In Think Again, Grant advocates for the power of rethinking. Instead of prosecuting, preaching, or politicking, Grant proposes we think more like scientists, having values and standards but also allowing curiosity to drive our thinking rather than remaining fixed in rigid beliefs.

Want to help students find their passion? Dive into Inquiry has the prompts to help. Want to open up the ways students do research and collect data? There are examples here for you. Want to demonstrate learning in public and in new ways? You guessed it… you will be guided on that front as well.

In a technological landscape dominated by hand-held devices and social media, some educators and experts are concerned that young people are losing the skills to engage in face-to-face conversation with others. In education, effective conversations are needed when talking to colleagues, students, and parents. Administrators and teachers will benefit from the insights in Making Conversation, since it clearly lays out how to design conversations that move us from speech to action.

Nudge is a great book for teachers and administrators to read as we want to guide children towards learning a bit easier. If we see ourselves as “choice architects” more and purveyors of knowledge less, our students will certainly be better off. This is a great read for any educator looking to set up relevant choices for their students and/or teachers.

Have you ever run a class discussion and felt you didn’t get the best from your students? Have you ever tried to guide a student and felt that the perfect words just wouldn’t come? Peter Johnston has written Choice Words with exactly those moments in mind. You will be challenged to reframe the way you ask questions and respond to students so they feel valued and land on the learning themselves.

Critical Thinking takes the reader through all the ways deep cognition helps in life… including in leadership! Want to be aware of your biases? Check! Want to learn more about all the ways thinking helps and hurts us in life? Check. If you want to think more profoundly about thinking and how it might improve your classroom or school, then this is a great book for you.

In Think Like a Monk, Jay Shetty calls his readers to a life of service noting that service fulfills us on many levels. We are born to care for others, so service does us good. By design, teaching is a service profession. How long has it been since you have examined your practice as an educator through the lens of love and as an act of service?

Small Teaching Online by Flower Darby and James Lang looks at the small teaching methods that can be implemented in online classes to have a large impact. While largely focused on higher education, Small Teaching Online provides ideas and strategies for delivery content and enhancing learning in an online format. Constant changes in our world makes becoming familiar with online teaching practices an imperative for all educators and this book does the trick!

How to Think Like Shakespeare is certainly a unique book. Thoughts about why thinking is important (as opposed to feeling or doing) and what it looks like in different contexts is merged with quotes from Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and Shakesperian scholars. Perspectives on thinking from the lens of craft, location, imitation, attention, technology, and constraint will all support the larger theme that foundational knowledge and deep conversation will always be imperatives to improving thinking.

Have you ever caught yourself ruminating about “What ifs…?” Or have you been paralyzed by fear, unable to make decisions? In Emotional Agility, Susan David provides a guidebook grounded in psychological research to help us embrace all of our emotions, even the most uncomfortable ones, discover our “why”, and align our lives with our values.

Natalie Wexler argues that taking a more rigorous approach to reading and writing starts with focusing on content rather than skills taught in a vacuum. For students to understand complex texts, they must first understand the complexities of the world around them. Wexler bemoans the high-stakes testing that focuses mostly on reading and math leave limited time during the school day for students to learn about social studies, science, and advanced writing composition.

Weinstein and Sumeracki, two cognitive psychologists and hosts of The Learning Scientists blog have made an easy-to-digest guide for educational practitioners to become familiar with the tenets of memory and learning in Understanding How We Learn. They primarily focus on practical advice for incorporating these best practices in the classroom. A must-read for any teacher at any level.

In his book Distracted, James Lang explains that “the human brain is an eminently distractible organ. We thus are fighting a losing battle if we try to solve the problems of attention by eliminating distraction. Banning devices from the room still leaves pencils for doodling, windows to stare through, coughing and sniffing humans to irritate us, and the endless chaotic swirling of our thoughts. Instead, we need to think about how the learning environments that we build for students can be safe and supportive spaces.

Stretch by Scott Sonenshein will encourage you to do more with less...and then show you how to do it. Concepts such as chasing, stretching, and being cognitively entrenched, combined with cautionary tales (Gerber singles, anyone?) and success stories (Yuengling and the book Green Eggs and Ham) to frame why it’s important to think more about “stretching” than “chasing.”

David Epstein uses Range to convince the reader that it may in fact be the generalists who add more value as the world becomes more and more complex. His basic premise is that for complex problem-solving and decision-making, it is often those with broad experience and diverse backgrounds who fare better (e.g., professionals with hobbies outside of their profession).

Am I Invisible? by Murphy Lynne, gives her account (physically, mentally, emotionally) of what school was like as a student on the autism spectrum. Her brutally honest and eye-opening journey will leave all readers with a better understanding of how school is different for all students, and how we, as educators can help to make sure all students are seen.

Are you always asking questions about the world? Do you wish you were more curious? Warren Berger uses A More Beautiful Question to train you to think systematically and deeply about questions that we ask.

In The Power of Moments, the Heath brothers piece together research, personal anecdotes, history, and psychology to clarify something that affects us all… moments in our lives. They clarify the conditions that increase the chances they are memorable, like creating “peak moments”(eg. college acceptance communication), “leveling up” your pride (e.g. Boy Scout levels), and connections (e.g. team-building exercises) all enhance the moments of our lives

Talking to Strangers is different from talking to our friends and acquaintances. Using contemporary case studies, Gladwell challenges his readers to see where experts have made mistakes in communicating with strangers and how we can use those lessons to approach strangers with more humility, compassion, and kindness.

John Medina hits a home run in Brain Rules as he achieves his goal of reframing work, home, and school based on brain science. He uses the neuroscientific principles of evolution, attention, memory, and the senses to walk the reader through the many ways we could improve our lives and productivity.