Books About Teaching and Creativity!
These books will improve your teaching and personal life by making you a better creative problem solver, and a better communicator.
Here are two books about teaching, eight books about creativity, and six books about selling your creative ideas.
The “selling” books are listed because your creative ideas are not useful until you sell people on how they will make the world a better place, or in other words, use your ideas to “make a dent in the universe,” Steve Jobs.
An idea without an audience is like a tree falling in the forest that no one hears — it did not make a sound, so go make your new ideas famous.
Books About Creativity
Creativity: What Color is Your Teaching? (Fall 2022)
by Curtis Panasuk
Learn to use creativity (not art) to engage and involve your students so they will understand. Instead of being a “sage on the stage” lecturing, you can learn how to be the “guide on the side” leading students to discovery. Your students will be the ones who understand as in the quote, “Tell me and I forget, but involve me, then I understand.”
A Case Study Approach: Educational Leadership
by Sharon Kruse and Julie Gray
This book was selected for a leadership class at the Graduate School of Education at Santa Clara University. The book presents actual leadership cases covering six core areas. It is the perfect guide for group discussions with your school administrators to prepare for these thirty possible situations. Each case is linked to relevant Professional Standards for Educational Leaders.
Secrets of Great Teachers
by Elisheva Zeffren with Perella Perlstein
This book shows you how to abandon rote learning, lose the lecture, and switch to engaging your students on a road of discovery. It shows you how to revive the Socratic method of asking your students guiding questions that will lead them to understanding. It shows you how to ask the questions that will model for the students the inquiry method of learning that will serve students for the rest of their lives.
The Creative Thinker’s Toolkit
by Gerard Puccio, Ph.D.
In this creativity course, Dr. Puccio will boost your creative output to the highest level. If you are a CEO, business person, teacher, parent, artist, writer or student this book will show you how to use powerful creative techniques to become a better problem solver, better communicator and a great writer! Learn to unleash your creative potential, and watch the creative ideas come pouring onto your paper.
Creative Confidence
by David Kelley & Tom Kelley
Creativity can be a matter of life and death, and this book describes how the invention of the Embrace Infant Warmer has saved the lives of tens of thousands of under-weight babies in developing countries. The authors make the point that everyone is creative, and they explain tools and techniques that will enable you to achieve your creative potential, and make the world a better place.
Zing!
by Sam Harrison
This book describes five steps for achieving greater creativity in business and life. Each “step” is a chapter with the titles of Explore, Freedom, Pause, Embrace and Life! In the Explore chapter, the author explains the importance of absorbing information with the quote “Feed Your Mind All The Time,” then he tells how to tap that information with the phrase “Judge Not” as you strive for lots of creative ideas, not perfect ideas.
Mind Mapping
by Kam Knight
Mind mapping is a tool for making diagrams on paper that will guide your brain to solve problems. You write an a problem at the center of a blank paper, then draw lines radiating out like spokes on a bike wheel. At the end of each line, you write any ideas that comes to mind, then you draw spoke lines from each of those ideas, and write more ideas. Your paper is now covered with ideas, and some of them will solve your problem.
Mind Maps For Kids
by Tony Buzan
This book shows kids (and adults) of all ages how to use a tool called mind mapping to make learning fun and engaging. The immediate benefits apply to all subjects, and include better comprehension, enhanced verbal communication, improved writing, better focus and concentration. The bottom line is that mind mapping will lead to better grades, improved confidence, and it will be a lifetime learning tool.
ThinkerToys
by Michael Michalko
This book is in its 2nd edition, and at 394 pages, it is packed full of creative ideas. It lists techniques that will make you more creative, and it gives real-world examples of how to apply the new tools. There are plenty of stimulating exercises that will reinforce the creative concepts. Whatever your passion, from cook to CEO, you can now sharpen your creative skills and reach your true potential.
A Whack on the Side of the Head
by Roger von Oech
Written in a fun, lighthearted style, this book will knock your creative senses loose. For more than 30 years, this book has shown how to cast off the mental locks that have been holding back your creative potential. It shows how to turn off self-imposed filters that have been blocking your creativity, and makes a convincing case why every company needs to hire a court jester if they want to thrive.
Books About Selling Your Ideas
The Regis Touch
by Regis McKenna
According to Stanford University, Regis McKenna was responsible for launching some of the world’s most important innovations including the first personal computer (Apple Computer), and the first microprocessor (Intel Corporation). This book shows how he make Apple and Intel household names, and it shows how you can do the same with your creative ideas. This marketing classic is available at no charge with a click.
The Art of the Start
by Guy Kawasaki
Written by the guy who helped make the Macintosh computer a household name, this “Guy” gives you a how-to book on making your own creative ideas into household names. This book tells you how to take your creative ideas, and run with them to change the world. You begin at the start, fasten your seat belt, then he shows you how to put the pedal to the metal as you zoom ahead to the finish line of success.
Win-Win Selling
by Larry Wilson
Learn how to sell your creative ideas using the four steps of Relating, Discovering, Advocating and Supporting. RELATING is establishing a trusting relationship with your customer, then you can DISCOVER the needs and problems of your customer (and their customer). ADVOCATING is using your ideas to solve their problems (see Eskimos). SUPPORTING is making sure that your customer’s problems stay solved.
The Marketing Book
by Jason McDonald, Ph.D.
Take your creative idea, then build it, and they will come, if you read this book, and follow the advice of marketing expert Dr. Jason McDonald. A popular lecturer at Stanford University, Dr. McDonald is a master story teller who will keep you on the edge of your seat with his humorous style of writing. He also has written excellent books about social media and SEO to help you broadcast the message of your creative ideas.
Win Friends And Influence People
by Dale Carnegie
The book is a classic about the fundamentals of human behavior in one-on-one interactions. It teaches you how to sell your ideas using the technique of active listening which allow you to draw out your customer’s problems, concerns and motives. The book explains how to boost your listening skills to new levels, and how to use what you learn about your customers to lead them to the best solutions of their problems.
Soft Sell The New Art of Selling
by Tim Connor
This book will show you how to sell your creative ideas, using its quote, “Your customers will tell you how to sell them, if you just listen.” This approach is called consultative selling in which you partner with your customer to identify and solve their problems. In this approach, 90 percent of your effort is asking questions and listening to learn about your customer’s problems, and 10 percent is spent on advising solutions.