Three Ring - easily collect and organize student work in a digital binder

As a district we have focused on formative assessment this year.  I know in my classroom it was always tricky to collect student work and easily keep it organized to use for future instructional purposes.  I came across Threering a few months ago, but want to share it in this weeks tech tip of the week.  This website allows you to easily set up a class and collect student work samples via video, audio, and photos.  This site has an android and IOS app that you can download and use your cell phone or tablet to collect their work. You can also access everything on the Threering website.  The other really cool feature of this tool is that students can also upload their own work using their devices and you can share all or part of their digital binder with parents via an email address.  This site is really easy to use and will allow you to collect student work samples over time and communicate easily and effectively with parents.  This would also make it really easy to bring up student data for PLC's or parent teacher conferences. 

Classroom Integration Ideas:

• capture pictures of students work (notebooks, rubrics, etc)
• record fluency data for elementary
• record video of presentations 
• peer feedback
• please leave a comment below with any further ideas

Video explaining some of the features of Three Ring

Creating a Custom Google Search Engine and Google Maps Streetview Player

Custom Google Search Engine
In my third grade classroom there were many times I wanted my students to do research or do further investigations during an inquiry project.  Of course students want to Google everthing, but I wanted to have some control over the sites that Google was searching.  That is now possible by creating a custom Google search engine.  This will allow you as a teacher to pick specific sites for Google to search.  This may be helpful if you are narrowing the search by content, reading level, or connection to the topic they are researching.  The video below shows how to set up this great tool for your classroom.

Google Maps Street view Player
Google street view is a cool way to see pictures of street views in certain areas.  Have you ever wanted to piece all those together to make a street view tour?  Well now you can by using Google Maps Street View Player.  This allows you to pick an origin and destination and the software will create a guided street view tour of the trip.  What a cool way to show a road trip that characters in your story traveled or use in a geography lesson.  This tool has tons of great capabilities for the classroom and is super easy to use.  Check out the tour I created of the Michigan Mile in Chicago.

Michigan Mile Tour