The summer focus is on Blended Learning. I have sent many of the teachers I work with home with these books this school year, I have just purchased one and love it, and I have one on here I just added to my wishlist.
If you are a teacher ready for summer here are some books to work into your reading schedule.
I have ordered many of these books in my district this year. I have some starter and more advanced recommendations for your reading this summer along with a couple of books I hope to read/reread as well.
Get Started with Blended Learning
These are both excellent books. I hope you read them both. However, I do present them as a choice because the “Blueprint” course is geared more toward elementary while “Blended Learning in Action” is 6-12 oriented.
A) Blended Learning in Action: A Practical Guide Toward Sustainable ChangeÂ
The “Blended Learning in Action” does not address some of the easier objections elementary teachers raise about time and workload, so if elementary teachers read this, it might be further into the study of Blended Learning. My favorite part of this book especially chapters 9-11, is when Catlin Tucker offers the common problems of each Blended Learning model and possible ways to overcome those problems.
B) The Blended Learning Blueprint for Elementary TeachersÂ
The “Blueprint” book contains some good content for any level teacher but does have elementary examples. That is only important in case it turns some 6-12 teacher readers off. I especially like the breakdown of the definition of Blended Learning Jayme Linton provides and How she shows a traditional face-to-face lesson as a blended lesson; it is powerful and what might convince many of the skeptical teachers that these techniques are also time savers.
Planning Professional Learning Next Year
Power Up Blended Learning: A Professional Learning Infrastructure to Support Sustainable Change
Summer is the perfect time to read this book to kick off professional learning in the next school year on Blended Learning. Catlin Tucker offers a way to prepare for a year of exponential school growth in Blended Learning strategically in the book. Buy this for the other professional learning leaders in your school before summer!
Authoritative, Big Picture
Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools
The book which started it all for me comes from The Christensen Institute and focused on the disruptive changes in education because of technology. Dated, but highly referenced, Michal B Horn and Heather Staker detail the origins of Blended Learning. This is the “origin story” of Blended Learning. If you have not read it yet, backtrack to this book this summer and enjoy bringing all the pieces together. I am currently rereading this for my degree program.
Norm the Team Vision
The Blended Workbook: Learning to Design the Schools of our Future
I love this update to the Horn & Staker book above. Here is the workbook that goes with the Horn & Staker book! This is the perfect accompaniment for a PLC at school or a leadership team just working through what Blended Learning as and what it means for their students. It is a value purchase as a double sawbuck.
Desk Guide for Teachers
The On-Your-Feet Guide to Blended Learning: Station Rotation
This is my most recent purchase and newly available from Catlin Tucker. This super inexpensive handy desk-top guide to Blended Learning would be a perfect start-of-year present for teachers newly investigating Blended Learning. Buy your own copy and appreciate the compactness of what you need a daily reminder of and that is is three-hole punched and laminated already. Just go ahead and buy this now and have it delivered to school for August.
Something I just added to my wishlist:
The Blended Course Design Workbook: A Practical Guide
I am increasingly fascinated with how to convert high-impact teachers to the Blended Learning model. I have just added this to my wish list.
I wonder if you have any books you would recommend to me on this topic?
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