Greener Pastures: The Dawn of the Paperless Classroom

I picked up my son’s backpack the other day, and the weight of it astounded me.

It was so...light. Empty even.

I remembered my school days. I didn’t just wear a backpack; I lugged it. I measured my progress in school by the physical weight of my assignments. I remembered how frustrated my mother would get when I home--yet again--with a broken arm strap or a ripped seam because I had demanded too much of it. After all, aren’t backpacks crammed with notebooks, worksheets, books, and scratch paper a normal part of education?

Not if technology has anything to do with it.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, technology--when appropriately used--can reduce paper usage by up to 30%. Take Bank of America for example (they did). When the largest bank in the country turned to online reports, forms, email, double-sided copying, and lighter-weight papers, it reduced is paper consumption by over one billion sheets of paper. That’s a 32% reduction--on internal operations alone. 

And if Bank of America can do it, so can your school district.

There are several ways to save paper and money through the use of technology. 

• Use emailed school and class newsletters instead of sending home printed ones.

• Direct parents toward a consistent website or web page for frequently asked questions, the latest news, or the most recent homework assignments.

• Store documents in electronic archives for instant retrieval (rather than relying on file cabinets).

• Encourage the use of on-screen editing features, instead of printing and editing by hand.

• Share events on a shared calendar with reminders.

• Use Google Forms instead of worksheets, quizzes, and paper tests.

• Use Google Drawings for scratch paper.

• Use OneNote for notetaking.

• Embrace the cloud system for swift data recovery and increased collaboration and distribution of resources.

But it’s more than just paper schools are saving. Printing supplies--everything from copier purchases to toner to maintenance contracts--are expensive line items. With reduced paper comes reduced printing costs, and printing supplies--everything from copier purchases to toner to maintenance contracts--are expensive line items. Moving to educational technology also saves more precious resources: family time, patience, creativity, sanity, and wear and tear on a backpack you can keep for years.

How does your school save natural resources while unleashing productivity, innovation, and collaboration? We can always help you find more ways.

5 Easy Tips For Cleaning Devices In Classrooms

Tablets, laptops, smart boards, and digital cameras are just a few ways technology is connecting kids to the world, each other, and a new way of learning. And, especially this time of year, it is also connecting them to something a little more unexpected: germs.

Keeping classroom devices clean at any grade level can be a challenge, but if you keep these tips and processes in place, you can help keep your students—and yourself—healthy all year long. 

1. Start at the source. A little prevention can go a long way to keeping your classroom technology clean and free of debris. Remind students to cover their mouths with their elbows when they cough, to wash their hands regularly, and to stay home when they are contagious.

2. Stick with a schedule. Grime, fingerprints, dirt, and spots can accumulate quickly on classroom devices, so it’s best to set aside time every week to clean them.

3. Use only water on displays. Touchscreen technology is created with the intention of being touched, and most screens are treated with chemicals that work with the natural oils on fingertips. Abrasive chemicals can remove this layer, and the instant shine they provide may end up costing you in the long run; stick with plain water on a soft microfiber cloth and lightly buff out smudges.

4. Clean keyboards with compressed air. Compressed air is one of the most effective ways to clean keyboards; it forcefully blasts dirt, crumbs, and lint out from hiding. While compressed hair handles the nooks and crannies, use a damp (but not wet) disinfectant wipe to clean the tops of the keys and stop germs in their tracks.

5. Restore brilliance to laptops. There’s nothing like those foam cleaning erasers to bring back a laptop’s former glory. Use only on the exterior (NOT the display) and be careful not to remove identifying numbers; foam erasers can’t tell the difference between permanent marker and day-to-day grime.

As anyone who has ever cleaned 20 laptops after a sixth-grade class knows, it can be a pretty gross world out there. With the above tips and a little luck, you can keep germs at bay, your technology in good shape, and your students healthy and ready to learn. As always, feel free to reach out if you need more tips about technology in the classroom.

Fighting Fatigue: How To Prevent School Sleepiness

Exhaustion. Burnout. Stress. From Kindergarten to college, every student has been there. Whether your student is fighting a growth spurt, school sleepiness, or academic fatigue, there are ways you can help keep them awake and alert in the classroom.

1. When in doubt, ask. There are many reasons why a student may fall asleep or tune out in the classroom, so if you have concerns, start asking questions. Have they eaten? How much sleep did they get the night before? Is the room too warm? When was the last time they moved around? Is the desk too far away from the action?

2. Encourage healthy habits. Growing kids need plenty of rest, fruits, vegetables, and water to keep their bodies alert and humming along. Both parents and teachers can model good habits and teach the benefits of self-awareness and self-care.

3. Address the overwhelmed. Kids today are pushed to pack more and more on their academic and athletic plates, yet the fact of the matter is there are only so many hours in a day. Be aware of the symptoms of burnout: long-term fatigue, intellectual exhaustion, decline in academic performance, apathy toward learning, and procrastination that replaces a previous excitement. Find out what can be removed or adjusted to create a little breathing room so more focus can be paid on what’s important.

4. Make learning fascinating. One way to fight fatigue in the classroom is to up the ante. Studies have shown that students learn better when they are extremely interested in a topic; instead of tasking them to read on their own about a topic, get them out of their seats and engage them in the presentation and the discovery. Allow for self-expression both in and out of comfort zones, and use educational technology as a tool to track and monitor student progress.

5. Provide plenty of breaks. Long lectures or long times in front of a tablet can make anyone a little sleepy. Remind students to get up and move about the classroom, eat a snack, stretch, or attempt a different task at regular intervals to give their eyes and brains a break.

When it comes to academic and physical fatigue, it’s important to keep the conversations going between students, parents, and teachers. The joint effort can go a long way to finding the source of the problem—and the solution—so that everyone can wake up to a better day of learning something new.