Ahhh, school is upon us... and I don't know about you, but I have been in FULL SCHOOL MODE for awhile now! We still have two weeks until students come, and it's already consuming my brain - in the best way possible! So I wanted to a take a minute today and talk about a new initiative happening in my building, all focused around using personal development to further ourselves as leaders in our classrooms!
Although I'm coming into my 5th year of teaching full time, I only discovered the world of personal development around 3 years ago. I remember picking up the book Mindset by Carol Dweck and instantly thinking about how my students just HAD to read what she was saying (but knew my 7th graders at the time wouldn't QUITE grasp it). I also remember telling myself I NEEDED to dive deeper into this world of growth to enhance my own life AND to share with my students with my own twist.
I started reading more and more books and found my way onto podcasts - quickly becoming OBSESSED with bettering myself and the people around me. I made it a priority to read at least 10 pages or listen to at least 10 minutes of personal development each day... and before I knew it, it spiraled. I quickly switched out my routine of Dave Ryan in the Morning Show during my hour long commute to school and started listening to audio books and podcasts instead. I found myself pushing play on episodes from Jay Shetty, John Maxwell, and Rob Dial while I was getting ready instead of jamming out to the typical music I had been. I started considering that what I was hearing on a daily basis was indeed affecting my performance as a teacher AND as a person, and with this change in routine, I saw all my negative thoughts start shifting to more positive thoughts.... and eventually, that started transferring into my lessons and how I talked to my students.
Discovering personal development made me more confident in the classroom. It made me less scared to take risks. And it made my leadership ability as a teacher skyrocket. So why wasn't this taught in any of my college classes? More thoughts on that later...
BUT! As we head into the 2021 school year after a season of chaos and uncertainty, I think we can benefit from learning how to empathize with others... especially our students. This is exactly why I am making it a priority to incorporate not only personal development into my daily routine, but professional development as well. I will dedicate time each day to further understand my students who come from backgrounds of trauma, poverty, and other circumstances I may be unaware of, and I am committed to taking time to reflect on how I am showing up as a teacher. I hope you join me.
Being on my school's leadership team has given me the ability to share this passion with other staff in my district, and it's with a happy heart that I can say we are making this an initiative throughout our school. Each department will be reading a book that deep dives into situations our students may come from and how we can come together to help them succeed with that in mind... and I wanted to share some of the books I've been looking at with you!
I have not read all of the books below. In fact, I've read very few of them; however, these are all books that seem to hit home for me, and I hope they find their way into your hands, too. Once you read any of the ones listed below, I would LOVE if you would comment and share your thoughts with me! OR connect with me over on Instagram and let me know what you thought!
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT BOOKS TO READ
Oprah Winfrey & Bruce D. Perry
Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand.
“Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives.” ―Oprah Winfrey
This book is going to change the way you see your life.
Have you ever wondered "Why did I do that?" or "Why can't I just control my behavior?" Others may judge our reactions and think, "What's wrong with that person?" When questioning our emotions, it's easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It's time we started asking a different question.
Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”
Here, Winfrey shares stories from her own past, understanding through experience the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma and adversity at a young age. In conversation throughout the book, she and Dr. Perry focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future―opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.
Jeff Henderson
Your organization - business, church, or nonprofit - will experience unprecedented growth when you close the gap between these two game-changing questions: What are we known for? What do we want to be known for?
In Know What You're FOR, entrepreneur and thought leader Jeff Henderson makes it clear that if we want to change the world with our products or our mission, then we must shift the focus of our messaging and marketing. Rather than self-promoting, we must transform our organizations to be people-centric. This sounds like a no-brainer, but looking closer shows just how little this is true and how impactful the change would be if it were. Whether you're a business leader, a change advocate, or a movement maker, Know What You're FOR will help you - and your organization - thrive. It's what happens when you create an organization focused on who it is FOR. This is the future. Thriving organizations will be more concerned with becoming raving fans of their customers than they are trying to convince customers to become raving fans of the organization. This isn't theory. Jeff Henderson has experienced it.
Working with companies like Chick-fil-A and the Atlanta Braves, then serving as a pastor for 15 years at one of the country's largest and most influential churches, North Point, Jeff knows what success looks like for healthy organizations and healthy lives. With fascinating stories from a host of entrepreneurs and Jeff's remarkable career, Know What You're FOR equips you with a simple strategy and the tools for extraordinary growth. You'll discover how to:
Work FOR your current and future customers with a new, effective method
Be FOR your team and help your people reach full potential
Create a ripple impact by being FOR your community
Live and work your best by caring FOR yourself
In a hypercritical, cynical world, one that is often known for what it's against, let's be a group of people known for who and what we're FOR. It's a powerful strategy for business. But more importantly, it is a revolutionary way to live.
John C. Maxwell
A masterclass led by internationally recognized leadership expert John C. Maxwell revealing the eleven shifts you should make over the course of you career to keep innovating, improving, and influencing others to the highest levels of success in today’s unprecedented business climate.
Change is so rapid today that leaders must do much more than stay the course to be successful. If they aren’t nimble and ready to adapt, they won’t survive. The key is to learn how to leadershift.
In Leadershift, John C. Maxwell helps leaders gain the ability and willingness to make leadership changes that will positively enhance their organizational and personal growth. He does this by sharing the eleven shifts he made over the course of his long and successful leadership career. Each shift changed his trajectory and set him up for new and exciting achievements, ultimately strengthening and sustaining his leadership abilities and making him the admired leadership expert he is today.
Among those leadershifts are the Adaptive Shift from Plan A to Option A, the Production Shift from Ladder Climbing to Ladder Building, and the Influence Shift from Positional Authority to Moral Authority. Maxwell gives specific guidance to readers about how to make these shifts in their own lives. Each one requires them to change the way they think, act, and ultimately lead so they can be successful in a world that never remains the same.
Adam Grant
The bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals examines the critical art of rethinking: learning to question your opinions and open other people's minds, which can position you for excellence at work and wisdom in life.
Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn. In our daily lives, too many of us favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt. We listen to opinions that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. We see disagreement as a threat to our egos, rather than an opportunity to learn. We surround ourselves with people who agree with our conclusions, when we should be gravitating toward those who challenge our thought process. The result is that our beliefs get brittle long before our bones. We think too much like preachers defending our sacred beliefs, prosecutors proving the other side wrong, and politicians campaigning for approval--and too little like scientists searching for truth. Intelligence is no cure, and it can even be a curse: being good at thinking can make us worse at rethinking. The brighter we are, the blinder to our own limitations we can become.
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant is an expert on opening other people's minds--and our own. With bold ideas and rigorous evidence, he investigates how we can embrace the joy of being wrong, bring nuance to charged conversations, and build schools, workplaces, and communities of lifelong learners. You'll learn how an international debate champion wins arguments, a Black musician persuades white supremacists to abandon hate, a vaccine whisperer convinces concerned parents to immunize their children, and Adam has coaxed Yankees fans to root for the Red Sox. Think Again reveals that we don't have to believe everything we think or internalize everything we feel. It's an invitation to let go of views that are no longer serving us well and prize mental flexibility over foolish consistency. If knowledge is power, knowing what we don't know is wisdom.
Lisa Delpit
In a radical analysis of contemporary classrooms, MacArthur Award–winning author Lisa Delpit develops ideas about ways teachers can be better “cultural transmitters” in the classroom, where prejudice, stereotypes, and cultural assumptions breed ineffective education. Delpit suggests that many academic problems attributed to children of color are actually the result of miscommunication, as primarily white teachers and “other people’s children” struggle with the imbalance of power and the dynamics plaguing our system.
A new classic among educators, Other People’s Children is a must-read for teachers, administrators, and parents striving to improve the quality of America’s education system.
Eric Jensen
Growing up with his share of adverse childhood experiences, Eric Jensen knows firsthand the relationship between student poverty and education and the importance of rich teaching for economically disadvantaged students. Discover practical and data-driven strategies to ensure college and career readiness for all students, regardless of socioeconomic status. This thorough resource details the necessary but difficult work that teachers must do to establish the foundational changes essential for overcoming adversity and positively impacting students from low-income families. Organized tools and resources are provided to help teachers effectively implement these essential changes and create a positive classroom environment. Access the complete resources by pairing this resource with its companion, Poor Students, Richer Teaching.
Full of ideas that can be easily implemented in any classroom, this book will help you:
Understand the urgency of poverty in the United States and how poverty affects education, student engagement, and academic achievement.
Learn how creating a positive school culture and a growth mindset for students can be beneficial in overcoming adversity.
Gain four powerful mindsets in the classroom setting to bring change: the relational mindset, achievement mindset, rich classroom climate mindset, and the engagement mindset.
Build effective teacher-student relationships, and help students see achievement as a reachable target.
Create a welcoming classroom climate where all students love to learn and are engaged for success
Marilee Sprenger
Today's teachers face a daunting challenge: how to ensure a positive school experience for their students, many of whom carry the burden of adverse childhood experiences, such as abuse, poverty, divorce, abandonment, and numerous other serious social issues. Spurred by her personal experience and extensive exploration of brain-based learning, author Marilee Sprenger explains how brain science—what we know about how the brain works—can be applied to social-emotional learning. Specifically, she addresses how to
- Build strong, caring relationships with students to give them a sense of belonging.
- Teach and model empathy, so students feel understood and can better understand others.
- Awaken students' self-awareness, including the ability to name their own emotions, have accurate self-perceptions, and display self-confidence and self-efficacy.
- Help students manage their behavior through impulse control, stress management, and other positive skills.
- Improve students' social awareness and interaction with others.
- Teach students how to handle relationships, including with people whose backgrounds differ from their own.
- Guide students in making responsible decisions.
Offering clear, easy-to-understand explanations of brain activity and dozens of specific strategies for all grade levels, Social-Emotional Learning and the Brain is an essential guide to creating supportive classroom environments and improving outcomes for all our students.
Kyle Schwartz
One day, third-grade teacher Kyle Schwartz asked her students to fill-in-the-blank in this sentence: "I wish my teacher knew _____." The results astounded her. Some answers were humorous, others were heartbreaking-all were profoundly moving and enlightening. The results opened her eyes to the need for educators to understand the unique realities their students face in order to create an open, safe and supportive place in the classroom. When Schwartz shared her experience online, #IWishMyTeacherKnew became an immediate worldwide viral phenomenon. Schwartz's book tells the story of #IWishMyTeacherKnew, including many students' emotional and insightful responses, and ultimately provides an invaluable guide for teachers, parents, and communities.
John C. Maxwell
In Good Leaders Ask Great Questions, John C. Maxwell delves into the process of becoming a successful leader by examining how questions can be used to advantage. What are the questions leaders should ask themselves? What questions should they ask members of their team? He then responds to the toughest problems leaders have presented to him. Using social media, Maxwell offered the floor to followers with unanswered questions about what it takes to achieve their professional best, and selected 70 questions on the most popular topics, including:
How can I discover my unique purpose as a leader?
What is the most effective daily habit that any leader should develop?
How do you motivate an unmotivated person?
How would you work with a difficult leader who has no vision?
This book is a thorough, insightful response to those readers and anyone who feels they have plateaued on their journey to develop their ultimate potential. Every leader has room to grow, and the advice in these pages will help listeners assess their current position, and structure an effective plan to achieve their goals.
Chip and Dan Heath
Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus news stories circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas—entrepreneurs, teachers, politicians, and journalists—struggle to make them “stick.”
In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the human scale principle, using the Velcro Theory of Memory, and creating curiosity gaps. Along the way, we discover that sticky messages of all kinds—from the infamous “kidney theft ring” hoax to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony—draw their power from the same six traits.
Made to Stick will transform the way you communicate. It’s a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures): the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of the Mother Teresa Effect; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation actually prevented racial prejudice.
Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick shows us the vital principles of winning ideas—and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.
Jimmy Casas
Eradicate Average! CULTURIZE Your School. Average schools don’t inspire greatness—and greatness is what our world needs if we are going to produce world-changing learners. In Culturize, author and education leader Jimmy Casas shares insights into what it takes to cultivate a community of learners who embody the innately human traits our world desperately needs, such as kindness, honesty, and compassion. His stories reveal how these “soft skills” can be honed while meeting and exceeding academic standards of twenty-first-century learning. You’ll learn...
- How to reach those who seem unreachable
- What to do when students disengage or drop out of school
- How to ensure your learners feel cared for and empowered
- How to create an environment where all learners are challenged and inspired to be their best
Paula Freire
First published in Portuguese in 1968, Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. The methodology of the late Paulo Freire has helped to empower countless impoverished and illiterate people throughout the world. Freire's work has taken on especial 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 increasingly accepted as the norm.
With a substantive new introduction on Freire's life and the remarkable impact of this book by writer and Freire confidant and authority Donaldo Macedo, this anniversary edition of Pedagogy of the Oppressed will inspire a new generation of educators, students, and general readers for years to come.
Chip and Dan Heath
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 a manager knew how to create an experience that would delight customers? 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.
Readers discover how brief experiences can change lives, such as the experiment in which two strangers meet in a room, and forty-five minutes later, they leave as best friends. (What happens in that time?) Or the tale of the world’s youngest female billionaire, who credits her resilience to something her father asked the family at the dinner table. (What was that simple question?)
Many of the defining moments in our lives are the result of accident or luck—but why would we leave our most meaningful, memorable moments to chance when we can create them? The Power of Moments shows us how to be the author of richer experiences.
John C. Maxwell
Are some people born to achieve anything they want while others struggle? Call them lucky, blessed, or possessors of the Midas touch. What is the real reason for their success? Is it family background, wealth, greater opportunities, high morals, an easy childhood?
New York Times best-selling author John C. Maxwell has the answer: The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.
Most people are never prepared to deal with failure. Maxwell says that if you are like him, coming out of school, you feared it, misunderstood it, and ran away from it. But Maxwell has learned to make failure his friend, and he can teach you to do the same.
"I want to help you learn how to confidently look the prospect of failure in the eye and move forward anyway," says Maxwell. "Because in life, the question is not if you will have problems, but how you are going to deal with them. Stop failing backward and start failing forward!"
Now, obviously, there are TONS of other books out there... but these are just some of the ones I came across in my research that spoke to me; all I can say is I am PUMPED for this year to start and to get back into teaching mode!
Did I miss any of your favorites? Tell me them below!
Until next time,
Paige
MBBS From Armenia
MBBS From Micronesia
MBBS From Russia
MBBS From Belize
MBBS From Georgia
MBBS From Nepal
MBBS from Bosnia
MBBS From Bangladesh
MBBS From Kyrgyztan
MBBS Form Kazakhstan
GNM Nursing Course
BSc Nursing Course
Assistant Nursing Course
Studying Medicine Abroad
Studying MBBS Abroad
Study MBBS Abroad