The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

by Sir Ken Robinson

My Rating:  5: DEN Finger Worthy; GREAT reading. Once you start, it is hard to put down.

My Favorite Line/Quote:   For most of us the problem isn’t that we aim too high and fail – it’s just the opposite – we aim too low and succeed

My Shift:   Sir Ken just puts things in the entire book in a way that it forces you to reflect upon what you do daily in the classroom.

My Take Away:   I need to change the way I teach to the way kids are learning. We need to ‘transform’ education one classroom at a time.

What’s Next for Me:   Just ordered his next book: Finding Your  Element

Reviewed by Mark C. from North Carolina

Teaching With Poverty in Mind

by Eric Jensen

My Rating:  4, This book gives great ideas on improving the motivation and instruction of students in high poverty areas. It was really inspiring for our whole staff.

My Favorite Line/Quote:   There is a section on “How We Can Change the Brain for the Better”. It gives good explanations of how the brain works and action steps for helping students maximize their brain use.

My Shift:   It gives great tips on what data to gather, how to gather it, and how to use it to evaluate students needs.

My Take Away:   High poverty students need increased access to art, music, and technology to succeed.

What’s Next for Me:   Something light-hearted and fun!!!

Reviewed by Shannon W. from Colorado

Web Literacy for Educators

by Alan November

My Rating:  5, Really a great resources for talking with Teachers and students about how to search for information on the Internet.

My Favorite Line/Quote:   Children need us to be exemplary role modes. Filtering the Internet is no longer sufficient.

My Shift:   He uses an example of Victorian Robots and how it has caused students to think pictures of robots with people in history are real- need to teach people how to evaluate what they are seeing and reading on the internet-

My Take Away:   The chapter on Expanding the boundaries- we need to use blogs and podcasts and wikis but we must keep students and adults for that matter safe on the Internet- we must have the discussions about what is appropriate and how much personal information should be shared on the internet.

Reviewed by Beth W. from Texas