Books Worth Reading: Influencing School Culture

It’s the last week of school in my district, and my to be read pile is calling my name. In case you don’t have your summer reading list finalized, I thought I would share the titles I’ve learned a great deal from recently.

Each day this week, I’ll share a five books that I think are worth a look. Today’s post focuses on five titles that could help spur you on to lead change in campus culture from any corner of the building.

School Culture Rewired by Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker is required reading for anyone looking to make significant change in the prevailing attitudes on a school campus. This text will help you walk through the steps required to initiate an influential change on campus without bogging down into the minuscule details and minutiae that drags other texts down. If you only read one book on school culture, read this one.

If you read two books on school culture (and you really should because this one is a great one), the second should be The Power of Branding by Tony Sinanis and Joeseph Sanfelippo. This is the first title from the Corwin Connected Educators Series in this week’s posts, but it won’t be the last. If you’re not familiar with the series, they offer targeted help for connected educators with useful, easy to implement strategies to improve nearly every educator’s skill set. Telling your school’s story can’t be undervalued; this is a great place to learn how to do that well.

Elena Aguilar’s The Art of Coaching is a great text for educators looking to change the way help is offered to teachers. A coaching model can be transformative for a campus, reshaping our mindsets about how we learn as educators and forcing us to realize the uncomfortable feelings many of our students associate with dealing with their imperfections. This isn’t the only coaching text, but it’s a great place to start your journey into this mode of thinking.

This might seem like an odd choice, but How Google Works has had as much impact on me when considering school culture as anything I’ve ever read. As you might expect, you’re not going to find any information about programs, policies, or education lingo here, but the mindset that makes Google so impactful is evident on every page. Authors Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg are experts in their field, and they are both wildly intelligent individuals. We would benefit greatly from listening carefully to their take on what makes Google work.

Work Rules gives more specifics to the overview provided in How Google Works. Laszlo Bock takes time to get into the nitty gritty of how to shape an organization. Again, you’re going to find a model here that can be transferred to your campus, but you’re not going to see a plan specific to schools. This one isn’t for everyone, but if you enjoyed How Google Works at all, I recommend you at least check this out to see if you’re interested.

Thanks for reading this far! Be sure to check out yesterday’s post on 5 books about creativity and innovation. Tomorrow’s post will feature five books centered around curriculum and instruction. Hope you enjoy some time reading this summer!