Angel of Death by Eva Kor
- The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
- A book by Mark Manson (The Subtle Art of…)
- And I just finished Sycamore Row by John Grisham
A few of my favorites from last year include:
- Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed
- The Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros
- Ditch that Textbook by Matt Miller
- Better Conversations by Jim Knight
- Lemons to Lemonade by Zimmerman and Garmston
The Empowered Learner 