Tuesday Links Round-up

What We’re Reading

Advice from the popular Nerdy Book Club on how to create authentic book clubs in the classroom, from a teacher who didn’t:

“I killed book clubs. How did I do it? It took a lot of planning. I spent many late nights searching online for the right tools. I anticipated every possible thing that could go wrong and had a carefully thought-out solution for each misstep.  I allowed for no deviation from my outlined execution. “

A great read for librarians and book nerds on how to just let people be.

Down in Florida, 5th grader Danielle Koos’ wrote a mobile app explaining the Rainbow Loom, a friendship-bracelet-maker. Stuffed with video and photo tutorials, Disney princesses and a live-action slingshot, Rainbow Loom has been downloaded more than 50,000 times since Koos listed it in the App Store this spring.

Hear that, App Development Code Campers? 50K is the number to beat. *cracks knuckles* We’ll have Apple’s new Swift developer language at camp this year, so let’s get apping!

We also launched a Google+ community, Innovative Vermont Education, as a place to ask questions, get ideas and share the amazing things Vermont educators and students are up to in and out of the classroom. Join us!

And we’re watching…

This wildly hilarious video by Mr Betts, a history teacher with a penchant for wigs, sass and entirely too catchy filk songs about economists. This time out, though, he’s tackling George Washington with a parody of Lorde’s “Royals”. Warning: it will get stuck in your head and there’s not a darn thing you can do about it.