Skip to main content

You Should Read It

How many times have you finished a fantastic book full of so many ideas, and then struggled to tell people about it? You know the book is full of ideas you think would not only benefit you and your students but other teachers and their students. However the best you can muster up in a conversation is, "It was a great book,"  "You should read it," or "You would really like to read it." Not glowing reviews, even by Amazon's standards. 
 
If you are like me, chances are this has happened to you many times. I feel foolish I cannot articulate anything better than, "You should read it." (Makes me wonder how I can articulate enough to write my blogs.) And even worse, even though I know however great the book was I just read, I end up forgetting a lot of it. Sure I underlined or highlighted and made comments in the book, but those books ultimately end up on my shelf waiting for some company from the elf the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas eve. 
 
So what can be done to better articulate, remember, and put those ideas from the book into practice? While sketchnoting looks and sounds really effective, I am not there yet. However it does not mean I won't try that out someday soon. I think it is a great practice and something worthwhile. For now though, I like to do the following:
Wait one, maybe two days which gives me time to digest and reflect what I just read
Go back through the book and my notes
Make an outline from my notes in Google docs (this way I can access it anytime, anywhere)
Join in book chats on Twitter
Nothing extraordinary. Just simple things to help me make the book more relevant.
 
So far this summer, I have read Personalized PD: Flipping Your Professional Development by Jason Bretzmann, Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess, Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller, and Kids Deserve It! by Todd Nesloney and Adam Welcome. All four books I think are great, and really think you should read them.) With all the ideas I want to try out this coming school year from them, I know that I will forget a lot of what I read from them, unless I take a little extra time with them. 
The Twitter book chats/conversations for the aboved mentioned books are:
Personalized PD: Flipping Your Professional Development: #personalizedpd
Teach Like a Pirate: #tlap
Ditch That Textbook: #ditchbook
Kids Deserve It!: #KidsDeserveIt
These are so powerful because you connect with the authors and so many other educators. These chats make what you read relevant and memorable. It allows you to know what you just read so much better, and it allows you to better articulate all the wonderful ideas in the book. 
 
If you have another suggestion for being able to better remember and articulate books you read, please feel free to comment it below. I really would, "like to read it."

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flipping Out for Faculty Meetings

This year my classroom grew from about 25 students to about 665 students, as I made the transition from sixth grade teacher to elementary principal. It has been an exciting and enjoyable transition. It has also been interesting being on the other side of things. For example, being on the other side of faculty meetings. September's faculty meeting I did the traditional approach. Scheduled it. Sent out an email reminder. Met with the faculty and started going over what I needed to say, offering very little time for discussion. But then I did change things up about half way through. I introduced our district's Google Expedition VR kits. I took them on a few virtual reality field trips and showed them how they could be used with any subject. Then before I knew it, it was time for the students to arrive. As I prepared for my October faculty meeting, I thought about how I introduced the teachers to the Google Expeditions VR kits and how teachers in grades 3, 5, and 6 used tho
Post a Comment
Read more

At The Edge of The Diving Board

Am I ready for this? Are my students ready for this? Is it too late to turn back? What will my students think if I turn back? Did I prepare them well enough? Should I spend more time going over the different stations? Will this work? All of these questions and so many more were flying around in my head as I looked out at my first period math class who were about to begin the blended learning station rotation model. Then I was able to take a breath which gave me a sense of calm. It was in that moment I saw the excitement in my students' faces. I saw their belief in me. I realized they were craving something new, something different, something meaningful, and something that they can take with them for years that will help them in THEIR future. So, I jumped off that "diving board" and into the blended learning model. I came up splashing and reaching for that edge of the pool, and as I made it over there I realized it was fun, exciting, engaging, and yes, messy, but als
Post a Comment
Read more

Instant Pot, Instant Failure

The Instant Pot I received for Christmas this past year sat for a few months before I even thought about using it. My wife would remind me frequently we had it and that I should try it (I do all the cooking in the house. She does all the laundry. Fair trade-off). When she would encourage me to use our new cooking gadget, I looked at her and our Instant Pot with a little disdain. I felt my cooking was pretty good, and besides I already had my go to Pioneer Woman dinners that couldn't be beat. So I was always a bit insulted when the Instant Pot was referenced in my house, as I felt not only was my cooking being insulted but so was the Pioneer Woman herself, Ree Drummond. Then one night in late January it all started to change. I came home late from work to find my wife using the Instant Pot! I have to admit, the meal she cooked was pretty good, but secretively I was a little upset. I was not about to let her one-up me with the use of the Instant Pot, so I began searching for and
Post a Comment
Read more