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Paper and Pencil Curriculum: How Much Do You Rely on It?
February 23, 2011 | Ben JohnsonPaper is the lifeblood of schools. Rivers of paper pass through the copy machines and flow through hallways to the classrooms. Students and teachers swim in a sea of paper: paper bound in books, loose-leaf paper, college rule paper, graph paper and consumable paper glued in workbooks. Information is retrieved from paper, stored on paper and shared on paper.
Students color paper, cut paper, glue paper, fold paper hot dog and hamburger style, read paper, write on paper, bubble in paper. Isn't it amazing what teachers can do with just paper and pencils? Frankly, I'm sick of paper. Is paper the best we can come up with to help our students learn?
Isn't it time we quit trying to fit learning on a page and quantifying knowledge on a piece paper? Mike Schmoker talked about the dependency on the "crayola curriculum." Is there no other way?
What would schools do if all of the sudden there wasn't any more paper? Can a teacher teach without handing out a single piece of paper? Can students learn without scribbling on paper? How would they learn? Abe Lincoln learned his lessons with a piece of coal and a shovel. For years, students had personal blackboards upon which to do their assignments. These things would be, at best, a replacement for paper. And even a laptop for every student would be no better than a shovel and coal if all that it was used for were things that could have been done with the shovel and a piece of coal.
The Numbers
With a little research, I discovered that some teachers are given paper allotments for the entire year at their school sites. Let's say that in a school of 100 teachers, each teacher gets a 50-ream allotment. Each ream holds 500 sheets, so per teacher, that would be 25,000 pieces of paper. In a class of 30 students that is 833 pieces of paper per student per year. This would mean at a school of 100 teachers, that school would use 250,000 piece of paper annually. With that, a school like this would spend approximately $7,500 per year on printing on this paper and paper itself costs $25,000, not to mention costs of copy toner and service agreements. So, I'm thinking that every school could use an extra $30,000 to $50,000. Perhaps this would be enough to invest in technology that inscribes indelible information in the brain instead of on paper.
Paperless Learning
Today, my son, Gideon got an education that did not involve him manipulating one sheet of paper. He spent the day at an engineering consultant firm and learned firsthand the process of building bridges, roads, and interchanges. They showed him the plans for their projects and then went out around San Antonio to show them the finished products. Frankly, I ask him everyday how his day went and today was the first day in a long time that he was enthused and willing to talk to me about it. I think the last time that happened, Gideon was six years old.
He was definitely more excited to learn about engineering in this way than he would have been if he just read about it. Maybe Robert Marzano got it right when he stated that students need to have experiences rather than just read about them.
Imagine how different schools would have to be if paper did not exist:
- What changes would that make on how teachers teach?
- How would students learn differently?
- What changes would that make in the economy of school (aside from the correction fluid, pencil, and eraser companies that would go out of business)?
- What would replace the crisis of the copy machine jam?
Most importantly of all, what would replace paper as the lifeblood of schools? I'm interested in reading your answers to these questions.
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Comments (35)
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Techno Excuses
Learn Me Project Teacher:
I thought about this as technology gets introduced into schools and colleges. What excuses do we prefer? A dog ate my homework, or My dog ate the power cord.?
Laptops in every students hands would bring about some interesting excuses...hmmm...
I aint got no juice. I wore the keyboard out. I spilled my coke on the laptop. My little brother drop my laptop. My laptop fell in the pool. My hard drive is full. The cat ate my mouse. The blue screen of death appeared. My computer got worms.
There are probably a lot more
Ben Johnson
San Antonio, Texas
"What would replace the crisis of the copy machine jam?"
A virus ate my homework! http://learnmeproject.com/2011/02/16/not-too-optimistic-3/
Paperless
Ms. Catana:
You and me both. I am at a school that is drowning in paper and paperwork. There is no reason that it could not be paperless, other than tradition.
That is why it is difficult to convince schools to go paperless: Tradition!
We just have to keep the pressure on.
Ben Johnson
San Antonio, Texas
Ben, thank you for posting this. I have never thought about how much paper schools use in a year. Even when I was student-teaching, paper use was second nature to me. Every morning I would try to get to school early to beat out the other teachers and typically print handouts for over 100 students--usually more! That's a lot of paper for just three months, let alone a year. If I had had access to laptops or iPads in my classroom daily, I would have tried to use that more than my early morning run to the copy machine. Being paperless surely saves money if done right and the saved money can definitely go to other programs, like buying students classroom laptops.
We have come a long way in technology from when I was in school (which was only 5 years ago). Students today as young as five know how to type and use computers. Teachers now have the capacity to conduct classes on Facebook, have students create blogs reflecting on their learning, and communicate with classrooms across the country and globe! The need to teach students how to use the computer is decreasing, leaving room for teachers to use more innovated technology to facilitate learning.
I think the biggest problem is convincing districts to go paperless. It is a hard thing to fathom for schools who like myself never think too much of it. Also there are students who enjoy the feel of writing and drawing and creating using a blank sheet of paper. How as teachers do we promote technology, while still meeting all the needs of our students? Don’t get me wrong, I am all for paperless, but I believe it will be a tough battle at first.
Technology of 1560
Thomas:
I am sure that in 1560 when pencils were invented in England, it was a pretty spiffy technology. In my attempt to be satirical, I think you missed the message. It isn't about the paper and pencil, it is about teaching and learning- not filling time, keeping students busy or going through the motions of teaching. Seymore Papert stated that computers needed to be like pencils- "tools to think with."
Thanks for the post.
Ben Johnson
San Antonio, Texas
...but sometimes the best technology to help a student learn something is paper and pencil.
I'm totally a believer in using technology...
...but sometimes the best technology to help a student learn something is paper and pencil.
Thank you. Based on this
Thank you. Based on this information, it would appear that the copy and paper cost from the scenario listed in the article of 2.5 million pieces of paper could exceed $100,000 or much more a year per school...an even larger amount that can be invested elsewhere.
The numbers we have published
The numbers we have published are averages of what we found during our research - https://www.ebackpack.com/savewithebackpack#
Average daily handout count per student - 10
Average price per black & white print/copy in cents - 3.3
Average price per color print/copy in cents - 9.2
% of copies that are black & white 85
Does that help?
Hey Folks:It was my wife that noticed that I should have used a calculator to do the math. For a school of 100 teachers it would be 2.5 million pieces of paper per year. Astounding!Ben JohnsonSan Antonio, Texas
Does that change the cost of paper and printing per year for that school also or was that calculation based on the ream count of 5,000?
Additional calculation question
Hey Folks:It was my wife that noticed that I should have used a calculator to do the math. For a school of 100 teachers it would be 2.5 million pieces of paper per year. Astounding!Ben JohnsonSan Antonio, Texas
Does that change the cost of paper and printing per year for that school also or was that calculation based on the ream count of 5,000?
"What would replace the
"What would replace the crisis of the copy machine jam?"
A virus ate my homework! http://learnmeproject.com/2011/02/16/not-too-optimistic-3/
paperless?
We waste paper in school. Too many copies! Schmoker stresses reading, discussing, and then writing. Without computers (only one in my classroom - mine!) students use paper. Each student brings a spiral notebook, comp book, or steno pad. We respond in writing to almost everything we read, and that one notebook seems to be enough. We retrieve paper from recycling boxes and use it for exit passes, brainstorming and drafting paper, note-taking, vocab terms... whatever we can. At the same time I sign up for our computer lab WHENEVER it is available. I teach in a middle school of 900 students with one lab of 36 computers. Until my district catches up with technological needs, my students and I will continue to rely on paper. Love the idea of paperless, but my students have to write. Thank goodness for paper!
There are times when the use
There are times when the use of paper makes perfect sense. However, my concern with paper is that it is often just a small step away from "busy work"; that is photocopies of "work" with little if any relation to the stated aims of the lesson.
The experiences in Mike Schmoker's article were, unfortunately, very similar to my own. We need to align our practice to our stated goals. If that requires paper and paper is also the best way to do it - fine. If not we use other methods. I suspect that this would not necessarily involve technology - careful planning using "backwards design", group work and engaging learning experiences will lead to positive results.