10 Great Ways that Educators are Using LiveBinders

It is so much fun to go to the LiveBinders site and see all the new ways that educators are using LiveBinders.  Everyday that I go to the site I see a new interesting binder,  so I thought it would be great to highlight some of examples in this post:

1. ePortfolios – I think Jackie Gerstein created one of the first ePortfolios on LiveBinders and it is still one of the best:
   
   Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D.
2. Computer Lab – Are you always finding more sites that you want to share in the computer lab?  If you keep them in a LiveBinder, the students always have access to your latest finds, like this one created by user ‘dboyd’:
   
   Student Internet Sites
3. Administration – Sometimes there is an event at school (like state testing) where the information changes constantly and things need to be posted in one place so that everyone has everything they need to know in one place. This binder from user ‘mstoraasli’ is a great example:
   
   PLAN Testing Info 2009
4. Library – This is a great Library Media Center binder from ‘joquetta’ who has clearly done an excellent job organizing all this information:
   
   Library Media Center Milford Mill Academy
5. Student Assignments – One class grouped all of their drawings together for an interesting puzzle cube assignment into LiveBinders:
   
   Brandon’s Puzzle Cube
6. Collecting things to read -  How do you organize all those great links from tweets so that you can find them later when you need them?  Mary Johnson organized her reading material in this LiveBinder and was kind enough to make it public so that the rest of us can read these great articles, too:
   
   Professional Reading
7. Preparing for lessons – ‘xmath’ put together this great binder for teaching kids about upcoming Veteran’s Day:
   
   Veterans Day Resources
8. Posting course materials - This binder on the “Introduction to Internet” from user ‘peterclearly’ organizes all the course materials neatly into tabs and subtabs:
   
   Introduction to Internet LF2547
9. Sharing resources - A group of 25 teachers were all collecting separate links.  By using the same account, they combined all their links into one binder, so they could quickly gain access to all the latest sites.
   
   Social Media and Web 2.0 Web Sites
10. Best resources on a subject – Teresa McGee’s ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ binder, Colleen Young’s ‘Wordle – educational uses’ Binder, and Sheeler’s Edgar Allan ‘Poe’ binder are all excellent examples of collecting the best resources on a subject:
    
    Leonardo da Vinci
    
    Wordle – educational uses
    
    Poe
11. Fun – Ok, I know I was going to stop at 10, but who says binders are all work and no play? I loved Nancy Devine’s collection of ‘Pumpkin Recipes’:
    
    Pumpkin recipes

A Library of LiveBinders for Teachers

Educators have been creating some great LiveBinders that are excellent resources for other educators. We thought we would pull them together in this wiki as a Library of LiveBinders organized by subject and grade level. We would love to hear your input on other ways to organize these great binders.

Please take a look at this wiki and let us know your thoughts.

Also, here are some tips and tricks for those of you who are building LiveBinders to share with others:

LiveBinders Tips and Tricks

Student Goals

Mr. Lester has been busy figuring out new ways to use binders in his teaching. He recently came up with the idea of using private binders for student-parent-teacher communication. A private binder can have the student’s individual goals in a place where everyone can find them. The binder can have websites and materials designed to help that student reach their goals.

We can’t show you examples of these binders because they are private. But here some more of Mr. Lester’s well-organized public binders:

Mr. Lester- 2nd Grade Resources

Mr. Lester- 4th Grade Resources

Mr. Lester- 5th Grade Resources

Creative Teaching with LiveBinders

Mr. Lester has made some great binders. If you haven’t seen them, some are included below. But he has also thought of other ideas for using LiveBinders to help his students. Here are some of Mr. Lester’s ideas:

1. Bookmarking – I am using livebinders now as a tool to give parents websites that they can use to help further their child’s education at home. I am hoping to add other binders with different content presentations to allow a child to view content explained in a different way then their classroom teacher.
2. Blog/Review - Using the Text/Web layout students and teachers can blog about current websites that a viewer can see next to their thoughts.
3. Personal Journal - The livebinders can be a great spot to upload thoughts in a tab/subtab system.
4. Student Response Journals – Using the text to text layout a student can go over chapters of a story and place key information and questions.
5. Portfolio - Students can collect their work and have a digital portfolio using all layouts in a livebinder.
6. E-learning – Students can have homework assignments based on web research that the teacher provides in a text to web layout. The teacher can have a worksheet printout available in the subtab.

Thank you for sharing your great ideas Mr. Lester!

Here are just a few of Mr. Lester’s great binders. You can find more on our site by using the search box at the top and searching by Author for “Mr.Lester”.

Mr.Lester- 3rd Grade Resources

Mr. Lester- Kindergarten Resources

Mr. Lester- 1st Grade Resources