If you are interested in motivation for yourself, your students, or those you lead, you will find plenty of ideas and research in Drive. Daniel Pink sandwiches mastery, autonomy, and purpose in between his call for new methods of motivating and toolkits to do so. A masterful combination of history, research, and theory will be a joy for anyone interested in motivating themselves or others.

Khan Academy is offering courses in much more than just math and more than 100 million people use the site each year. If you are curious about Khan’s philosophy of education and his vision for the future, this book will inspire you to change education on a grand scale. After all, the Mission of Khan Academy is to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

Seth Godin’s Linchpin proclaims that the industrial model of schooling and living as cogs in a machine is outdated, and in turn, explains how individuals can transform themselves into indispensable linchpins that create art, inspire human connections, and solve interesting problems. Godin chips away at traditional educational models that rely upon fear, compliance, and rote memorization; however, he also provides innovative alternatives centered around the belief in students, growth, leadership, and taking risks.

Cognitive Scientist Daniel Willingham picks apart the traditional concepts teachers are continually taught and explains them in simplistic detail. He organizes the book based upon a few concrete ideas that could forever alter the way you teach.