Required reading for the 21st Century teacher

28 01 2007

When I went home for vacation last summer I spent a small fortune on a selection of books about technology in education. There were a few extra special books that had a major impact on my teaching and learning this year so I thought I’d make a list of my top 3 books for the 21st Century teacher:

My first purchase was Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson. I think I read this one in one afternoon and it was so inspiring and practical that I started our students with blogging as soon as we returned from summer vacation. We’ve been quite successful with wikis in recent months and I’m just about to start working with podcasting. I feel extra lucky because this year my job has changed slightly and I’ve been given 40% release time to work with other teachers on integrating technology into their classroom – this book has been invaluable as an introduction for them, and also for practical ideas and advice on how to implement the technology.

I’m just finishing Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century by David Warlick this weekend. What a powerful book – everything I’ve been saying to teachers and administrators is all right here. To me, this is the quintessential book for the 21st Century teacher. For the last seven years, my philosophy of education has been to teach students how to learn, because we never know what will be coming next, especially in the area of technology. To read this book and see everything so clearly laid out is the perfect resource in my opinion. I am definitely going to recommend this book to every teacher I work with in the future.

Another favorite: The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. I read this one a while back, but I am part of a book club (made up entirely of teachers) here in KL and we just had our discussion about this book. Much of our conversation was focused on whether or not teachers are doing their job if they do not utilize technology in their classroom. This is the kind of discussion we need to be having in schools so that we all have a common understanding of how to prepare our children for a future we can not imagine (to paraphrase David Warlick).

What else should I be reading? What’s on your list?

Image 1 from:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1586831305.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_SL160_.jpg
Image 2 from: http://www.pacifica-group.com/images/World%20is%20flat.jpg
Image 3 from: http://grfriesen.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/richardson.jpg

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Date : 28 January 2007
Categories : 21st Century Learning

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11 responses to “Required reading for the 21st Century teacher”

29 01 2007: kwhobbes (04:52:10) :

Hello, some interesting reading. My reading looks like such:

Professional Learning Communities at Work – Dufour and Eaker
Failure is Not an Option – Alan M. Blankstein
The Learning Leader – Douglas B. Reeves
Improving Schools from Within – Roland Barth
The World is Flat – Thomas L. Friedman
Social Intelligence – Daniel Goleman
The Three-Minute Walk-Through – Corolyn J. Downey
Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design – Tomlinson & McTighe
SMART School Teams – Conzemius and O’Neill
Seven Layers of Organization – Christopher Lowell
Tanquil – Terry Brooks
Teaching for Understanding with Technology – Martha Stone Wiske
Thanks for your suggestions.
Kelly
Kelly
29 01 2007: mscofino (06:56:00) :

I also love Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design. I was thinking about adding that to my list to make it a top four – such an easy to read book with so many practical suggestions!

Thanks for your list, it looks like I’ll be spending yet another small fortune at Amazon
29 01 2007: Miss Profe (10:10:17) :

Great reading suggestions, Kim and Kelly!

I also would add two books by Malcolm Gladwell: The Tipping Point, and Blink.

Miss Profe

And, thank you Kim, for visiting my blog and for sharing the info. re: The Amesty Campaign Against Blood Diamonds.:)
29 01 2007: Graham Wegner (10:44:05) :

The last two I’ve read that have educational implications are Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind” and Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point”. I was reading the latter when the 5 things meme was virally spreading through the edublogosphere – it really made me wonder what it would take to create a Web 2.0 tipping point in education.
29 01 2007: mscofino (11:29:40) :

Miss Profe,

I loved Blink! I just bought The Tipping Point, but I haven’t started it yet. Another one I liked that was similar (I think) to The Tipping Point is The Long Tail.

I just saw Blood Diamond – what a fantastic movie – have you seen it?

Graham,

Thanks for the suggestion! I will pick up “A Whole New Mind” the next time I’m at the bookstore
29 01 2007: Educational Discourse » Gone Clubbing (13:54:53) :

[...] Today I’ve been doing some catching up on some reading. I did visit most of the blogs on my Google Reader list and strolled through many of the sites, leaving comments here and there. I was stepping through Kim Cofino’s always learning blog where she had a list of three books essential for 21st Century Educators. I have to admit, I haven’t read Will Richardson or David Warlick’s book. I am reading Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat and I’m enjoying the information that it has regarding the flattening of the world. However, as I thought about what I added to the list, I began to think about how the beourcratic elements of our schools and the exposure we have via our Professional Development really shapes the information that we are consuming as teachers, if we are actually consuming any information. In Saskatchewan we have just finished a very major amalgamation that was brought on through government legislation. Whether I liked it or not is immaterial at this point and since one gets no where looking backwards, I tend to look forward, find positive and move on making what I have the best that it can be. Our new division is focusing on the SMART goals philosophy Ann Conzemius and Jan O’Neill. Their book The Handbook for SMART School Teams sets out how schools can use this, combined with the Professional Learning Communitees ideas from Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker, to change how schools function and focus on Data Driven Decisions to improve the learning outcomes of the students in the school. Thus, much of my reading has been focused on the works of these authors and the ideas that are within their pages. [...]
5 02 2007: Alexander Hayes (18:28:27) :

Hi,

I think the best books to read are the ones have got absolutely nothing to do with technology and more to do with thoughts about to reframe your conditioned behavioristically attuned self.

If you think about it how much time do you spend trying to be better than who you already are ? I reckon you should quit trying to grow up too fast.

I’m still trying to get through Krishnamurti Snrs. “Education and the Significance of Life” written in 1876. It’s only a thin book but has lots of cool things going on that keep repeating themselves in all the workings of anything written to date.

Another good read is the latest tech. article in the Times magazine entitled “Person Of The Year – You ”

You’ve got a good blog going…..keep it alive with stuff in your life thats everyday. It makes for a good read.
20 02 2007: Educational Discourse » Literacy - the book club way (05:33:50) :

[...] I have been trying to get a cyber book club going for learning professionals for the past few weeks. I got the idea while reading msconfino’s blog and her list of reading. Since I’m finding that my PD is much more enlightening via online interactions, I thought it would be interesting to see if something like a traditional book club could be done using the tools of web2.0. [...]
2 04 2008: The 21st Century Educator | always learning (10:45:43) :

[...] as I sent the article off, I realized I had forgotten a few key things like social bookmarking, and some helpful books I read before I started. What else am I [...]
4 03 2009: ppstlc (02:56:29) :

Thanks for all the thoughtful posts! I’ve found lots of great information from your blog. Two books I would recommend are Using Technology with Classroom Instruction That Works by Pitler and Classroom Grading and Assessment That Work by Marzano.
9 03 2009: Kim Cofino (09:20:05) :

@Alex,

Thanks for the advice and the reads. I’ve always tried to grow up too fast… A little scary that it comes through in my writing though…

@ppstlc,

Thanks for the suggested reads! I don’t have the Pitler book – I’ll add it to my summer Amazon order!

Welcome!

Hi! My name is Kim Cofino.

Always Learning is a place to reflect on my teaching and learning as the 21st Century Literacy Specialist at the International School Bangkok in Thailand.

You can find out more about my professional experiences at my electronic portfolio, which I share with my husband, Alex, an ESL/English teacher. Or, if you prefer, you can visit: