Being a teacher librarian, I’m reading ALL the time. For posts under this category, I review various books that I’ve read. This isn’t meant to be a YA or middle grade review site, so the books I review tend to focus on professional growth, makerspaces and creativity.
“What is a ‘maker’? Quite simply, makers make things. Some makers build robots, some sew clothes, some prepare food, some design tools, some construct houses. ‘Maker’ isn’t a title conveyed after passing some test or degree program; rather, it is a self-identification. It’s also not, by any stretch of the imagination, a new concept.” In … Read more
Creative Confidence I’m always up for reading books that deal with creativity and self-improvement. Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All certainly did not disappoint in this realm. Coming from the two guys who started the Stanford d.school and IDEO, I was excited to read about their perspective on creativity and design. While … Read more
Content Curation: How to Avoid Information Overload Content Curation is an excellent resource for helping you learn how to organize all the information you ingest. I don’t know about you, but figuring out a good method for dealing with the tons of information at my fingertips is no easy task. You’d think as a … Read more
Read this book: Show Your Work I had heard from other friends and educators that Austin Kleon‘s books were must reads. So when I visited the gift shop at the New York Public Library back in December and HAD to buy something (because it’s NYPL, and they give discounts to librarians), I decided to … Read more
I was beyond excited when I heard that Laura Fleming was writing a book on makerspaces. And I was even more excited (and honored) when she asked me to write a section on the beginnings of our makerspace at Stewart. So I made sure to order several copies as soon as it became available on … Read more
I’d been hearing over and over again from pretty much everyone that I absolutely needed to read The Third Teacher. I received it as a birthday gift back in Februrary, but didn’t get around to reading it until this summer. At first, it took me a bit to get used to the design of … Read more
Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration is a fabulous book for any educator looking to change up their learning space to support students collaboration. Even though this book is not directly about schools (it focuses more on offices and universities) there’s so many practical lessons to be taken from this book. So … Read more
Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom is an amazing book. I’ve read tons of articles on Makerspaces, and several books as well, but this is certainly one of the best when it comes to focusing specifically on how making can be used in the classroom, and on starting up a school Makerspace. … Read more
I’ve been focusing my professional reading lately on books related to the Maker Education movement. Design, Make, Play: Growing the Next Generation of STEM Innovators, with a collection of writings by different experts and organizations in the Maker movement, did not disappoint. This is a must read for anyone interested in Maker Education. Here’s my … Read more
The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age was recommended by me to one of my colleagues during her presentation on developing teacher leadership. Over the past few months, I’ve been gradually working my way through it, trying to soak up as much from it along the way as I could. Here’s my … Read more