Must reads for teachers!

I've been inspired!!

Over two years ago I compiled/crowd sourced a list of recommended books for fellow colleagues and our staff library.  I asked the Twitter community to post or tweet their own suggestions.  I was overwhelmed by the response from those who obviously feel so passionate about educational reading.  Most of these books are now available at our school for teachers to borrow, read and reference.

Now in 2014 I once again needed some suggestions for books that have again influenced many peoples thinking and practice.  Below is a pretty comprehensive list, all recommended by actual teachers for teachers.  Many have been suggested a number of times so it's safe to say that many of these books should be inspirational for you as well.


So here is the list (in no particular order):

1. 'Practice Perfect' by Doug Lemov, Erica Woolway and Katie Yezzi
2. 'The Multiplier Effect' by Liz Wiseman, Lois N. Allen and Elise Foster
3. 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins
4. 'Teach like a Champion' by Doug Lemov and Norman Atkins
5. 'Switch: How to change things when change is hard' by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
6. 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell
7. 'Leverage Leadership' by Doug Lemov, Paul Bambrick-Santoyo and Brett Peiser
8. 'Why Do I Need A Teacher When I've Got Google'.  Ian Gilbert
9. 'Mindset: How You Can Fulfill Your Potentia'l:  Carol S. Dweck
10. 'Creating Outstanding Classrooms' by Oliver Knight and David Benson
11. 'Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School' by Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan
12. 'Bounce' by Matthew Syed
13. 'Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us' by Daniel H. Pink
14. 'Learning to Learn in Practice'. Alistair Smith, Mark Lovatt and John Turner
15. 'Evidence Based Teaching'.  Geoff Petty
16. 'Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development (Essays in Social Psychology)'. Carol S. Dweck
17. 'An ethic of excellence' by Ron Berger (Thanks @saidthemac)
18. 'The Teacher's Toolkit: Raise classroom achievement with strategies for every learner'. Paul Ginnis
19. 'The Little Book of Big Stuff About The Brain':  Andrew Curran
20. 'The Lazy Teacher's Handbook'.  Jim Smith
21. 'Full On Learning: Involve Me and I'll Understand'.  Zoe Elder (Numerous recomemndations)
22. 'Teaching Today: A Practical Guide'.  Geoff Petty
23. 'SOLO Taxonomy' by Pam Hook (Thanks @dockers_hoops)
24. 'The Perfect English Ofsted Lesson'. David Didau (Numerous recommendations)
25. 'Visible Learning for Teachers' - John Hattie (Thanks @damianainscough & @LGolton)
26. 'High Performers' - Alistair Smith (Thanks @damianainscough)
27. 'Creating Tomorrow's Schools Today' by Richard Gerver (Thanks @dockers_hoops)
28. 'Inspirational Teachers Inspirational Learners' by Will Ryan (Thanks @dockers_hoops)
29. 'Building Learning Power' by Guy Claxton (Thanks @dockers_hoops)
30. 'What the best college teachers do' by Ken Bain (Thanks @pllatreille)
31. 'Making learning whole' by David Perkins (Thanks @saidthemac)
32. 'Understanding by Design' -  Mctighe and Wiggins (Thanks @damianainscough)
33. 'Embedded Formative Assessment' - Dylan Wiliam(Thanks @damianainscough)
34. 'Why students don't like school' by Daniel Willingham (Thanks @DrDav )
35. 'The Big Book of Independent Thinking' by Ian Gilbert (Thanks @James1980Wilson)
36. 'The Idle Parent: Why Less Means More When Raising Kids' by Tom Hodgkinson (Thanks @James1980Wilson)
37. 'Hidden Lives of Learners' by Graham Nuthall (Thanks @Cinderhills)
38. 'How to Teach' by Phil Beadle (Thanks @dockers_hoops)
39. 'Closing the Learning Gap' by Mike Hughes (Thanks @dockers_hoops)
40. 'Tweak to Transform' by Mike Hughes (Thanks @Cinderhills)
41. 'Leading the Learning School' by Colin Weatherley (Thanks @Cinderhills)
42. Dancing About Architecture: A Little Book of Creativity by Phil Beadle (Numerous recommendations)
43. 'OOps!  Helping Childern Learn Accidentally'.  Hywel Roberts (Numerous reccomendations)

A big thanks to everyone that tweeted suggestions and contributed.  This is an excellent list and really shows off peoples passions and inspirations in the world of education.  I look forward to getting through as many of these as I can!  Hopefully many of you will as well.