It’s been a hard and eventful year. You feel like you’ve fought the third world war single-handedly—well, if you played for the All Blacks, of course you'd say, "it was a team effort". You’ve fought dragons on the mountains, lions in the valleys, and aliens on the rooftops. You’ve put up a good fight; you’ve managed to keep your head up without it being carted off as someone else's trophy. In other words, you’ve earned your rest, and you just want the holidays to continue forever.
But you know like I do, at some stage, the exhilarating plunges into the depths, the soothing massaging of UV rays, the aroma of the sizzling sausage and sound of clinking of bottles must needs come to and end. Like Napoleon or Alexander, you’ll feel the need to face the looming challenges peeping above the horizon, or conquer new worlds.
But there’s one thing you need—the key that reignites the flame, that lifts and sets the focus, that draws you to new heights: Inspiration. That’s nothing to be ashamed of, Alexander and Napoleon and J.K. Rowling all needed that!
Well, here’s some things you can start with. I asked seasoned inspirers and campaigners from our staff for their suggestions on web sites and books that would assist educators to find inspiration for the coming year. Thanks to Glen, DK, Karen, Tara, Chrissie and Tamara for the suggestions and comments.
Here are their suggestions (not in any particular order):
Web sites:
1. EDtalks
Why not start with our own EDtalks. This site is full of video teasers from gurus from around the world involved in the education sector, sure to give you ideas and inspiration.
2. zefrank.com
Tidbits from around the web and offerings from this creative genius. You just have to just go and have a look to see what this one’s about.
3. The Minimalists
This one’s all about making more space for purpose in your life. We have too much stuff, and T.V. rots our brain! Stop consuming and start being creative producers again!
4. Gary Vaynerchuk
This guy is leading the social media space/discourse—and he’s a wine merchant! And he’s inspirational.
5. WanderMonster
A joyful, quirky celebration of parenting, and how the little things make the difference. Every day Rob Kimmel starts half a mini-comic for his eight-year-old son Ben. He then slips it into Ben’s lunchbox for Ben to finish at school. The end results are pure wonder.
6. Enabling eLearning
Here’s a hub of e-learning-related content and communities. It’s a new site. Take time to find the e-learning goodies that will help your work in the new year, and maybe join a community and follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
7. Cowbird
This site is built on participatory journalism. This new web site tells rel stories a captured by the public through photos and words.
8. ECE Online
A source of inspiration for early childhood educators. This fabulous web site covers all things ECE and invites collaboration.
9. Gapingvoid
This guy does cartoons on the back of business cards. Not only does he have great marketing and branding based blog posts, but he has fun doing it. Great for inspiration.
Books:
1. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
by Carol Dweck
Teaching a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports. This book is eye-opening as a parent to see how praising children for their hard work rather than their talent/ability can have a huge impact on motivation and future success.
2. The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design to Transform Teaching & Learning (Architecture)
by OWP/P Architects, VS Funiture and Bruce Mau Design
79 ways you can use design to transform teaching and learning. Education architects, education furniture designers and education thinkers look at how we use and think about space, equity and creativity in learning. A big thick easily browsable “mook” (magazine/book).
3. Rework
by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Rethinking how we work for the 21st century—by two gurus from 37signals. We have become lazy in our thinking of how we approach work. Here’s a cheat sheet of the book: http://justadandak.com/rework-cheat-sheet
4. Coaching Educational Leadership: Building Leadership Capacity through Partnership 
by Jan Robertson (Published in association with the British Educational Leadership and Management Society)
Coaching and mentoring in easy, doable, meaningful steps. This book gets us into the mood for making big changes to what we do in 2012. How will it look different to 2011?
5. Steve Jobs
by Walter Issacson
This book is about Apple, Steve Jobs, and pursuing excellence. It’s a good read which looks at how computers have developed to how and where they are today.
6. Beware Dangerism! (Kindle Single) (TED Books)
by Gever Tulley (TED Books)
This is a Kindle Book for iPad, and supports the TED talk. Are our children missing out because we are concerned for safety? Are we cultivating fear? Take a look at risks we should be offering our children. As the book says, “…children can only learn to take responsibility when given a chance to assess and mitigate risk for themselves.”
And if you want more—Wow! Go for it tiger! Have a look at last year’s lists.
Be inspired, and let the year begin…just when you're ready!
