Top 10 Education Books of 2009

2009 was a solid year for educational releases, and the first year where many of the bestselling educational resources on Amazon.com were books for the Kindle. Here is a closer look at ten of the bestsellers on Amazon.com:

1. Empowering Online Learning: 100+Activities for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing by Ke Zhang.

While this volume is catered towards exclusive online learning, the basic concepts it relays concerning content delivery online for different learning types can be utilized by educators who wish to supplement the classroom with digital content.

2. You Can Do It: How to Boost Your Child’s Achievement in School by Michael E. Bernard

You Can Do It is a parent’s resource first and foremost, but teachers can also benefit from a read. The book is particularly adept at offering advice on curtailing small problems before they become serious school performance issues.

3. Content Matters: A Disciplinary Literacy Approach to Improving Student Learning by Anthony M. Petrosky

This book outlines an instruction framework developed by the Institute for Learning at the University of Pittsburgh. It will prove a particularly good resource for teachers concerned with preparing junior high and high school students for a college education.

4. Wikiworld by Juha Suoranta and Tere Vaden

Wikiworld focuses on the course learning has taken in recent years with a particular emphasis on new types of critical learning and open collaboration (as in a wiki).

5. The Writing Teacher’s Lesson a Day: 180 Reproducible Prompts and Quick-Writes for the Secondary Classroom by Mary Ellen Ledbetter

Even the best teacher needs a little help sometimes, and this book provides the writing teacher with all of the prompts needed to keep high school students busy!

6. Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt

The larger problems facing both educating and learning, especially within the context of modern education, are addressed in this book. It offers pointed advice for the crafting and utilization of engaging and educational online communities.

7. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Seventh Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers by Kate L. Turabian

Books to help students structure research papers and other school assignments are a must. This Kindle Edition of a classic resource was an educational bestseller.

8. See It. Say It. Do It! The Parent’s & Teacher’s Action Guide to Creating Successful Students & Confident Kids by Dr. Lynn F. Hellerstein

This book’s main focus is on encouraging the use of visualization and imagery skills children already possess to help them, as students, grasp numerous types of learning challenges.

9. Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments by Derek Bruff

This book emphasizes creative ways to use the “clicker” technology that is popular in colleges and universities. Beyond this basic premise though, the book is an effective idea board for interactive teaching.

The Classroom Teacher’s Survival Guide: Practical Strategies, Management Techniques and Reproducibles for New and Experienced Teachers by Ronald L. Partin

This new edition of “Teacher’s Survival Guide contains new information on inquiry-based learning and much more. It also features special web-access to additional supplemental materials for the teacher.

The ten best sellers featured here come from several different Educational subheadings. Many of the more popular books this year were Kindle editions, but a Kindle does not have to be owned to enjoy the books. Several feature hard copy versions and a PC version of the Kindle reader is available for free download for Kindle only books.