ISM offers up thought-provoking book suggestions that will provide some insight, training, and professional development for you.
21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn
James Bellanca and Ron Brandt, editors, Solution Tree Press (2010)
Education authorities worldwide tackle the question: How do we equip students with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century?
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Jared Diamond, (2005) Penguin (2005)
This is a follow-up book to Diamond’s Pulitzer Prize winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, which examined why some human civilizations flourished. This book explores why some once-flourishing societies have failed. Amazon.com reviewer Jennifer Buckendorff writes “Diamond hopes to jog our collective memory to keep us from falling for false analogies or forgetting prior experiences, and thereby save us from potential devastations to come.”
Multiple Intelligences: New Horizon in Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition
Howard Gardner, Basic Books (2006)
This edition includes all the developments in Multiple Intelligences theory and practice since Gardner’s original 1993 Multiple Intelligences book. New material includes global applications of MI practice as well as MI in the workplace, an assessment of MI in the current conservative educational climate, and more.
How Children Learn
John Caldwell Holt, Perseus Books (1995)
From Amazon.com description: “This enduring classic of educational thought offers teachers and parents deep, original insight into the nature of early learning. John Holt was the first to make clear that, for small children, ‘learning is as natural as breathing.’ In this delightful yet profound book, he looks at how we learn to talk, to read, to count, and to reason, and how we can nurture and encourage these natural abilities in our children.”
Teaching With the Brain in Mind, 2nd Edition
Eric Jensen, ASCD (2005)
In this update of his 1998 bestseller, Jensen gives you a basic orientation to the brain, how it works, and how all its systems effect learning. It is user-friendly, and in engaging language. Jensen covers motivation, critical thinking skills, emotions, environmental factors, memory, and recall.
Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College
Doug Lemov, Jossey-Bass (2010)
This book covered effective teaching techniques for every teacher to become a champion, and includes training activities at the end of each chapter. Follow the link—and scroll down to a Q&A with the author on Amazon.com.
Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School
John Medina, Pear Press (2009)
Medina is a molecular biologist who provides good principles and on how the brain works, so you can use them to your benefit. In one chapter, learn why the brain can only focus on one thing—so multitasking is not necessarily a good thing!
Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative
Ken Robinson, Capstone Publishing (2011)
Creativity expert Robinson says, "It is often said that education and training are the keys to the future. They are, but a key can be turned in two directions. Turn it one way and you lock resources away, even from those they belong to. Turn it the other way and you release resources and give people back to themselves. To realize our true creative potential—in our organizations, in our schools and in our communities—we need to think differently about ourselves and to act differently towards each other. We must learn to be creative."
Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being
Martin Seligman, Free Press (2011)
Seligman, one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century who developed the theory of “learned helplessness,” presents a complete, new theory of the best way to live.
