A few years ago I started blogging to fulfill a requirement for a blogging quest chain in an incredible gamified professional development opportunity called EPIC Academy designed by Lucas Gillispie (blog, follow him on Twitter).  I had read several other blogs as part of the quest chain and found that some bloggers will do a series of blogs related to one topic.  That intrigued me, so I decided to experiment with this idea by doing an #edtechsummer series that year.  You can find those blogs here.

I learned through EPIC that I am a completionist, a gamer who attempts to complete every challenge and earn every award available within the game.  It makes sense because I am also a collector.  It started with baseball cards as a young girl, and has continued as an adult.  I always want the “full set” of everything – movies, TV series, books, etc.  That would explain why I enjoy binge watching series on Netflix, right?

Because of my desire to own “all the things” as a completionist, and the insane level of PUMPED UP I became after experiencing (there is no other word for it) Dave Burgess‘s keynote and breakout session after #PiedmontDLC in April, I decided I wanted to read all of the books in the Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc line up…in the order they were published.

This has led me to my Blogging Summer Series of 2018, #DBC50Summer.  This is my way of keeping myself accountable for reading the books (I’m pretty sure my husband may cut off all access to our checking account before this is over, oops) and then, as Dave says, we have a moral imperative to share our most effective ideas.  Well, these are not MY ideas, but they are incredible manifestos, stories, and lessons that others have learned, written, and published!  Perhaps someone is on the fence about one of these books, or maybe isn’t aware of it.  Folks don’t know what they don’t know. If Lisa Milstead had not shared the book that started it all, Teach Like A Pirate, with me several years ago, I probably would not have known either; I only read (errrr, skimmed) the books assigned by my school/district or grad school class. Therefore, I am embarking on a quest to read all 50 books published by DBC, Inc as of today.  It seems as if a new book is coming out every week, and I’m hoping to continue the blog series as the new books come out as well.  It’s just going to take a hot minute to catch up with what they’ve published to date.  See…

Here is an image with all #DBC50 books released by @dbc_inc We hope you will add to your collection! You can start with The #EDuNinja Mindset by tonight’s host, @jennifer_burdis !!! https://t.co/qgxWbJ2SKa#tlap#LeadLAP#USMSpark@burgess_shelleypic.twitter.com/9VeBGBvCjc

— Dave Burgess (@burgessdave) June 12, 2018

So what will this look like?  I’m going to be completely transparent… I. Have. No. Idea. I will share my reflections, quotes that stood out to me (quotes to live by) from the book, perhaps link to some related podcasts/videos from the author, and hopefully, as the librarian in me often does, suggest other books to read in a “if you liked this, try this one next” format.  As most books, there is an intended audience for each book, so I may try to make a note of that as well.  That does not mean it’s not a book that ANYONE could get something out of, so take my recommendations of intended audience with a grain of salt most of the time.  It is important to be aware that throughout the summer, these are my reflections and my opinions only, and I am not being compensated by the authors or DBC, Inc.

I will suggest that you purchase

every

single

book

not based solely on my reflections in this blog series, but because I believe that these authors are amazing humans and educators; I believe they will inspire you as they have inspired me. Basically, you should read the book yourself & get active in the social media communities that surround these books!  So…. we will begin with the beginning, the book that started it all…. Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess.

While waiting for that post to be published, you may want to check out the background story of DBC, Inc by listening to a terrific podcast where Dave joins Don Wettrick (remember that name, you’ll hear more of him soon) in #StartEDup episode 128.  The link to Dave’s blog post that includes a link to the podcast episode can be found here.  Enjoy!