One HUGE thing I took away from the conference was when they said they try to go PAPERLESS!! Could you IMAGINE?!! To me that just seems so crazy. I teach in a school where parents are looking constantly for a grade, a paper with a grade on it, and to see how their child is doing. I can't imagine not having these "grades" to show them. But really, what are these papers that we are giving them for? Are they really helping the students, and assessing where they are? Or, are these papers to please the parents, and keep students busy so they are quiet!?
This week I told my kids we were going to go paperless for word work. They asked the typical questions. Well then how are you going to grade us? What are we going to turn in? Do we have to take a picture of it to show you? (This is my thing for math, so that way I can see what they are working on when I am working with small groups - more on this later!)
I told the kids I would know if they were working or not by assessing their writing and their spelling test on Friday. If they did well, then they were probably working on their words, practicing spelling the words, and working hard during the time. If they didn't look at their words all week, then they probably wouldn't do very well on the test. Now I know some of you will say, but hey, my kids are great spellers. That may be true, but then it really doesn't matter what you give a student to work on, at that point it is just busy work for them, right?
Let me tell you, it has been great not having papers to grade this week for their spelling weekly work. I still graded their spelling homework, where they had to write sentences to practice their words. I think I am now going to give them options for what they can do for their spelling homework, and give them a grid where they can do different activities, instead of just writing sentences.
What would you do with all that extra money in your budget if you didn't use paper? Are you set on the number of copies you can make? What happens if you don't use your designated number of copies?
No comments