The Easy Way Teachers Can Learn This Summer: 10 PD Books We Love [episode 71]

Emily
Hey, there, thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re sharing an idea for easy summer professional development. And we’ll share a teacher approved tip for organizing your takeaways from nonfiction books.

Emily
We start our episodes with a morning message just like we used to do at morning meeting in our classrooms. This week’s morning message is would you rather be the principal for the day or the office administrator?

Heidi
I think like truly my heart of hearts, it would definitely be office administrator. But I have this little dream of maybe being principal for the day and just being like, you know, like, the kid is king for a day and just doing all the stuff that I could never do that you wish the principal would do.

Heidi
And be like, Hey, we’re just sending everyone home at two, have fun. What can they do? I’m only principal for the day. They can’t fire me. What about you, Emily?

Emily
I’d have to say office administrator for sure. I just feel like the office administrator is the real heart of any school. And they keep everything functioning, they know everything that’s going on. And somehow they seem to know everybody too.

Emily
Plus, I just have really fond memories of our school secretary growing up, I don’t know if you remember her, she was always just so happy. And it felt like she like knew me personally. And that just made me so happy. Oh, I

Heidi
Oh, I loved her. And she always had amazing nails.

Emily
She did.

Emily
And we have a couple of responses from some people in our community. Cassidy said the office administrator because I love pins and post it. And we know her, she really does. She also said and I don’t want to deal with what principals deal with, which is for sure. Right?

Emily
And Carrie Ann said office administrator, all the students know and love them, because they help them feel better when they’re sick and call parents when they need something. And they’re just always smiling and kind and they don’t have to deal with the discipline issues.

Heidi
Definitely a win. But you have to teach them how to use phones because they don’t know how to do that.

Emily
We have established that recently with my own children. So I think we’re all on the same page, that office administrator, they definitely do all the hard work, but they’re also the most amazing. So that’s who we’d want to be.

Heidi
Summer can be a great time to work on professional development. But that doesn’t have to mean taking a lot of heavy duty trainings if you have that option. Luckily.

Heidi
One of my favorite ways to work in professional development is by reading an educational book to help expand my teaching expertise, and then give me some new ideas for the upcoming school year. So today we’re going to share some of our favorite professional development books, and also what new ones we’re planning to read this summer.

Heidi
Consider this a little book tasting to give you some ideas for a professional development book you may want to pick this summer.

Heidi
So we’re starting with our favorite, the First Six Weeks of School from the Responsive Classroom.

Heidi
And the summary is, “Watch children’s learning blossom all year long when you lay the groundwork with the help of this classic comprehensive guidebook for K-6 teachers. Day by day and week by week, the first six weeks of school shows you how to set students up for a year of engaged and productive learning.”

Heidi
This is a title that I came back to every year that I taught school. Oh for sure. I appreciated the suggestions. And it had really concrete tools for how to structure those first weeks of schools in powerful ways so that you’re affirming that new little crop of students. But you’re also like from the from the jump, you are starting to design a safe, nurturing classroom culture.

Heidi
And it just walks you through things that like hadn’t occurred to me before reading this book, like walk through a fire drill before you have to do a fire drill, like stuff that means a lot but you maybe don’t consider doing so it’s very helpful.

Emily
And it’s just so many good reminders. So even if you don’t fully reread it, revisiting it every summer is really helpful.

Heidi
Absolutely.

Heidi
Our second recommendation is Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones. In Tools for Teaching Dr. Jones describes the skills by which exceptional teachers make the classroom a place of success and enjoyment for both themselves and their students.

Heidi
Tools for Teaching integrates the management of discipline, instruction and motivation into a system that allows you to reduce the stress of teaching by preventing most management headaches. Preventing the key there. These skills are made accessible through practical down to earth language and detailed examples and illustrations.

Heidi
This book changed my teaching. I devoured it between my first and second years of teaching way back in 2002. But it is one I still refer to. It is a hefty book. It’s not a little one, but it is full of vital information about how to prevent classroom issues before they even become a problem and then what to do with some get through the net.

Heidi
And then how you can maximize your instruction for the most impact. It really has lots of clear takeaways and how to implement things. They talk about like channeling your inner Queen Victoria when a student is acting up and like you are cool, calm and collected this, this little ruffian can’t ruffle you.

Heidi
And I for sure, like when a kid is acting up 100% I have that picture of Queen Victoria in my brain.

Emily
Imagine you’re putting on your crown.

Heidi
Yes, walking over there with my scepter. And the illustrations of this are golden. They’re so funny.

Emily
And I feel like this is just such a great book for new teachers a good gift to give to new teachers. In fact, I gifted it to my sister in law last year when she got a classroom teaching job.

Emily
The next recommendation is The First Days of School by Harry Wong. The first days of school 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 or at any grade level pre K through college.

Emily
College. I’m impressed that they’re making that claim. But this book is a classic for a reason. Wong cuts through all the noise and he just lays out everything in clear steps.

Emily
We don’t 100% agree with all of his ideas in this book. But the good stuff in there is so good. It’s worth the read.

Emily
And our next recommendation is the Joyful Classroom by Responsive Classroom. You may notice a theme here, we love we love a Responsive Classroom book.

Heidi
I don’t think they’ve ever steered me wrong,

Emily
It’s so true. Light the spark of learning in your students, teachers know it instinctively, research bears it out. Students learn more and with more joy when offered intriguing lessons that connect with their lives and interests, while challenging them to stretch and grow.

Emily
So we did this book as a summer book club read a few years back, we we ran this for a group of teachers in our Facebook group, and everyone really loved it. And this book really lends itself well to a teacher summertime read, because it’s full of clear takeaways. But it isn’t heavy or technical.

Emily
It breaks down the components of engaged learning and explains how to implement them. Plus, it’s got lots of pictures, which I always enjoy. And it’s just a really easy read that will make you excited to get back to school and try out some of the new ideas.

Heidi
It really is a perfect summer read and the pictures are a plus.

Heidi
So next on our list is Unpack Your Impact by Naomi O’Brien and Lanesha Tabb. O’Brien and Tabb explain how to provide students with a deep but achievable understanding of global social systems as they’re transformed by history, sociology, economics, geography and civics.

Heidi
And because the unpack your impact curriculum can be folded into existing lessons for almost any topic, students garner an appreciation for how all learning shapes and is shaped by a diverse array of human cultures. Unpack Your Impact shows that primary teachers can make a positive impact individually and globally.

Heidi
So I feel like this is the social studies training I needed in college. My social studies training was really weak. It was basically just learning how like younger grades focus on self and family and you slowly build up through like neighborhood, community and state.

Emily
Yep, same.

Heidi
And then the class took turns doing book talks on picture books related to social studies. And that was it for this semester. I am, that’s really sad, because we were in that program five years apart. So I’ve never really felt well equipped to teach social studies. And clearly I’m not alone with me.

Heidi
So I just love that these two authors look at the huge umbrella of social studies, everything that can be folded into that, like economics and history and civics. And then they show that how even our little learners can do real thinking in those areas. I think that’s such a powerful skill to give kids in this era of such global connectivity is to just be able to see these patterns and connections.

Emily
And it’s so nice to see a book that tackles this topic aimed specifically at the younger grades because it feels like sometimes the books are for older kids.

Emily
Our next book is the Morning Meeting Book by you guessed it, the Responsive Classroom. Promote a climate of trust, academic growth and positive behavior by launching each school day with a whole class gathering. This comprehensive user friendly book shows you how to hold Responsive Classroom morning meetings, a powerful teaching tool used by hundreds of 1000s of teachers in K-8 schools.

Emily
We are huge fans of morning meeting and we talked all about it in episode six of this podcast. If you want to make a change to your morning routines in a way that will have massive impact on your classroom community, this upcoming school year, this is the book for you.

Emily
And it will tell you everything you need to know about how to run an impactful morning meeting every day and just make it part of your daily routines.

Heidi
I really can’t say enough good about this. I love it so much. I love it.

Heidi
Our next book is Shifting the Balance by Jan Birkins and Kari Yates. The current emphasis on the body of research, known as the science of reading, has renewed what some refer to as the reading wars, and raise challenging questions for balanced literacy teachers about the best ways to teach reading.

Heidi
Instead of fueling the debate, Jan Birkins and Kari Yates have immersed themselves in the research and produce this concise and practical guide to integrating effective reading strategies from each perspective.

Heidi
Each chapter of shifting the balance focuses on one of the six simple and scientific shifts, balanced literacy teachers can make to strengthen their approach in these areas, reading comprehension, phonemic awareness, phonics, high frequency words, cueing systems, and text selection for early reading instruction.

Heidi
So this is one I just finished a couple months ago. And if you have a background in balance literacy, which we both do, and this book is so helpful, like the summary mentioned, it looks at six ways, teachers can shift their practice to be more aligned with current research.

Heidi
And this book is really just laid out so clearly, it’s easy to understand. It has clearer suggestions for how to implement things that shows the benefits that those shifts could yield. It’s really well laid out and it’s not super dense or overwhelming.

Heidi
It’s really perfect if you’re wanting a summer professional development read that really gives you some impact, but isn’t going to require a lot of mental work to understand. I give this two thumbs up.

Heidi
And the book I am currently reading is Morning Classroom Conversations by Maurice J. Elias, Nina A. Murphy and Kellie A. McLain. Students need to feel heard and understood by adults and by their peers.

Heidi
When you make morning classroom conversations a regular part of your class, you give students a safe place to practice critical and creative thinking, build active listening skills, learn to respectfully disagree with others, and strengthen peer relationships, all while improving overall classroom climate.

Heidi
So by now you know that I am passionate about the power of a good morning routine. So I really scooped up this title as soon as I saw it, even though it’s geared towards secondary students who have like outgrown an elementary style morning meeting. I think this has a lot of application to an elementary classroom.

Heidi
One thing that I found especially powerful is their discussion of brave spaces versus safe spaces, that we can’t necessarily guarantee a safe space so we have to be willing to be brave enough to be vulnerable and share and grow together. And I thought that was a really interesting take on that.

Heidi
And this book also provides three years worth of meeting topics. So if you do happen to teach older grades, this book would be very helpful in helping you run this whole morning conversation routine.

Emily
That sounds awesome.

Heidi
I’m loving it.

Emily
Now we’re going to share a little about the books we haven’t read yet but plan to read this summer. I’m actually going to be reading the Six Shifts because I’ve been waiting for Heidi to finish it so I can read it.

Heidi
And you will love it.

Emily
I’m excited. Heidi, what are you going to be reading this summer?

Heidi
So I’ve got two of my in my stack. The first is Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics by guys, I’m gonna be able to do this last night. Peter Liljedahl.

Heidi
That’s what I was thinking.

Heidi
Okay. Bless the Scandinavians. Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics helps teachers implement 14 optimal practices for thinking that create an ideal setting for deep mathematics learning to occur. This book translates 15 years of research into a practical guide on how to move toward a thinking classroom.

Heidi
And I took a conference a couple months ago, and I heard this book mentioned several times. And so I thought, well, this really sounds like something I need to know about. So I ordered it and I will let you know how it goes.

Emily
Maybe it’ll be a future extra credit.

Heidi
Yes, if it’s worth it. And the second one in my to be read pile is Brain Words. by J. Richard Gentry and Gene P. Ouellette. Brain Words explains how children’s brains develop as they become readers and discover ways you can take concrete steps to promote this critical developmental passage.

Heidi
With the insights and strategies of brain words, you can meet your students where they are and ensure that more of them read well, think well and write well. I mostly chose this one on the strength of Richard Gentry his name. He did a training at my school like you years ago, and getting to watch him working with one of our struggling readers really transformed my school’s way of teaching reading.

Heidi
So I’m excited to see what he has to teach in this book, even if it does look a little text heavy, more than I might want in a summer read, but sacrifices must be made.

Heidi
Now let’s talk about this week’s teacher approved tip. Each week, we leave you with a small actionable tip that you can apply in your classroom today. This week’s teacher approved tip is read nonfiction books on an e-reader.

Heidi
If it’s a book that you’re likely going to want to reference in the future, you can highlight and make notes, anything you want to remember. And then you can export the notes and have an email to yourself as a PDF. So then that is available for any future reference you might need.

Heidi
So I set up a folder in my email to store all of my notes there. And so if I need to reference anything, I can pull up the notes for this specific book I want to reference and then I can just do a CTRL F, to find whatever I’m looking for in the PDF.

Heidi
And that has, they just saved me so much time and so many headaches. And it’s nice when I’m reading a book to be like, Oh, I’m gonna need to remember this at such and such time. Or maybe it’ll be a good podcast episode or something. So I can make sure note all that and then it’s easy to reference when I need it.

Emily
When you told me this idea the other day, like blew my mind.

Heidi
Thank you, I have to start it. I’m so smart. And if you do any professional development reading over the summer, maybe that will be handy for you too.

Emily
To wrap up the show we’re sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Heidi, what are you giving credit to this week?

Heidi
Well, let’s get in a time machine and go back like 12 years I am giving extra credit to Where’d You Go Bernadette? My neighborhood book club, just read it and have always meant to get around to it because I’ve heard it’s good. And it really was good. I loved it.

Emily
And I read it so long ago, I can barely remember it.

Heidi
It was so well done and just kept me guessing the whole time. So A+ if you want a non professional development book to read, I really liked that one. How about you Emily? What’s your extra credit?

Emily
Well, if you’re tired of reading, I’m giving extra credit to the Floor is Lava, which is a silly game show on Netflix. I think the first season came out in 2020. And Season two just came out. On the show teams of three compete to get all the members of their team across a room where the floor is lava.

Emily
And all of the rooms are themed like the garage or you know the kitchen or thing you know, in the house. And it just feels nostalgic since we all remember playing that game as kids jumping from couch to coffee table when the floor is lava. And it’s just really light hearted and fun.

Emily
And I find it’s nice to have a show that my kids all enjoy watching. And that doesn’t drive me completely crazy. It’s really hard to check both of those boxes, especially as my kids are getting older in different stages. This is one that they actually still all like.

Heidi
And even if you have never watched the show, you’ve probably lived it with students who have watched the show and go play that. So true. T

Heidi
hat’s it for today’s episode. Consider reading a new professional development book this summer. And be sure to let us know which book you choose. Thank you for listening.