Use Your Outside Voice: Thrive: 5 Ways to (Re)Invigorate Your Teaching by Meenoo Rami

Meenoo Rami is the creator of the wildly popular weekly educational Twitter chat #engchat. As someone who organizes monthly twitter chats, I can't even imagine how she comes up with all her ideas for her weekly chat. That is a lot of planning and organizing. But I'm glad she does because her drive to create opportunities for herself and other teachers to grow their PLN is not just admirable, but also useful.

So it's no surprise in Thrive, Meenoo has a thing or two to share with new teachers and veterans alike about how to (re)invigorate teachers to take control of a job that often consumes your life to the point of burn out. Rather than waiting for educational policy to turn the tide, Meenoo has taken her career satisfaction into her own hands and has shared with her readers her five steps to making that happen for you as well:

1. Turn to mentors
2. Join and build networks
3. Keep your work intellectually challenging
4. Listen to yourself
5. Empower your students

Thrive is a slim volume of only five chapters, but that's all it needs really. But don't let its slimness fool you into thinking there's not much substance here. If anything, its 97 pages are saying, "I know you're busy. I know you think you don't have time to read me. But I promise you, it will be worth it in the end."

Thrive is not a PD book. It is an inspirational book. It is a book to remind us all why we picked this profession in the first place and how we can make sure it doesn't chew us up and spit us out. It's a book to remind us that despite all the outside forces affecting what we do in the classroom, in the end, it's your classroom and your students and you have the power to be a force for change.

Disclosure: Review copy provided by Heinemann Publishing

Meenoo Rami is a National Board Certified Teacher who teaches her students English at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA. Mixing moments of joy, laughter, risk and encouragement, Meenoo pushes her students to think critically about their connection to the word and the world. Meenoo did her undergraduate work at Bradley University in Illinois in areas of Philosophy and English and completed her Master’s degree in Secondary Education at Temple University. Meenoo also contributes to the work of school-wide events and professional learning communities at SLA. Meenoo works as a teacher-consultant for the Philadelphia Writing Project. She has shared her classroom practice at various conferences such as: NCTE, ISTE, ASCD, EduCon, Urban Sites Conference for National Writing Project, and #140edu. Meenoo also runs a weekly twitter chat for English teachers called #engchat which brings together teachers from around the country to discuss ideas related to teaching of English. Her first book, THRIVE from Heinemann will be out in March 2014. In her free time, Meenoo can be found on her bike, on her yoga mat or in her kitchen tinkering with a vegetarian recipe.

To connect with Meenoo, you can find her on these social media networks:

THRIVE Blog Tour Stops

4/9/14

Jen Vincnet at Teach Mentor Texts

4/10/14

Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading

4/11/14