summer reading Archives - David Rickert

Teachers have summer reading lists too! This top ten list of summer reads for teachers includes books to inspire, motivate, and educate you for the next school year. Of course, there are also fun and light poolside reads for when you just need to relax! Whether you are honing your craft or giving your brain a vacation (well deserved) these books will bring you joy this summer.

Inquiry Mindset: Nurturing the Dreams, Wonders, and Curiosities of Our Youngest Learners
By: Trevor MacKenzie and Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt
Children are curious, they explore the world around them through play, imagination, and discovery. They build meaning, they create understanding, and they unabashedly share their learning. It’s in this process that they find joy in life and relevance in the world around them. Why, then, do some of our students become disconnected from their learning in school? Where does this natural curiosity go? And how, as educators, can we ensure all of our students experience a meaningful and wonder-filled journey through their education?

Present Over Perfect
By: Shauna Niequist
New York Times bestselling author Shauna Niequist invites you to consider the landscape of your own life, and what it might look like to leave behind the pressure to be perfect and begin the life-changing practice of simply being present, in the middle of the mess and the ordinariness of life.

The Cr eativity Project
Edited By: Colby Sharp
Colby Sharp invited more than forty authors and illustrators to provide story starters for each other; photos, drawings, poems, prose, or anything they could dream up. When they received their prompts, they responded by transforming these seeds into any form of creative work they wanted to share. The result is a stunning collection of words, art, poetry, and stories by some of our most celebrated children book creators.

Why Don’t Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom
Easy-to-apply, scientifically-based approaches for engaging students in the classroom

Cognitive scientist Dan Willingham focuses his acclaimed research on the biological and cognitive basis of learning. His book will help teachers improve their practice by explaining how they and their students think and learn. It reveals-the importance of story, emotion, memory, context, and routine in building knowledge and creating lasting learning experiences.

Make It Stick
By: Peter C. Brown
To most of us, learning something “the hard way” implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners.

The Most Fun We Ever Had
By: Claire Lombardo
A dazzling, multigenerational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple–still madly in love after forty years–recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they’ve built.

“Everything about this brilliant debut cuts deep: the humor, the wisdom, the pathos. Claire Lombardo writes like she’s been doing it for a hundred years, and like she’s been alive for a thousand.”

–Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great BelieversLock Every Door
By: Riley Sager
Parade.com “The Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2019 ” and “The Best Beach Reads of Summer 2019”
PureWow “The Best Beach Reads of Summer 2019”
BookBub “17 Books That Will Make the Perfect Addition to Your Beach Bag This Summer”

The next heart-pounding thriller from New York Times bestselling author Riley Sager follows a young woman whose new job apartment sitting in one of New York’s oldest and most glamorous buildings may cost more than it pays.

Beyond All Reasonable Doubt: A Novel
By: Malin Persson Giolito
Thirteen years ago, a fifteen-year-old girl was murdered. Doctor Stig Ahlin was sentenced to life in prison. But no one has forgotten the brutal crime. Ahlin is known as one of the most ruthless criminals. When Sophia Weber discovers critical flaws in the murder investigation, she decides to help Ahlin. But Sophia doing her utmost to get her client exonerated arouses many people’s disgust. And the more she learns, the more difficult her job becomes. What kind of man is her client really? What has he done? And will she ever know the truth?

Where the Crawdads Sing
By: Delia Owens
Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

Fewer Things, Better
By: Angela Watson
You can’t do it all. And you don’t have to try.
There are too many things competing for your attention as a teacher. The solution is NOT to manage your time better or work more efficiently.

Or at least — that’s not the place to start.

The most important step is getting clarity, and figuring out how to use your life to make an impact in ways that really matter. This book will help you strengthen the courage to do fewer things, so what remains can be done even better.