Welcome back, friends! I hope you have been enjoying our posts about our favorite PD books worth reading. I know it can be difficult sometimes to find the time to read for ourselves, but I hope you have found at least one book to help you learn and grow as an educator this summer. For the last post in our series, I bring you an oldie but a goodie.
Ron Clark's The Essential 55 is a must read book for not only all teachers, but parents as well. Ron Clark outlines 55 rules that all students should follow. Most rules focus on things we teach in the first few weeks of school as part of our classroom management and classroom expectations: manners, respect, etc. Working at a school with a high population of students that need good life role models, this book has provided me with some essential skills and has helped remind me that I must teach students some of what many consider the "basics". For example, rule 37 states, "If someone bumps into you, even if it was your fault say, 'Excuse me'." This is something you would think all students would know and understand, but the sad fact is that they do not - they have to be taught.
Often times it is easy to get caught up in what we think students should come to us knowing. This book reminds us as teachers and parents to take a step back and ask ourselves if the child truly has the foundation we are expecting. This may seem simplistic and like a no-brainer for us, but for some students, these common sense "rules" are simply not what they are accustomed to. This book reminds me to not only teach the content, but the life expectations as well. Definitely a book worth reading!
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