The summer is a great time to reflect on the year that was and look forward to a new start in the fall. The summer also offers the time we don’t often have through the school year to spend some time with valuable resources that help prepare us for the new year.

Here’s a list of recommended reads for over the summer:

50 Things To Go Further With Google Classroom: A Student Centered Approach

by Alice Keeler and Libbi Miller

From the publisher:

Today’s technology empowers educators to move away from the traditional classroom where teachers lead and students work independently-each doing the same thing. In 50 Things to Go Further with Google Classroom: A Student-Centered Approach, authors and educators Alice Keeler and Libbi Miller offer inspiration and resources to help you create a digitally rich, engaging, student-centered environment. They show you how to tap into the power of individualized learning that is possible with Google Classroom.

This title is available through the Durham District School Board Professional Library. Search for item #09773.

Book cover: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.

Teaching Math With Google Apps: 50 G Suite Activities

By Alice Keeler and Diana Herrington

From the publisher:

If you’ve ever heard a variation of that question from your students—or asked it yourself—this book is for you. Bringing technology into the classroom is about so much more than replacing overhead projectors and chalkboards with Smart Boards. Unfortunately, as Stanford Professor Jo Boaler says, “We are in the twenty-first century, but visitors to many math classrooms could be forgiven for thinking they had stepped back in time and walked into the Victorian era.” But that’s all about to change. In Teaching Math with Google Apps, author-educators Alice Keeler and Diana Herrington reveal more than 50 ways teachers can use technology in math classes. The goal isn’t using tech for tech’s sake; rather, it’s to help students develop critical-thinking skills and learn how to apply mathematical concepts to real life.

This title is available through the Durham District School Board Professional Library. Search for item #09774.

Book cover: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.

The Innovator’s Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity

By George Couros

From the publisher:

Kids walk into schools full of wonder and questions. How you, as an educator, respond to students’ natural curiosity can help further their own exploration and shape the way they learn today and in the future.

The traditional system of education requires students to hold their questions and compliantly stick to the scheduled curriculum. But our job as educators is to provide new and better opportunities for our students. It’s time to recognize that compliance doesn’t foster innovation, encourage critical thinking, or inspire creativity–and those are the skills our students need to succeed.

In The Innovator’s Mindset, George Couros encourages teachers and administrators to empower their learners to wonder, to explore–and to become forward-thinking leaders. If we want innovative students, we need innovative educators. In other words, innovation begins with you. Ultimately, innovation is not about a skill set: it’s about a mindset.

This title is available through the Durham District School Board Professional Library. Search for item #09693.

Book cover: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.

Control Alt Achieve: transforming education with technology

By Eric Curts, controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an authorized Google Education Trainer and Google Certified Innovator. His website is available at controlaltachieve.com and he tweets @ericcurts. Curts shares a wealth of ideas through the blog on his website and through his Twitter account. I often suggest that teachers to take a look at the “Resources” page on his website for ideas about how to use Google tools across the curriculum. Curts often offers great ideas for integrating Google tools in language, math, science and social studies.

If you’re looking for ideas about how to use Google tools in your classroom, there’s a good chance Eric Curt’s Control Alt Achieve website will offer plenty of new ideas to get you going!