Hey? Whatcha Readin'?

"I don't read books on education. I read books on business, creativity, innovation & make parallels to learning."

I saw this quote on Twitter the other day and it stuck with me. I'm inferring from the tweet, that this quote can be attributed to David Culberhouse, whom I met recently at a CUE Admin Rockstar Camp. David's session focused on leading our schools while fostering innovation and creativity. To center our work, we read an excerpt from Exploiting Chaos. Then, we discussed using a reading protocol. I was happy. Effective Professional Learning should mirror good teaching practices that we want to see in the classroom, while overtly stating the strategy so there is no question about what should be replicated elsewhere. Where am I going with all this. Reading.

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that as a profession we are reading more. We are reading more and we are learning more. That's what we say though, right? We say we are a learning organization? Yes, we do claim to be a learning organization - at least, I've heard the Superintendent say so. Right now, people are learning. Now, maybe it's always been this way and I just never noticed. I'll admit, I haven't always been the most voracious reader. During my time as a classroom teacher, I don't think I really read that much. Not as much as I do now anyway. In fact, I still don't really like reading that much. I can't seem to slow down long enough to do it. On top of that, I read very slowly and often stop to think and process while reading, which means that it takes me long time to get through anything. Audible has become my new best friend, which is a whole other blog post! Needless to say, in a group reading session, I am often the first to start and the last to finish. Frequently, I even use my noise cancelling headphones to help me focus. Like I said though, that is for another time.

This year I've been challenged to read: On Your Mark, Rethinking Grading, Mindset, 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, True North, Leadership as an Art, Mathematical Mindsets, What's Math Got to Do With It?, Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom, and Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate & Compete in the Knowledge Economy. The people around me have been challenged to read many of the same titles. I don't always remember it being this way. And it's not just my workplace! I see this happening all over the place. Across school districts, businesses and social media, people are not waiting around to be told what to do. They are learning and applying what they learned to affect change in the world.

Affect Change in the World.
Isn't that what we are asking kids to do?

Educators are not telling learners what to do anymore. We are asking them to read, think, do math, know history and understand science. More simply, we are teaching kids to use their brain. We are teaching them to be like us . . . Readers, Thinkers, and Doers.

So, ask yourself, "What am I reading, thinking and doing?" How are you affecting change in the world? The reality is that Change is always happening. We can choose to be a victim and let it happen to us OR we can decide what the change is and how to make it happen.

If you're ready to jump in with both feet, you can start with the man that inspired this post, David Culberhouse. David, who wakes at 4 am daily to shred through as many as 12 books at a time, has also published not one, but two, free ebooks.