I've finally cleaned out my file cabinet and replaced it with this

I have been in my current school for four years now and haven't really cleaned out the materials left behind by the previous teacher until the past month.  I have pitched items that were part of the previous three textbook adoption cycles (including all of the samples from companies that weren't adopted) and my classroom, cabinets, and files are pretty empty right now.

Are the file cabinets going to filled back up anytime.  For me, probably not due to the current format of resources that are available to us now.  Most instructional materials are in the form of files on CD that we print off or are web-based.  I have been using a tool for a couple of years that have organized materials for instruction and have been a great resource to isolate supplemental materials for students.

This web-tool is LiveBinders.  It is billed as you 3-ring binder on the web that would have been lost in file cabinets.  LiveBinders.com is a free website that allows people, not just educators, to create binders for specific topics to link other website, put in pictures, attach files, etc. to customize instruction to your liking.  You can create tabs and subtabs for the binders and even color code for increased customization.  Each binder is located on a shelf.  The shelves can be public or private.  There are many public shelves that can be searched within the website and you can add them to your own shelf.  

I have created binders for the textbooks I have been using.  We were towards the end of our instructional material adoption and I gathered supplemental sources via web and files to my binder.  I organized the materials by chapter.  I was able to share the binder with my students and have them complete assignments using a specific chapter or content.  Such assignments that I created were scavenger hunt activities, researching topics using the links, and find information to expand on what was included in the text. I also added links to students own blogs that I have them complete for my classes to the specific class binder so the students are able to view those blogs without having to have the specific link.

Holt World History:  The Human Journey 
Edwards Government in America

We have adopted new instructional materials for the next school year and I plan to make a new LiveBinder for my new textbooks.  I will also make sure that the weblinks are still "live" and active.

Using LiveBinders is a way for educators to create customized web-based instruction that allows students to use specific sites and activities located on the binder.  There are also many binders with a variety of topics that can aid your instruction and you can "adopt" and place on your shelf.  I have been using the free basic functions and it seems to be sufficient for my instruction so far.  There are pay options to uploads large file sizes.  This is an easy to use website and functions well for my instruction. There is an iPad app available for LiveBinders on the Apple App Store.  There is not currently a version for the iPhone.