Summertime Fun with Books :)

One of my favorite things about summer is that it is a time of professional growth for me.  Most days, you will find me on the back patio with a book in hand and cold lemonade nearby. :)

Here's what is on my summer book list:

I started the summer by reading Tracy Zagar's book based on several recommendations from the #MTBoS and quickly fell in love. However, as I read more of the book, I realized that I really needed the support of a book chat to help me process some of the ideas floating in my head. I put out the all-call on Twitter and starting on June 21st at 8pm Central, we will be chatting this book on Twitter if you want to join in. Until then, I've put this book on hold :)


After putting #BecomingMath on hold, I picked up Daniel Willingham's book, which has been on my "to-be-read" pile for awhile. Recently, this book has been referenced a lot in various blog posts, podcasts, etc and as I've been reading it, I know WHY people keep referencing it - this book is a game changer in the same way as "Make It Stick" was a few years ago. I have been on a cognitive psychology kick for a while and I love that each chapter ends with an "Implications for the Classroom" section.


My dear friend and fellow bookaholic, Pam, suggested Tipping Point as a summer read. I've read several of Malcolm Gladwell's books and had this one sitting in my Kindle library for a few years. Gladwell is another author that writes in a very conversational style but with a huge impact. If you've never read his work, I highly recommend it! :)


Finally, I checked out John Hattie's Visible Learning from our school professional center, so I'm hoping to get to this one soon too :)


In addition to these books, I plan to spend part of my summer with my new textbooks in preparation for the new year. :) It's going to be a busy summer but definitely a good year of learning!

#SummerList

The longer I go without blogging, the harder it is to start... :)

Summer is one of the best perks of being a teacher. I sleep in a bit, go for a walk, then tackle my to-do list at my own pace. I use the summer time to really think through activities I want to add to my curriculum, changes I want to make, books to read, etc. For accountability, I've decided to blog my list here rather than write it down in my handy, dandy, little notebook. :)



Books I plan to Read (or Re-Read):

• What's Math Got to Do with It - I actually bought this book for Kindle over the Memorial Day weekend. I'm really enjoying it!
  
• Never Work Harder than Your Students by Robyn Jackson
  
• How to give Effective Feedback by Susan Brookhart
  
• Accessible Mathematics by Steve Leinwand
  

I'm sure there are others, so I'll update this list as I read them :)


Things I want to explore

• Better integration of the Chromebooks (1:1)
  
  • Exploring Google Forms for Quick Formative Assessment
    
  • Learn to use/integrate various online tools such as Plot.ly, Desmos, and StatKey in my classroom
    
  • Create some Kahoot games to use for review activities
    
  • Spend some time playing with Chrome apps that might be useful, such as a flashcard app, etc.
    
• Work on more Free Response writing - this is a weakness due to my class sizes... grading 100+ of these is a killer!
  
  • Integrate whiteboarding activities
    
  • Use mistakes and error analysis
    
  • Expose students to the rubrics more
    

To be honest, I was pretty pleased with how things went in my classes this year, but I always have room for improvement. A lot of the things I've scribbled on my list are minor tweaks, but tweaks that I feel can make a huge impact in my classroom.

What's on your #SummerList?