CURRENT READING
Linda learns through relationships with extraordinary educators, parents, and students. And she reads. A lot! What is she reading now?
The Testaments
by Margaret Atwood
More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.
Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third: Aunt Lydia. Her complex past and uncertain future unfold in surprising and pivotal ways.
With The Testaments, Margaret Atwood opens up the innermost workings of Gilead, as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
by Yuval Noah Harari
From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”
One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?
Complete Krav Maga: The Ultimate Guide to Over 250 Self-Defense and Combative Techniques
by Darren Levine and John Whitman
All the defense moves in Complete Krav Maga—from beginner Yellow Belt to advanced
Black Belt—are described in-depth and illustrated with step-by-step photos:
• BEGINNER: Punches, kicks, knee strikes, and defense movements
• INTERMEDIATE: Counterattacks against knives, guns, and sticks
• ADVANCED: Advanced strikes and ground fighting techniques
Based on the principle that it is best to move from defense to attack as quickly as possible, Complete Krav Maga teaches fast-escape maneuvers combined with powerful counterattacks. Whether you are big or small, male or female, young or old, you can use Krav Maga to protect yourself by exploiting an assailant’s vulnerabilities.
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
by Robert M. Sapolsky
From the celebrated neurobiologist and primatologist, a landmark, genre-defining examination of human behavior, both good and bad, and an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do?
Sapolsky's storytelling concept is delightful but it also has a powerful intrinsic logic: he starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise moment a behavior occurs, and then hops back in time from there, in stages, ultimately ending up at the deep history of our species and its evolutionary legacy.
How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain
by Lisa Feldman Barrett
Emotions feel automatic, like uncontrollable reactions to things we think and experience. Scientists have long supported this assumption by claiming that emotions are hardwired in the body or the brain. Today, however, the science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution on par with the discovery of relativity in physics and natural selection in biology--and this paradigm shift has far-reaching implications for us all.
Leading the charge is psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, whose theory of emotion is driving a deeper understanding of the mind and brain, and shedding new light on what it means to be human. Her research overturns the widely held belief that emotions are housed in different parts of the brain and are universally expressed and recognized. Instead, she has shown that emotion is constructed in the moment, by core systems that interact across the whole brain, aided by a lifetime of learning. This new theory means that you play a much greater role in your emotional life than you ever thought. Its repercussions are already shaking the foundations not only of psychology but also of medicine, the legal system, child-rearing, meditation, and even airport security.
Read & Recommended
Learning Disabilities
by Jack M. Fletcher, G. Reid Lyon, Lynn S. Fuchs, and Marcia A. Barnes
Presenting major advances in understanding learning disabilities (LDs) and describing effective educational practices, this authoritative volume has been significantly revised and expanded with more than 70% new material. Foremost LD experts identify effective principles of assessment and instruction within the framework of multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). With a focus on what works in the classroom, the book explores the full range of reading, mathematics, and writing disabilities. It synthesizes knowledge from neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and special and general education. Illustrations include eight color plates. As a special supplement, a chapter on the history of the LD field from the first edition is provided at the companion website.
Collaborative Leadership, Six Influences That Matter Most
by Peter M. Dewitt
Get the fuel you need to drive collaborative leadership in your school! What type of leadership do you practice? If your answer is transformational or instructional, you’re not alone. Many of us rely on these tenets. But there are better advantages in applying a holistic angle including all stakeholders—an approach known as collaborative leadership. Peter DeWitt unpacks six leadership factors in Collaborative Leadership, all framed through the lens of John Hattie’s research. Adding insight, practical experiences, and vignettes, DeWitt paints a powerful scheme: meet stakeholders where they are, motivate stakeholders to strive for improvement, model how to do it.
Visible Learning: Feedback
by John Hattie & Shirley Clarke
Feedback is arguably the most critical and powerful aspect of teaching and learning. Yet, there remains a paradox: why is feedback so powerful and why is it so variable? It is this paradox which Visible Learning: Feedback aims to unravel and resolve.
Combining research excellence, theory and vast teaching expertise, this book covers the principles and practicalities of feedback.
Educated: A Memoir
by Tara Westover
Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
The Overstory
by Richard Powers
An Air Force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. These four, and five other strangers—each summoned in different ways by trees—are brought together in a last and violent stand to save the continent’s few remaining acres of virgin forest.