My summer is full of books that I either want to read or have to read.  I have the text about cognitive psychology and learning I have to read for my Masters class, the book about instructional coaching I am reading as part of work I do with our other instructional coaches and then there are the books I am reading just to improve as an educator or to help keep me focused on what is important.  As I read these books I either take notes in a Google Doc, highlight the text (both digital and physical) and I tend to tweet out those parts that really stick out to me.

I think we have a duty as educators to not only keep growing but to help our colleagues keep growing.  One way we can do that is to share out what we are reading and the big ideas from those readings.  As teachers it is way to easy to either get stuck in a rut or get burned out and there are books out there to help us get out of each situation.  “Teach Like a Pirate” by Dave Burgess is one of those books I read this year that I think could benefit almost every teacher out there.  This book is about engagement and using your passion as an educator to help students.  I tell a lot of teachers about this book in person and on social media.  It is one of those books I wish I had read earlier in my teaching career.

The other big book I am reading this summer and will share out information about, both in person and using social media, is “Digital Leadership” by Erin Sheninger.  This book is vital to those are working towards helping to bring schools into the present and to improve them using the technology that we have so readily available.  I am hoping to finish this in time for the ISTE conference so I can talk with others who have read it or gain further understanding by attending various sessions dealing with the topics involved in the book.

It is important that we share out what we are learning as we are reading so that we can both help other teachers and to have our own conversations with others to further our learning.  I share out what I am reading on Twitter and I also made my profile public with my Kindle texts so I can share out my highlights and notes.  You can see those at https://kindle.amazon.com/profile/Patrick-Donovan/7316503, although I have mostly just highlighted and need to write more notes to share out.  There are many ways we can use technology to share out what we are learning and we as teachers need to be modeling this to our students as we use it to help ourselves and other teachers.