www.talkswithteachers.

com

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
ideathe power of our mindset.
Dweck explains why its not just our abilities and talent that bring us
successbut whether we approach them with a fixed or growth
mindset. She makes clear why praising intelligence and ability doesnt 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 goalspersonal and professional. Dweck reveals what all great parents,
teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create

www.talkswithteachers.com

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

www.talkswithteachers.com

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 moneythe 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 homeis the deeply human need to direct our
own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by
ourselves and our world.

www.talkswithteachers.com

Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the
mismatch between what science knows and what business doesand how that affects
every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivationautonomy,
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 Americas
Educator and was Oprah Winfreys 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 studydont expect it to come naturally
Dont 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, youre doing something wrong

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

www.talkswithteachers.com

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. Vilsons deconstructed anecdotes cut through the platitudes of
politicians and the endless alibis of central office admins, into the heart of Americas
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 Apples 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

www.talkswithteachers.com

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

www.talkswithteachers.com

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.

www.talkswithteachers.com

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.

www.talkswithteachers.com