My latest post is inspired by a dear friend who is an even greater teacher than she is friend (and that is saying something). This isn’t the first time she has inspired me to write, but over the summer, Linh and I began talking about our professional goals as we headed toward the new school year. Hers was to create a paperless classroom leaving me in awe of her passion to tackle just a big feat. If any teacher can do away with pencil and paper Linh surely can. After a little research I discovered there are a variety of tools to ensure her success. You can head over to my article at the Yellin Center for Mind, Brain and Education, or find a copy of it below. Enjoy and good luck to all you tech-saavy educators out there making a difference in children’s lives and diminishing your environmental impact. Keep doing you!
Tools for a Paperless Classroom
Over the summer vacation I have been having conversations with many of my teacher friends about their professional goals for the upcoming school year. I have been surprised by how many of them have set their sights on striving toward a paperless classroom. During my time in the classroom, I too tried to make my classroom as paperless as possible. Yet as any K-12 teacher knows, it is a hard feat to do away with all printed handouts and materials and the photocopier is often an educator’s best friend. However, as Ed tech keeps changing the face of the classroom, there are a variety of tools being built to help those teachers who are eager to go paperless. The following are a few exceptional resources to help manage and organize a paperless classroom:
Vision ME is a classroom management app that allows teachers to manage the classroom workflow, from assigning activities to gathering and grading. Beyond materials management, Vision ME also allows students to chat with other students in real time in order to provide valuable feedback. Furthermore, Vision ME has embedded features like a blank attention screen to grab students’ focus and the ability to limit Internet access on student tablets. Another excellent feature of this particular tool is that it is not only available in English, but also in Spanish, French, Dutch, German and Japanese.
We have written before about Google classroom, a space where teachers can organize their workflow by easily creating assignments, distributing materials, gathering completed work and tracking grades, all in one paperless space. On the assignments page, students are able to see what has been assigned and when it is due, which they can access from both home and school. In addition, teachers are able to monitor who has completed their assignment and provide feedback to any students who appear to be struggling. Google Classroom also has the capacity to enhance communication, as teachers are able to send announcements to students and parents or instigate class discussions through the tool. The really exciting aspect of using Google classroom is that is it constantly being developed, upgraded and improved. For example, in July 2015, Google expanded the tool to included mobile notifications.
Raising Jordans 