DAVID WEES
Thoughts from a reflective educator.
Must reads for new teachers?
One of my grade 11 students wants to be a mathematics teacher. She has asked me a for a list of books she should read. Here is a list of books I would recommend, along with some recommendations from members of my Twitter network.
- Why Children Fail by John Holt
- A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart
- Mathematics Miseducation by Derek Stolp
- The Element by Sir Ken Robinson
- Teaching Children to Care by Ruth Charney ( suggested by @lookforsun )
- Mosaic of Thought by Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmerman ( suggested by @lookforsun )
- Comprehending Math by Arthur Hyde ( suggested by @lookforsun )
- The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon ( suggested by @getcarter66 )
- Mindset by Carol Dweck
- What does it mean to be well educated? by Alfie Kohn ( suggested by @symphily )
- The Homework Myth by Alfie Kohn
- Punished by Rewardsby Alfie Kohn
- The Six-Lesson School Teacher by John Taylor Gatto
- A Different Kind of Teacher by John Taylor Gatto ( suggested by @symphily )
- The New Teacher Book by Stephanie Walters ( suggested by @symphily )
- The Three Questions by Jon Muth ( suggested by @brophycat )
- Teaching Tools by Fred Jones ( suggested by @graemecampbell )
- Words Worth Teaching - Dr. Andrew Biemiller, OISE. ( suggested by @pattimarathon )
What else would you add to this list?
About David
David is a mathematics teacher and a learning specialist for technology at Stratford Hall in Vancouver, BC. He has been teaching since 2002, and has worked in Brooklyn, London, and Bangkok before moving back to Canada. He has his Masters degree in Educational Technology from UBC, and is the co-author of a mathematics textbook. He has been published in ISTE's Leading and Learning, Educational Technology Solutions, The Software Developers Journal, The Bangkok Post and Edutopia. He blogs with the Cooperative Catalyst, and is the Assessment group facilitator for Edutopia. He has also helped organize the first Edcamp in Canada, and TEDxKIDS@BC.
Subscribe via email
Subcribe to my blog
Search
Popular content
- Creating a WiiMote interactive white board at my school for under $50.
- Forget the future: Here's the textbook I want now
- 20 reasons not to use a one to one laptop program in your school (and some solutions)
- Online Geogebra training
- For whom are Interactive White boards Interactive?
- Eight Videos to Help Teachers Get Started Using Twitter
- 15 things kids can do instead of homework
- What is The Effect of Technology Training for Teachers on Student Achievement?
- Paper use in schools
- Using Google forms for a "Choose your own adventure" style story
- 1 of 76
- ››
Comments
The Courage to Teach
by Parker J. Palmer
http://www.amazon.ca/Courage-Teach-Exploring-Landscape-Anniversary/dp/07...
Innumeracy and A Mathematicians Apoplogy
Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos (actually, anything by John Allen Paulos)
A Mathematician's Apology by G.H. Hardy
A Mathematician's Apology is not a math-ed book, but should be read by any future mathematicians.
Flatland
Flatland by Edwin Abbott
A book about a world of geometric shapes and the mathematical and political rules that govern their lives. It was written in 1884.
Here is the wiki entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland
Drive - Daniel Pink What's
Drive - Daniel Pink
What's The Point of School? - Guy Claxton
Lost at School - Dr Ross Greene
From compliance to community
Although Alfie Kohn is on this list several times already, I highly recommend his book Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community (http://amzn.to/jJRCPc), which had (and continues to have) a profound impact on my own views about learning and teaching.
"This book questions the assumption that classroom problems are always the fault of students who don't do what they are told. New classroom management techniques are not the answer, he says. Instead, we must reconsider what we're telling students to do and to learn. He shows how a fundamentally cynical view of children lies beneath the assumption that we must tell students exactly how we expect them to behave and then punish or reward them accordingly. Kohn contrasts the idea of discipline, in which things are done to students to control their behavior, with an approach in which we work with students to create caring communities where decisions are made together." - from http://amzn.to/jJRCPc
The Teenage Liberation Handbook
The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn (John Holt's philosophical heir). And maybe _Real Lives_, same author.
A New Culture of Learning:
A New Culture of Learning: Cultivation the Imagination for a World of Constant Change
by: Douglas Thomas & John Seely Brown
This is a great easy read! It fundamentally changed my views of education and made me think more deeply about my own learning.
Good reading!!
The Book of Learning and Forgetting
"The Book of Learning and Forgetting" - Frank Smith
A critique of the "official theory of learning" and reinforcement of the "classical view of learning". Well referenced and researched, but easy to understand to and quick to read.
Books to read
What's Math Got To Do With It? Helping Children Learn to Love Their Least Favourite Subject - And Why It's Important to America by Jo Boaler
I recently read this book and although it does focus on the USA, it is still applicable to Canada. This book was suggested by Steven Leinwand. He also has written some books. The following is one that I have read and found very worthwhile. "Ten Instructional Shifts That Raise Student Achievement and Sensible Mathematics: A Guide for School Leaders."
Post new comment