A Reading Prescription for 2016

Closing out 2015, I reflected on the adventure of trying new things, the sorrow of losing things precious to me, and the determination that I have to keep moving forward in all areas of my life.  A book was always in my hand to provide me with knowledge and inspiration.

Wherever you may be right now in your career and personal life, I'm sure that you're also reflecting and beginning to plan ahead for the new year. In The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George,  Perdu the bookseller has an uncanny ability to prescribe just the right reading for everyone who walks in the door. In that spirit, here are my reading prescriptions for educators who are wanting to make change happen in 2016.

A Fresh Start
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. Clear out the clutter and the cobwebs in your office and home and you'll find that your thinking clears up too. There is a certain magic to this book if you can just believe and follow Kondo's expert advice.

Leadership Lessons
Strength Finders 2.0 by Tom Rath provides access to an online assessment to give you a nudge in the right direction of your talents.
The Innovator's Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity by George Couros. George has a heart for students and encourages school leaders to establish a common vision and build on the strengths of others.
The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools by Liz Wiseman, Lois Allen and Elise Foster. This book provides many great team activities to bring out the best in everyone and build a strong team.

I Have an Idea
How to Come Up With Great Ideas and Actually Make Them Happen by Ewan McIntosh. Ewan practices what he preaches and uses learning from companies and schools to show how design thinking can help your organization to innovate.
The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design by IDEO.org is a great toolkit for getting started with designing solutions that are innovative and impactful. Great workshop materials are included.
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. Don't just sit there. Get moving! This book encourages you to build the plane while you're flying it.

Seeking Adventure
A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life by Brian Grazer. Brian's stories will give you ideas for seeking out answers to those curious questions.
The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion by Ella Luna. Sometimes you just need a little inspiration. This book will inspire you to take advantage of opportunities for adventure.
Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World by Tina Seelig. Tina provides insights into how you can move forward with implementing your ideas with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Stuck in a Rut 
The Achievement Habit by Bernard Roth. Roth, co-founder of the Stanford d.school, explores how you can use design thinking to reach your goals.
Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less by Robert Sutton. Sutton shares his expertise and discusses how successful organizations are able to effectively scale programs.
Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith will challenge you to think about re-imagining education to prepare students for success in a global economy.

Craving Creativity
The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the Power to Think Differently by Sunni Brown will unlock your artistic abilities and enable you to capture deep thinking.
Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by David Kelley. Kelley believes that we all have the power to think creatively and use innovative approaches to solve problems.

Telling your Story 
Weekend Language: Presenting with More Stories and Less PowerPoint by Andy Craig and Dave Yewman will give you the tools to be a great speaker.
The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam. Learn how you can sell your idea to anyone using six types of images.
Um..: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean by Michael Erard will make you more aware of how you speak and help you to remove "um" and "you know" from your vocabulary.

Dealing with Failure
The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble and the companion book How Stella Saved the Farm explains how to navigate rough waters and build new capabilities for your organization.
Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon MacKenzie is a fun read and helpful for educators who are navigating roadblocks and jumping over hurdles.

I hope this list will provide you with the right dose of inspiration, knowledge, and confidence as you enter into 2016. Enjoy!

Cultivating Curiosity

Over the past few months, I’ve been on a journey to explore the role that curiosity plays in deeper learning experiences for students.  Michael Fullan’s work on deep learning as well as the emphasis on academic rigor with Webb’s Depth of Knowledge Levels made me curious to explore this question: “How might we cultivate an environment where educators sit in the passenger seat and are expert guides to empower students to drive their own learning?”

It seems to me that curiosity is the starting point to drive student engagement and learning. We’ll never get our students to the higher levels of DOK and Bloom’s Taxonomy on a regular basis without the 5th C of curiosity. And I believe that the best way to cultivate this skill in students is to practice being curious.

In October, the Teacher’s Guild hosted a collaboration sprint with the Nueva Innovative Learning Conference to ask the question, How might we spark student curiosity? I was fortunate to attend the conference and also work on the design sprint. The conference sessions, led by amazing experts from many academic fields, pushed my thinking and sparked my curiosity about a wide range of topics. At the close of the conference, I was energized to go back to work and implement some new ideas that developed from my experience. Visit the Teacher’s Guild to see the ideas generated at the conference and participate in their new collaboration on professional learning.

Below are some additional tips to help you cultivate your natural curiosity and incorporate curiosity into your work with educators and students:

Observe what’s happening around you and jot down notes to explore themes that you’re seeing in your classroom, at your school, or in your role as an administrator. Form a team to begin designing innovative solutions.

Surround yourself with others inside and outside of the education field who are also curious. Don Tomlin, an investor in my hometown of Columbia (SC), talked at Startup Grind about developing your relational database. By developing relationships with a wide range of people, you’ll expose yourself to new ideas which you can bring into your own work. My thinking was recently stretched when I spent several days with Intel visionaries from around the world. We met as strangers but ended as friends and colleagues. You will become more curious when you stretch beyond your comfort zone.

Learn to listen and ask open-ended questions. In his book A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life,”Brian Glazer shares his years of experience as a producer for movies including Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind. He learned early in his career that asking questions and listening to the answers would give him new ideas for movies.  He made a point of seeking out meetings with people who he was curious to know.

Develop a culture with your co-workers of using  techniques which spark conversation and curiosity. When someone mentions a current challenge that they are facing, use the 5 Whys method to get to the root cause. By asking “why” at least five times, you’ll come much closer to developing an action plan to correct the problem. The critical friends protocol includes starting with “I like” and then asking “I wonder…” Use this questioning protocol when you’re discussing a project with your colleagues. Finish the conversation with next steps based on feedback from the questions.

We’re all born curious. As young children, we asked questions about everything. As we grew older, we were told to listen and stop questioning authority.  To keep student curiosity alive, implement learning models that include project-based learning and passion-based learning. Let students develop generative topics that will allow them to follow their interests.

Do something outside of your comfort zone. Explore a topic that you want to learn more about and have students guide you in that learning. I recently helped with organizing a Google Devfest event. I’m just a tinkerer when it comes to coding, but I didn’t let that stop me from participating in and leading sessions. My favorite learning came from elementary and high school students who taught me how to get started with using an Arduino board. I’ve got the board now and am looking forward to connecting with them to learn more.

Our future depends on cultivating curiosity in our students. Start today with a question that you want to explore and ask your students and co-workers to join you in curious pursuits.