I'm looking for some new professional reading materials. What is the best book you've read that's education related? Thanks!
For general education, I love Jonathan Kozol's books, The Shame of the Nation, Savage Inequalities, Amazing Grace and Letters to a Young Teacher. They all offer eye-opening insights into what our school system is doing. For specific teaching strategies, I think anything by Kelly Gallagher, Kylene Beers, Jeff Anderson and Cris Tovani are amazing. Gallagher and Anderson are specifically for English teachers, but Beers and Tovani are for anyone who teaches reading in the content areas (which is pretty much everyone.)
I swear by the Love and Logic series, mostly because it's one of the few classroom behavior strategies that can be applied to the online forum.
I spent four days at his workshop on this book, and was by far the best conference I have ever attended.
Ruby Payne has some amazing material out there. I also love the Responsive Classroom series. From what I read on here, it must be similar to Love and Logic. I love Torey Hayden's books. She is (was) a special education teacher who wrote about her accounts with different students. Eye opening!
I love Eric Jensen. I also like Dream Class by Michael Linsin. Since reading his book and putting his strategies to work I have had the best classes ever. Everyone says my class is loaded with the good kids, but that is absolutely not true. For example, one student was suspended 15 times during the two years before he came to me. This year he has not been suspended at all. There are many other wonderful books out there that have wonderful parts I love. Is That a Fact is an example. This is a great book for teaching nonfiction reading.
I read two books last year - Love and Logic and How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk. They totally changed my relationship with my students both as a sub and a teacher. I recently read The Explosive Child as well, which basically goes more in depth about some of the concepts in the Listening/Talking book. I will never, ever underestimate the use of empathy again!
I think it depends on what you are looking for. For teaching reading at the elementary level I love the Daily 5. I find Ron Clark inspirational.
For me, most books on teaching/education are poisoned by special pleading for the author's political views, typically leftist ones. Dreary, smarmy, predictable pabulum for those more given to ideological recitation than to actual thought: all human behavior is determined by (socioeconomic) circumstances, we are responsible for the circumstances, occupy academia! Ho hum. I suppose this constitutes my coming out as the only politically conservative teacher in America. So be it. The writings that have most influenced me as a teacher (and as whatever else I am) are the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He is my guiding light. I get to teach Emerson every other year, which helps to keep me going even as I spy those social engineers lurking in the shadows here in the schoolhouse.
Teach Like a Champion is good. The Teach Like a Champion Field Guide is hands down the best book I've ever encountered as a teacher. I believe it will propel my teaching skills to heights I've never dreamed of reaching.
Wow! You guys are amazing. I'm so glad I asked....such great suggestions. I've been kind of stuck in a rut as far as professional readings go and these are some wonderful suggestions. I've read some of the How to talk so kids will listen.....books and I agree they're very powerful.
Teach Like a Champion is a book that was introduced to me at a workshop series I attended. It has changed my teaching and supported some of the things I already do in my classroom. I was talking about it so much during my recent evaluations that our principal and literacy coach decided to offer it as a book study option for our staff. I know we're also planning on reading The Book Whisperer in the next month or so.
