I had a couple of interesting conversations with staff over the issues of printing (& photocopying) for classes. One issue is colour copying, with staff concerned that the two colour laser copiers are used fundamentally for administrative use while each class has a smaller colour printer as just a local printer and black & white lasers. The other issue is that the staff use the 'older' photocopiers in the school for class copies of work.
I've thought about this and also the issue of how much copying we are doing.I've begun to wonder whether all our paper crunching is necessary. Should we be moving away from this dependence on print copies of our work? Who are we doing all this printing for??
This term all the classes 'donated' a box of their paper stores to a communal store of paper down near the photocopiers. Additionally seven boxes- the library paper order, was kept there as well. At the end of the term there were two boxes left.
THAT MEANS WE PHOTOCOPIED AT LEAST 19 BOXES WORTH OF PAPER. That is 47500 pages, which works out to be about 140 pages per child or 2-3 pages per child EVERY DAY this term. This doesn't include any photocopying done in the office area- split work for classes, notes etc or work printed off on the printers.
Do we need all this paper work????
What is happening to all the work students do on the computers?
What are we using the flash drives for???
What is the school network being used for???
Are we printing digital work (work on the computer) that doesn't have to be
printed?
Are we printing digital work (work on the computer) that doesn't have to be
printed?What is happening with the grade data projectors which could be used for instruction instead of running off sheets?
Does our staff know we can save 'sheets' into the students' folders for them to open & work on without ever having to print them???
Do we really need to print colour copies of work that is saved on the computer?? .....Why????
I've been thinking about these issues all morning & think that a possible strategy to combat this issue is to call for a focus group to take charge of raising awareness within the grades /staff. What do others think?
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Images http://www.flickr.com/photos/35468141611@N01/98423379
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8 comments:
I just read a post by Jeff Utecht on the Thinking stick- (I've quoted from this blog before)http://www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=655
-food for thought on this topic....
Interesting stats there Fran.
As far as colour printing goes, I have actually never printed in colour before at Holy Family, (having been brought up in a family where my father always told me it was 'a waste!') . However I thought I might give it a crack this term to print out a portfolio coloured picture for each of my students this year. Just for something different, and also from feeling a little left behind after seeing the beautiful work of other portfolio title pages in recent years!
In summary, I think colour printing is for special occations, and i have no problem running requests via someone for approval.
As for the copiers, i agree, it does seem peculiar that teaching staff use the hand-me-downs. I could be wrong, but i would have thought that more copying is done by teachers than admin staff (your calculations seem to agree with this.
I am sure everyone could cut down on their photo copying. We have talked about this in our stage particular with reading groups. Why do we always seem to want children to produce/write something in a lesson. The reason for this are many and varied.
A few of my thoughts...
What in the world is my password to log on here???
~mel~
Hi Mel,
You don't need a password just select the Name/URL identity & put a name there.
I'm not sure of the stats for the office copiers- I know that notes that are to be sent home are run off in school/grade sets rather than class amounts & that correspondance from the school needs to be of good quality. I think if we added up all the letters, accounts, reports (not only student/ academic), newsletters, pamphlets, enrollment forms, policies and bills we'd be surprised at how much is printed/photocopied that is not used specifically in the classroom.
Hello Fran,
I too agree with the fact that we do seem to be putting an incredible amount of paper through the photocopy machines.
I have given some thought as to why and when I use photocopied worksheets
- when I haven't prepared a lesson properly
- time filler
- revision
- daily activities such as mentals
- homework sheets
- time constraints - I use worksheets when I don’t want the children to be wasting time "copying" information down
- relief days
The student folders, flash drives and online worksheets are fantastic tools. Year 6 used them constantly last year and we are encouraging Year 5 to do the same this year. However toward the end of last year I felt hesitant when I sent home the children’s workbooks - particularly in English and Theme as there was very little work in them. I am not sure that parents are ready to see the work of their children electronically - many parents still need to see a "hardcopy" of the work. I realise that we are able to make an electronic copy of work samples for portfolios - not sure what we do about the day to day work the children are doing though. I know that the work children are able to do electronically is engaging and purposeful - and more importantly that this is their way of learning and communicating - we still have the needs of parents to consider though. At times I have found that I am almost repeating work - electronically and some type of hardcopy that can be pasted into their books as a way of showing that we have covered the work.
COLOUR copying looks fantastic - presentation is important - if we are sending home work for parents to share with their children it should be presented in the best possible way.
"Hand Me Down" photocopiers who cares as long as they work?
Isn’t it fun being on holidays?
Janine...Holidays....what holidays!!
I understand your concerns about 'having something you can hold onto to show parents'. I felt the same way last year when it seemed that we had nothing to put into portfolios from 'technology classes'. This year I've made one sheet for every student that summarises their terms activities & the students have had to write down where their pieces of work are located- for me to look at(school drive) and for their parents (flash drives). I also have an assessment sheet that again lists activities in a rubric for marking. These two sheets should be the only two 'pieces of paper' that the students will have from our lessons. (Next term I'll 'back to back' them). Yet we have a heap of things the students have worked on. I've also made wikis for the infants that I've been saving their work to and I know parents have looked at them.(Memo-holiday job- completing these wikis!!)
I suppose the things I've started to realise are:
I think the parents are OK with looking at work on the computers- as long as it's easily located & organised.
The students need to be taught how to organise their work so that they CAN store and show their work in a digital form- they don'y have to print it out!- But it MUST be easy to locate & 'show'(at home or at school)
I think we as teachers are worried about having 'attractive' portfolios with lots of pages-as we still secretly see portfolios as a reflection of ourselves and our 'teaching performance'. But are we coming to a time where our traditional portfolios are becoming redundant??
Fran
Great discussion! Fran another cost we need to keep in mind is that we pay the photocopying company for each copy we make.(Colour costs more) Plus from the school budget we have spent about $33000 to purchase photocopying machines. (The Riso was costing us nearly $3000 to run per year)
I would love to publish our newsletter on web page or email to families but the response has been poor. Any ideas? How do we move parents to paper-free publications and students work? We also have a responsibility to the environment. How can we become a sustainable school?
Love to hear everyones thoughts
I have to agree with Mel. It does seem strange that the teaching staff end up with the "hand me down" photocopiers when we do so much (too much?) copying for the students. The current "hand me down" machine probably does more than what the average teacher needs. All we want is a simple, reliable machine that produces good quality copies. We don't need all the bells and whistles that the admin staff need.
We do need to cut down on the number of paper copies we produce for the children and some of Fran's suggestions are good, but.... for the data projectors to be effective we need larger whiteboards and more blinds to reduce the glare on the boards.
Flash drives are a great way to store and share the student's work but I think parents still have some reservations about work produced on a computer and as Janine said, I'm not sure how ready OUR parents are to accept work presented in this way.
I still think that bookwork is the best reflection of a student's effort, ability and day to day success. Portfolios are outdated, time consuming and not necessarily a true reflection of the student's effort and ability but they are currently one of the ways that we report to parents. Because of this they should be of the highest quality. Covers, photographs of work and students, etc should be in colour. Any photographs used in assessments as stimulus should also be in colour. The class printers are good but do not produce the best quality prints and suck the ink so quickly and the school does not always have spare cartridges in stock.
I don't know costs but would think that a shared colour laser would have to be more cost efficient and would produce better quality prints for portfolios (not everyday work) than the current set up.
Maybe a little forum on the teaching staff needs may be the way to go. Great discussion topic Fran.
Ray
I just saw this & had to use it!
Think B4U Print
1 ream of paper = 6% of a tree and 5.4kg CO2 in the atmosphere
3 sheets of A4 paper = 1 litre of water
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