Reading List

Iconic actor and best-selling author Alan Alda offers this indispensable guide to communicating better - based on his experience with acting, improv, science, and storytelling. The beloved actor shares fascinating and powerful lessons from the science of communication and teaches listeners to improve the way they relate to others using improv games, storytelling, and their own innate mind-reading abilities. With his trademark humor and frankness, Alda explains what makes the out-of-the-box techniques he developed after his years as the host of Scientific American Frontiers so effective. This book reveals what it means to be a true communicator and how we can communicate better in every aspect of our lives - with our friends, lovers, and families; with our doctors; in business settings; and beyond.

Never before has there been a greater need for deeper listening and more open communication to cope with the complex problems facing our organizations, businesses and societies. Renowned scientist David Bohm believed there was a better way for humanity to discover meaning and to achieve harmony. He identified creative dialogue, a sharing of assumptions and understanding, as a means by which the individual, and society as a whole, can learn more about themselves and others, and achieve a renewed sense of purpose.

Organizations are facing an engagement crisis. Regardless if they are customers, employees, patients, students, citizens, stakeholders, organizations struggle to meaningfully engage their key constituent groups who have a precious and limited resource: their time. Not surprisingly, these stakeholders have developed deflector shields to protect themselves. Only a privileged few organizations are allowed to penetrate the shield, and even less will meaningfully engage. To penetrate the shield, and engage the audience, organizations need an edge. Gamification has emerged as a way to gain that edge and organizations are beginning to see it as a key tool in their digital engagement strategy.

Based on Dave Burgess's popular "Outrageous Teaching" and "Teach Like a PIRATE" seminars, this New York Times bestseller 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.

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.

In this lively and practical book, seasoned educator Jonathan Cassie shines a spotlight on gamification, an instructional approach that's revolutionizing K–12 education. Games are well known for their ability to inspire persistence. The best ones feature meaningful choices that have lasting consequences, reward experimentation, provide a like-minded community of players, and gently punish failure and encourage risk-taking behavior. Players feel challenged, but not overwhelmed. A gamified lesson bears these same hallmarks. It is explicitly gamelike in its design and fosters perseverance, creativity, and resilience. Students build knowledge through experimentation and then apply what they've learned to fuel further exploration at higher levels of understanding

The new era of Gamification and Human-Focused Design optimizes for motivation and engagement over traditional Function-Focused Design. Within the industry, studies on game mechanics and behavioral psychology have become proliferate. However, few people understand how to merge the two fields into experience designs that reliably increases business metrics and generates a return on investment. In Actionable Gamification, Yu-kai Chou, Gamification Pioneer and internationally renowned consultant for Google, Stanford University, LEGO, Tesla, TEDx, Boston Consulting Group, Turkish Airline, Huawei, the governments of UK, Singapore, South Korea, Kingdom of Bahrain, takes the reader on a journey to learn his twelve years of obsessive research in creating the Octalysis Framework, and how to apply the framework to create engaging and successful experiences in their product, workplace, marketing, and personal lives.

Creativity is about seeing the world differently. It’s about coming up with unconventional ways to express ideas and solve “impossible” problems. Creativity is within reach for everyone.

Yes. Even you.

No one expects to run—much less win—a marathon without preparation. Such endeavors require training and practice. Lots of practice and even some slips and falls along the way. In Educated by Design, Michael Cohen (aka The Tech Rabbi) explains that creativity is no different. When creativity is clearly defined and intentionally practiced, all educators can improve the design they bring to their students’ learning experiences.

Kids walk into schools full of wonder and questions. How you, as an educator, respond to students’ natural curiosity can help further their own exploration and shape the way they learn today and in the future.

The traditional system of education requires students to hold their questions and compliantly stick to the scheduled curriculum. But our job as educators is to provide new and better opportunities for our students. It’s time to recognize that compliance doesn’t foster innovation, encourage critical thinking, or inspire creativity—and those are the skills our students need to succeed.

In The Innovator's Mindset, George Couros encourages teachers and administrators to empower their learners to wonder, to explore—and to become forward-thinking leaders.

Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi ("the leading researcher into ‘flow states’" —Newsweek) demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness, unlock our potential, and greatly improve the quality of our lives.

After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment.

First published in Portuguese in 1968, Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. Paulo Freire's work has helped to empower countless people throughout the world and has taken on special urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is ongoing. Freire rejects the "banking" approach to education, claiming it results in the dehumanization of both the students and the teachers. In addition, he argues the banking approach stimulates oppressive attitudes and practices in society. Instead, Freire advocates for a more world-mediated, mutual approach to education that encourages the co-creation of knowledge.

The modern world has given us stupendous know-how. Yet avoidable failures continue to plague us in health care, government, the law, the financial industry—in almost every realm of organized activity. And the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded our ability as individuals to properly deliver it to people—consistently, correctly, safely. We train longer, specialize more, use ever-advancing technologies, and still we fail. Doctor Atul Gawande makes a compelling argument that we can do better, using the simplest of methods: the checklist. In riveting stories, he reveals what checklists can do, what they can’t, and how they could bring about striking improvements in a variety of fields, from medicine and disaster recovery to professions and businesses of all kinds. And the insights are making a difference. Already, a simple surgical checklist from the World Health Organization designed by following the ideas described here has been adopted in more than twenty countries as a standard for care and has been heralded as “the biggest clinical invention in thirty years” (The Independent).

How do successful companies create products people can’t put down? Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?

In Hooked, author Nir Eyal synthesizes years of research, consulting, and practical experience to provide readers not with abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.

Would you rather people saw you as open or closed minded? The answer should be obvious. Why is it then that we tend to allow our legacy systems in education to be closed, when they clearly don't enable the same level of performance as open ones. This phenomena is well-established in education, where many educators tend towards isolation, in-fighting, and hoarding resources from each other. Meanwhile, students often have lack a clarity of purpose in terms of how what they are working on relates to things they care about in the wider world. Stuck inside an unengaging status quo, many students see "doing school" as irrelevant to their interests and ambitions. This book is the antidote to this closure: from the classroom to system-wide policy. It is a call-to-action for educators who want to become relentless collaborators networked with professionals in and outside the school.

While human lives are endlessly variable, our most memorable positive moments are dominated by four elements: elevation, insight, pride, and connection. If we embrace these elements, we can conjure more moments that matter. What if a teacher could design a lesson that he knew his students would remember twenty years later? What if you had a better sense of how to create memories that matter for your children? This book delves into some fascinating mysteries of experience: Why we tend to remember the best or worst moment of an experience, as well as the last moment, and forget the rest. Why “we feel most comfortable when things are certain, but we feel most alive when they’re not.” And why our most cherished memories are clustered into a brief period during our youth.

Have you ever wished you were more creative… or that your students were more engaged in your lessons? Written by the husband and wife teacher team of Wade and Hope King from Atlanta's famed Ron Clark Academy, The Wild Card is your step-by-step guide to experiencing a creative breakthrough in your classroom with your students. Even if you’ve never painted a portrait or written a poem, you can create unforgettable lessons that help your learners retain content.

In this book, Wade and Hope King show you how to draw on your authentic self—your past experiences, personality quirks, interests, hobbies, and strengths—to deliver your content creatively. The seven steps in The Wild Card will give you the knowledge and the confidence to bring creative teaching strategies into your classroom.

Teach Like a Champion 2.0 is a complete update to the international bestseller. This teaching guide is a must-have for new and experienced teachers alike. Over 700,000 teachers around the world already know how the techniques in this book turn educators into classroom champions. With ideas for everything from classroom management to inspiring student engagement, you will be able to perfect your teaching practice right away.

The first edition of Teach Like a Champion influenced thousands of educators because author Doug Lemov's teaching strategies are simple and powerful. Now, updated techniques and tools make it even easier to put students on the path to college readiness.

From celebrated art historian, curator, and teacher Sarah Lewis, a fascinating examination of how our most iconic creative endeavors—from innovation to the arts—are not achievements but conversions, corrections after failed attempts.

Written over the course of four years, The Rise is about the improbable foundations of a creative human endeavor. Each chapter focuses on the inestimable value of often ignored ideas—the power of surrender, how play is essential for innovation, the “near win” can help propel you on the road to mastery, the importance of grit and creative practice. The Rise shares narratives about figures past and present that range from choreographers, writers, painters, inventors, and entrepreneurs; Frederick Douglass, Samuel F.B. Morse, Diane Arbus, and J.K. Rowling, for example, feature alongside choreographer Paul Taylor, Nobel Prize–winning physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, and Arctic explorer Ben Saunders.

Are you ready to transform your classroom into an experiential world that flourishes on collaboration and creativity? Then set sail with classroom game designer and educator Michael Matera as he reveals the possibilities and power of game-based learning.

In eXPlore Like a Pirate, Matera serves as your experienced guide to help you apply the most motivational techniques of gameplay to your classroom using strategies that work with and enhance (rather than replace) your current curriculum.

With 174 million gamers in the United States alone, we now live in a world where every generation will be a gamer generation. But why, Jane McGonigal asks, should games be used for escapist entertainment alone? In this groundbreaking book and New York Times bestseller, she shows how we can leverage the power of games to fix what is wrong with the real world-from social problems like depression and obesity to global issues like poverty and climate change-and introduces us to cutting-edge games that are already changing the business, education, and nonprofit worlds. Written for gamers and non-gamers alike, Reality Is Broken shows that the future will belong to those who can understand, design, and play games.

Dr. Katherine McKnight has a 100% success rate in achieving academic gains with her unique, centers-based approach. Elementary schools have long used learning centers (also known as “rotations”) but middle and high school teachers have unique challenges. So Dr. McKnight worked with teachers all over the country to develop collaborative learning centers designed specifically for grade 4-12 learners. In this book readers can explore the research that prompted the creation of the LLC model for big kids, and learn how to start using it in their own classrooms. Read about the four foundational centers that are integral to the model. Learn to create developmentally appropriate tasks that automatically align instruction to standards/skills based assessment, increase student engagement, and allow you to cover more content and skill-development in less time.

What are “essential questions,” and how do they differ from other kinds of questions? What’s so great about them? Why should you design and use essential questions in your classroom? Essential questions (EQs) help target standards as you organize curriculum content into coherent units that yield focused and thoughtful learning. In the classroom, EQs are used to stimulate students’ discussions and promote a deeper understanding of the content.

What if going to school captured the thrills and excitement of an amusement park? Could classroom activities elicit the same sense of exhilaration you feel when charging the hill in a mud run? And how much more engaged would our students be if a curriculum was filled with the same mystery and mastery you’d expect from a twisting escape room of puzzles and surprises? Packed with lesson planning tips, instructional design ideas, and plug-and-play teaching resources, EDrenaline Rush challenges teachers to think differently and push their pedagogy to incredible limits, creating classrooms where students willingly step outside of their comfort zones and boldly dare to attempt the impossible.

You know potential exists for innovative, engaging, revolutionary education if you get the right ideas, right tools, and right people, all in the right order. If that sounds like you, then you're ready to DITCH old mindsets and methods and replace them with empowering, liberating ones. Author and teacher, Matt Miller shows you how to choose and incorporate teaching practices that are: Different from what students see daily. Innovative, drawing on new ideas or modifying others' ideas. Tech-laden with the use of digital sites, tools and devices. Creative, tapping into students' original ideas as well as your own. Hands-on, encouraging students to make and try things on their own.

In the The Epic Classroom, Trevor Muir presents a project based learning method that uses the power of storytelling and brain science to give educators practical and proven practices to achieve real student engagement. In return, learning that is permanent and memorable. Any teacher, in any subject area, and in any grade level can use the story-centered project based learning framework of The Epic Classroom to transform their classrooms into settings where students are engaged, challenged, and transformed. In this book you will discover - How to increase student engagement - How to plan and execute effective high quality project based learning experiences- Specific strategies for leading engaged students - Outlines and tools to plan, manage, and assess projects - Methods to increase academic performance in students.

In this book, David Niguidula shows how students can meet standards and express their individuality through digital badges and portfolios. Building off an essential question—What do schools want their students to know and be able to do?—he then shows how schools can implement a proficiency-based approach to student learning that has been successfully field-tested in districts across the United States. In manageable steps, readers are guided through the implementation process. Niguidula shows readers how to: Connect standards to badges, create portfolio-worthy tasks, develop common rubrics and a common understanding of what work is considered "good enough," guide students in curating the elements of their portfolios, promote authentic student reflection on their work.

One of the most important philosophy titles published in the twentieth century, Josef Pieper's Leisure, the Basis of Culture is more significant, even more crucial, today than it was when it first appeared more than fifty years ago. Leisure is an attitude of the mind and a condition of the soul that fosters a capacity to perceive the reality of the world. Pieper shows that the Greeks and medieval Europeans, understood the great value and importance of leisure. He also points out that religion can be born only in leisure — a leisure that allows time for the contemplation of the nature of God. Leisure has been, and always will be, the first foundation of any culture.

Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says New York Times bestselling author Daniel H. Pink. In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, 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.

For some, school feels like a chore: boring, monotonous, necessary. But what if school was fun—for you and your students? What would life be like if you felt excited about your lessons? Better yet, what if your students actually looked forward to your class every day?

Yes! School can be simultaneously fun and educational. In fact, as Quinn Rollins explains in Play Like a Pirate, when your class is engaging and entertaining, students are more likely to remember what they’ve learned. Invite kids to use their imaginations and help them create meaningful connections with your content by making play part of the learning experience.

"What's my grade? What's it worth? Is there extra credit? Is this for a mark? " It's time to shift the conversation and make learning visible. Now, you can easily stop reducing students to a number, letter, or any label that misrepresents learning and assessment in education. Now, you can help children see the value in every single assignment. Today, you can make assessment a rich, ongoing conversation that inspires learning for the sake of learning, rather than as a punishment or a reward. All you have to do is go gradeless. In Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School, award-winning teacher and world-renowned formative assessment expert Starr Sackstein unravels one of education's oldest mysteries: how to assess learning without grades -- even in a school that uses numbers, letters, GPAs, and report cards.

Academic-related anxiety is common in high-achieving and struggling classrooms alike. So how can teachers calm students’ fears and empower them as learners? Educator Stacey Roshan found the answer with technology. In Tech with Heart, Stacey shares that the fight to be first, the pressure to be right, and the stress surrounding test scores were just a few of the many reasons she chose to flip her class. Creating interactive video lessons for students to watch at home and shifting in-class time to focus on student needs, discussion, and collaborative practice. Using technology in the classroom isn’t just about automation! Tech with Heart shows you how to use edtech tools to humanize modern learning and help all learners to thrive.

What if schools, from the wealthiest suburban nursery school to the grittiest urban high school, thrummed with the sounds of deep immersion? More and more people believe that can happen - with the aid of video games. In The Game Believes in You, author Greg Toppo, former national K-12 education correspondent for USA Today and current managing editor of Inside Higher Ed, presents the story of a small group of visionaries who, for the past 40 years, have been pushing to get game controllers into the hands of learners. Experts argue that games do truly "believe in you." They focus, inspire and reassure people in ways that many teachers can't. Games give people a chance to learn at their own pace, take risks, cultivate deeper understanding, fail and want to try again—right away—and ultimately, succeed in ways that too often elude them in school. This book is sure to excite and inspire educators and parents, as well as provoke some passionate debate.

Why do some children succeed while others fail? The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. But in How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter more have to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, optimism, and self-control.

How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators, who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character. Through their stories—and the stories of the children they are trying to help—Tough reveals how this new knowledge can transform young people’s lives.

Grading systems often reward on-time task completion and penalize disorganization and bad behavior. Despite our best intentions, grades seem to reflect student compliance more than student learning and engagement. In the process, we inadvertently subvert the learning process.

After careful research and years of experiences with grading as a teacher and a parent, Cathy Vatterott examines and debunks traditional practices and policies of grading in K–12 schools. She offers a new paradigm for standards-based grading that focuses on student mastery of content and gives concrete examples from elementary, middle, and high schools.

College teachers all too often still play Sage on the Stage – lecturing to rooms full of passive and supposedly absorbed students. The cutting-edge opposite is still supposed to be the Guide on the Side – facilitating wherever students themselves are already going, mentoring and coaching them along the way. But who says that these are the only – or the best – alternatives? This book advances another and sharply different model: the Impresario with a Scenario, a teacher who serves as class mobilizer, improviser, and energizer, staging dramatic, often unexpected and self-unfolding learning challenges and adventures with students.