Summer reads: 10 books to consider when #principalplanning

With just 18 days alllllll to myself, I have developed a stringent plan to get all my professional reading in. While I would usually say that my break was for fluff reading…I’ve been doing pretty well on that, 🙂 and need to get all these books in that I’ve been collecting on my desk read and processed. Some are rereads that I’ve committed to consistently rereading. Some are new finds, recommended at the PLC conference we attended a few weeks ago.  Some other leaders have suggested. Each title was selected with a targeted area of growth in mind, and I’m hoping that by committing to tweeting/blogging about them I will be more accountable for their leadership message. Choosing to  develop and enhance my growth mindset through personal accountability and reflection should ensure that these gems of greatness are more than quick reads, but that they are cornerstones of the leader I want to be.

• Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes – Recc’d at PLC conference, offers balance and leadership “good choices that help lead to good decisions”
• Transforming School Culture– Heard Dr. Mohammad speak…he was OUTstanding! 
• Leading With Trust: How to Build Strong School Teams– 2nd year-be better than my first!!
• Never Underestimate Your Teachers: Instructional Leadership for Excellence in Every Classroom– a re-read reminder Jackson is an incredibly easy to apply read
• How to Plan Rigorous Instruction (Mastering the Principles of Great Teaching) – Another great one by Jackson, instructional leadership HUGELY impacts your credibility with your teachers
• Leaders of Learning: How District, School, and Classroom Leaders Improve Student Achievement– a PLC recommendation, manage the balance of a PLC culture, crucial!
• The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business– I heart Lencioni, and this one was one Dr. Mohammad spoke highly of….and I just want to do all that that guy said! 
• The Ten-Minute Inservice: 40 Quick Training Sessions that Build Teacher Effectiveness– Working from quadrant two means planning ahead. Going to mark these so that I always am prepared!
• Hacking Leadership: 10 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Learning That Teachers, Students, and Parents Love (Hack Learning Series) (Volume 5) – Can’t beat these two leaders. they talk the talk but even more important to me is that they WALK THE WALK. These are in the trenches leaders whom I respect…and bonus, get to call food truck friends! 🙂
• The Innovator’s Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity – I’ve read this three times…and will read it again. A perfect balance of “Amber, get it done!” & “Amber, you can do it!”

Now, if I can get through a Jennifer Weiner novel in a day, surely I can handle ten books in 18 days, right? Of course I can. 🙂 Especially knowing that these titles are meant to not just motivate, but to also add structure and MEAT to the notion of leadership. I can pin happy  quotes on Pinterest all day long, but what I need is the structure, a system if you will, of how to apply these principles in the crux of the day to day operations of leadership. Don’t tell me to go swing…tell me how to be the leader my district, my teachers, and my families deserve me to be.

Do you have any that you’d suggest I’d add to my stack? Tell me what and why!

book buried,

Amber