Essential Reading for Personal Development

It seems we’re always worried about what books to assign our students. There’s a lot to consider in an ESL classroom when deciding what books are the most effective. We often forget that as teachers it’s important to assign ourselves reading for personal development.

Personal development should be a continuous process. There are many ways we can improve our teaching skills. We should always be learning new techniques to make our classrooms effective and relevant. The right book is an easy and effective way to stay current. Some of us are teaching abroad and don’t have access to personal development seminars or conferences. Reading for personal development can be a really great way to build understanding, learn new methods and keep up with the research.

Classroom management techniques

So, what should you be reading? I’ve compiled a list of great books that will help out. Begin developing your skills as a teacher and build resiliency so you can be your best. Quick side note, if you do choose to check out any of these books, purchasing them from this list really helps supports me and my research. Thank you fellow educators.

Better Than Carrots or Sticks: Restorative Practices for Positive Classroom Management

This book, which is authored by professors of Education Nancy Frey, Dominique Smith and Douglas Fisher looks at classroom management structures. Classrooms should focus on self-correction and encouragement rather than the classic reward and discipline. The reward and discipline approach is common in a lot of classrooms. Classical management styles may be more than just superficial solutions, they may actually be doing more damage than good.

The authors present solutions for teachers struggling with their classes. If you’re interested in adopting these techniques in your own classroom, you can find ways to establish procedures of expectation, develop non-confrontational rapport, and conflict resolution strategies. These techniques help students grow and build healthy relationships with their peers and instructors.

This book is essential for any teacher who is struggling with classroom conflicts. It offers solutions that empower students and gets better overall results.

You might also like my post: Helping your students through Metacognition techniques.

Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

Even teachers can be unaware of their own biases, especially when teaching ESL abroad. This can impact not just how we teach but the outcome for students as well. It’s our job to see that our students succeed, however, we may unknowingly be holding them back due to long-held beliefs so ingrained in us that we are unaware that they’re even there.

This book has won the American Educational Studies Association Critics’ Choice Award as well as Choice Magazine’s Outstanding Academic Book Award. It’s sold over 150,000 copies, so it’s well qualified to help us understand and recognise our own biases to become better teachers.

Developing compassion and resiliency

Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators 1st Edition

Author and Coach Elena Aguilar knows how stressful teaching is. It’s physically and mentally damaging at times. It’s one of the most demanding jobs out there. So much so that a large portion of teachers quit before they’ve completed 5 years. As such, it’s important to pay attention to our own personal needs and assign some time for ourselves. Elena’s book guides you through a few ways to resist stress, build resiliency and avoid burnout, allowing you to be fully present for your students.

It’s so important to take care of ourselves as teachers and especially as ESL instructors teaching outside of our own country and culture. Stress can compound therefore, having a clear path to fighting it is essential.

Hacking School Culture: Designing Compassionate Classrooms

More empathetic classrooms make learning better and more effective for everyone. This book offers innovative ways to bring more empathy into your classroom. Angela Stockman and Ellen Feig Gray have compiled some of the best approaches from teachers who are finding great results in their own classes with the techniques.

Classroom empathy is essential. It creates safe spaces for students and allows ideas to flow uninhibited. This book offers learning models that are shown to improve classroom culture, approaches that encourage activism in students, and more.