Through these peer-facilitated, co-learning sessions, OPC Members and Associates will explore and discuss key concepts in the chosen book and how those concepts might inform practice as a school leader.
These FREE Book Clubs are open to all OPC Members and non-Members . We encourage broad and diverse input and participation in attending, recommending books and facilitating sessions.
Call for Titles!
If you are interested in suggesting a book for a future book club, and/or volunteering to facilitate the sessions and/or writing a book review for The Register magazine, complete our form. Potential facilitators need only have enthusiasm for reading the book and willingness to facilitate some conversation.
Suggestions and Volunteering
Coming Up
Each book club is a series of four 60-minute interactive discussions. Participants will need to purchase the books in advance of the first session.
NOTE - If you have an OPC#, please login to our website prior to clicking Register to engage the auto-fill feature. New users of our website can proceed with filling out the form to set up a PD User account.
Summer 2026
Re-Storying Education: Decolonizing Your Practice Using a Critical Lens
Author: Carolyn Roberts
Description: Re-Storying Education is a process of dismantling old narratives taught in education and rebuilding new narratives that include all the voices that have created this place known as Canada today. This vital and timely book outlines how colonialism has shaped both the country and the public school system. Re-Storying Education uses an Indigenous lens, offering ways to put Indigenous education, history, and pedagogy into practice. It invites readers into an open dialogue in the pursuit of a more inclusive and just educational landscape.
** Read along with this author curated Re-Storying Education playlist **
This book will
- help school administrators critically consider their position of power and their role as leaders.
- offer them spaces and opportunities to consider the narratives and stories that have impacted schools.
- inspire and mobilize with actionable ways to create change in learning spaces.
Purchase: Available on Indigo.ca, IronDogBooks.com and McNallyRobinson.com (free shipping available with purchase minimum)
Dates: Tuesday meetings
- July 14
- July 21
- July 28
- August 11
Time: 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. EDT
Cost: Free
Facilitators:
- Rabia Khokhar, Toronto DSB
- Theresa Meikle, retired York Region DSB
| Coming 2026-27 |
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We are pleased to share this tentative line up for the 2026-27 school year -
- Fall
- Feeling Seen: Reconnecting in a Disconnected World (Jody Carrington)
- Fire and Silence: A Roadmap for BIPOC Leaders (Annahid Dashtgard)
- Winter
- A Year of Leading: A 40-Week Leadership Compass for Principals and Vice-Principals (Kevin Reimer)
- Bridging the Confidence Gap: How Empowered Women Change the World (Sheena Yap Chan)
- Spring
- Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (Trevor Noah)
- Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit (Brene Brown)
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Currently Underway
If you are still interested in joining us, please contact learning@principals.ca.
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Spring 2026
|
| Braiding Sweetgrass |
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
 Author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Description: As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert).
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
Purchase: Available on Outdoor Learning School & Store and Indigo.ca
Dates: Wednesday meetings
- April 1, 2026
- April 15
- April 29
- May 13
Time: 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. EDT
Facilitator: Julia De Rose, York Region DSB
Meetings are in progress.
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| Professional Learning Redefined |
Professional Learning Redefined: An Evidence-Based Guide
 Authors: Isabel Sawyer and Marisa Ramirez Stukey
Description: The authors have studied the research on effective professional learning for the past 25 years and distilled these findings into this practical guide that has everything that school leaders need to engage staff and implement high quality instructional leadership.
Full of protocols, strategies, and case studies, this book dissects the key components of professional learning, like coherence, connections and content, and examines each through an evidence-based lens.
Purchase: Available on Corwin Press and Amazon.ca
Dates: Thursday meetings
- April 9, 2026
- April 23
- May 7
- May 21
Time: 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. EDT
Facilitators: Emmanuel Peters and Matthew Johnston, Toronto DSB
Meetings are in progress.
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Past Book Clubs
We maintain a list of past book clubs. The list might be useful if you are looking for a book to read for your own professional growth. Below include details from our most recent offering:
| 2025-26 |
|
The past year had some great titles. Thank you for your engagement!
| Summer 2025 |
The Wealth Money Can't Buy: The 8 Hidden Habits to Live Your Richest Life
 Author: Robin Sharma
Description: The Wealth Money Can’t Buy will hardwire in a completely new way of measuring wealth. We inhabit a world where the common idea of success requires you to hustle and grind, to sacrifice your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health, and to miss out on the finest times with those you love to scale a mountaintop of financial fortune, fame and material possessions.
Yet money is only one form of wealth. A truly abundant life includes seven other forms of wealth. With proven tactics, Robin Sharma—legendary leadership advisor to many of the world’s most successful people and a personal mastery expert trusted by tens of millions of people across the world—will help you to stop chasing the wrong kinds of riches—which can waste years—so you can get directly on track to making a life you absolutely adore.
Purchase: Available on Amazon.ca and Indigo.ca
Dates: Tuesday meetings
- July 22
- July 29
- August 12
- August 19
Time: 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. EDT
Cost: Free
Facilitator: Asha Rathod, York Region DSB
Meetings have concluded. Thank you to those that participated and provided feedback!
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| Fall 2025 |
| Choosing to See: A framework for equity in the math classroom |
Choosing to See: A Framework for Equity in the Math Classroom
Authors: Pamela Seda and Kyndall Brown
Description: In Choosing to See, Pamela Seda and Kyndall Brown offer a substantive, rigorous, and necessary set of interventions to move mathematics education toward greater equity, particularly in serving the needs of Black and Brown students, who are underrepresented and underserved as math scholars. The authors’ thoughtful ICUCARE equity framework serves as a lens to help teachers see where they are achieving alignment and where they are not.
Purchase: Available on Amazon.ca and Indigo.ca
Dates: Wednesday meetings
- October 8, 2025
- October 22
- November 5
- November 19 *rescheduled to November 26!
Time: 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. EDT/EST
Cost: Free
Facilitator: Mervi Salo, Toronto DSB
Meetings have concluded. Thank you to those that participated and provided feedback!
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| The Let Them Theory |
The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can't Stop Talking About
Authors: Mel Robbins and Sawyer Robbins
Description: In her latest groundbreaking book, The Let Them Theory, Mel Robbins—one of the world's most respected experts on motivation, confidence and mindset—offers school administrators a powerful tool to foster trust, autonomy and resilience within their teams. By releasing the need to control every aspect of leadership, administrators can empower staff, promote accountability and create a culture of collaboration.
The book encourages leaders to focus on their own responses rather than trying to micromanage others, allowing for more effective delegation and problem-solving. Setting clear boundaries ensures that administrators protect their time and energy, which allows them to lead with clarity and purpose. Ultimately, this approach reduces stress, builds trust and helps school leaders focus on meaningful impact rather than control.
Purchase: Available on Amazon.ca and Indigo.ca
Dates: Thursday meetings
- October 16, 2025
- October 30
- November 12 *shift to Wednesday
- November 27
Time: 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. EDT/EST
Cost: Free
Facilitator: Nadia Pinelli, Peel DSB
Meetings have concluded. Thank you to those that participated and provided feedback!
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| Winter 2026 |
| Stop the Hate for Goodness Sake |
Stop the Hate for Goodness Sake: How can classroom teachers disrupt discrimination and promote hope, foster healing and inspire joyful learning?
 Authors: Andrew Campbell and Larry Swartz
Description: Stop the Hate for Goodness Sake shows teachers how to confront racism and disrupt discrimination in order to deepen students’ understanding of social justice, diversity and equity. Background information, statistics, and reports on incidents of hate will help students consider ethical and moral behavior.
Forty step-by-step lessons involve discussion, oral and written narratives, case studies, assumption charts and more. This thoughtful examination of today’s world will help teachers encourage reflection, foster inclusion, and inspire students to take action.
This in-depth guide will show teachers of 8- to 14-year-olds how to start and manage important conversations that will lead to change.
Purchase: Available on OrcaBook.com and PembrokePublishers.com
Dates: Thursday meetings
- January 15, 2026
- January 29
- February 12
- February 26
Time: 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. EST
Facilitator: Julia De Rose, York Region DSB
Meetings have concluded. Thank you to those that participated and provided feedback!
|
| The Anxious Generation |
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
 Author: Jonathan Haidt
Description: In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.
Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems” that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.
Purchase: Available on Amazon.ca and Indigo.ca
Dates: Thursday meetings
- January 22, 2026
- February 5
- February 19
- March 5
Time: 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. EST
Cost: Free
Facilitator: Poonam Gahunia, Halton DSB
Meetings have concluded. Thank you to those that participated and provided feedback!
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| Spring 2026 |
| In progress. See details posted above. |
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Feel free to contact learning@principals.ca with any questions or comments.
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