5 INSPIRING BOOKS FOR TEACHERS TO READ THIS SUMMER

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Summer is here and it’s time to have fun and relax.

It’s also a time to recharge batteries and refresh the heart and mind with inspiring ideas.

One of my favourite ways to do this is to read on the beach while soaking up the sun. Here are my five choices for an inspiring summer.

 

1) Learning to Go by Shelly Sanchez Terrell.

 

 

This ebook helps you integrate mlearning with its unique design:

In my experience  Learning To Go   is the first of its kind in education, with its dynamic non-linear design and user-friendly integration of elearning technology. It guides teachers into the wonderful world of mobile learning through intuitive maps, resources, lessons and handouts.

If books have soul, then I believe that this cutting-edge, beautifully designed book is bursting with Karma. Not only did Shelly Terrell publish this book, but at the same time, she created and organized a massive online course called ‘Crafting the eperfect textbook for the Electronic Village Online 2014’.

How many writers complete their own books whilst helping hundreds of other teachers online to do the same thing simultaneously?

WHAT YOU GET:

*A Content Map that allows more freedom than a Table of Contents.

Click or touch to explore the lessons, resources, apps, and handouts.

*Navigation bars at the bottom of pages to quickly get you around.

*An App guide

*Storyboards, evaluation forms, and rubrics.

*Templates for students to draw on their devices

This book is going to ease all of us more gently into the mobile learning era and is guaranteed to make a big difference to students and teachers everywhere.

 

2) The 3 0 goals Challenge f or Teachers by Shelly Terrell.

 

If Learning To Go is bursting with karma, this book is bursting with the collective wits & vibes of Shelly’s global Edugoal community. This book is a testament to community spirit, making a difference, caring & daring.

Above and beyond that, it’s a testament to Shelly’s vibrant global career as a thought leader and champion of teachers everywhere. You can learn more about  her inspiring work here  on her visual CV, and learn a bit about  who she really is from my recent interview with her  on WiziQ.

Shelly’s dream started off when she decided to connect with other teachers and started building up networks on Twitter. She tells the story of her goal to reach a million here, and passionately describes what it all means in the larger scheme of things.

Practically speaking, this book lays out a simply brilliant framework for setting achievable goals and sky-rocketing your teaching career. Through stretching comfort zones, avoiding burnout, building up resilience, and caring about the bigger picture you can reinvent what you ‘think’ you are and become who you REALLY are.

Finally, above and beyond practicalities, the whole experience makes you more creative, more optimistic, and more primed for those special ‘WOW’ moments in your life.

Speaking of WOW moments, this next book goes perfectly with the 30 Goals Challenges.

3) Teaching in pursuit of WOW.

 

 

Written by  Tim Murphey , this book brimming with insights into the psychology of creative thinking and artistic inspiration.

I learnt about the book through a brilliant review written by Nick Michelioudakis for Humanising language teaching publications.

Here is a quote from Nick’s review and  please click here for the full account.

“WOW! Psychology!“Reading ‘WOW!’ the image one forms of the writer is that of a sensitive educator in the best humanistic tradition, a teacher who knows that ‘happiness comes from between’ (Haidt 2006 – Ch 10) and who looks at the world with keen eyes always in anticipation of the next incident and what it might reveal”.

The great thing about Nick’s review was that he brought in his own psychological insights and background references to bear on Tim’s book. Check out essentialism, social proof, consistency, the IKEA effect, and ‘our hivish tendencies’.

This review also  coincided with my idea to feature a Friday Book Club with book reviews on video for a new collaborative facebook page,  soon to be officially launched called  ‘Brain-friendly Communities Online’.

 

4) Group Dynamics By Tim Murphey and Dr Zoltan Dornyei

 

I was fascinated when I read in the review above that Tim Murphey also co-authored a book called ‘Group dynamics’ with Dr Zoltan Dornyei, as coincidentally, my upcoming webinar for the #TTO MOOC, Teachers Teaching Online, is called ‘Managing Group Dynamics Online’. I immediately ordered the book on Amazon and hope I’ll get to read it before my presentation. Otherwise, I’ll write about it after the event.

Anyway, this book was particularly relevant to me for my presentation, action research and experimental purposes, but of course, it’s relevant to all teacher everywhere – as group dynamics define the energy of the classroom experience.

I love to adapt creative ideas from psychology and classic ELT traditions into online learning, so this is perfect for me. Don’t be surprised if I start manically tracing mind maps in the sand as I read on the beach;)

5) Google plus Strategies – a Divapreneurs Quck Start….

 

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This is a total gem for Divapreneurs, Edupreneurs, even Guypreneurs, and all kinds of educators who wish to carve out an online presence.

As the book says  Google Plus is a social layer encompassing and surpassing all other social networks, including facebook.

I’m now planning a new base from Google plus and will also have a Brain-friendly Community there.

The new communities on Facebook and Google Plus will be in collaboration with Shelly Terrell and Jason R. Levine in a bid to join our networks and join forces in helping teachers around the world.

Google Plus Strategies is my social media book for the summer and I recommend it to everyone.

Here’s to a great summer..!!

“Summertime is always the best of what might be.” ― Charles Bowden

 

S H A R E O N :

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Sylvia Guinanis an online English teacher, writer and blogger who facilitates professional development online. She uses

brain-friendly techniques to help students and teachers around the world. She designs educational materials,

develops courses, writes resource papers and publishes ebooks. Her work is the result of much research into

the psychology of learning, as well as hands-on experience with multi-media technology.