Teacher Time Savers {Going Paperless}

Y'all there never seems to be enough time because we all have a growing list of things that we have to do...lesson planning, grading, classroom management, testing, parent contact, team meetings, and so much more!  I love time savers because they make it possible to complete all of our weekly tasks.

This year I'm working to make my classroom as paperless as possible and it is a HUGE time saver because I'm not wasting so much time at the copier.  Here are three time savers that will help you tackle assignments, grading, and not having to make copies.

My class just completed their first big project of the year and I wanted to come up with a way that I could easily collect and grade them.  I have five different classes and they range from having 19 to 23 students.  I decided that the best way to collect the projects was to have my students fill out a Google Form.

You can send them the Google Form using Google Classroom or you can send them the link to the form.  You can save time by checking the Shorten URL button to create a shorter URL for your students to copy.  I've also noticed that I get several questions about some of the letters and numbers in these shortened URLs (they can get kinda confusing), so I create bit.ly links for my classrooms and I make sure to only use lowercase letters.  That saves time and avoids the questions about the links.  You can also create a QR code using the link and your students can scan the code with an iPad and access the Google Form quickly and easily.

The best part about using Google Forms to have your students turn in their projects is that it will save you time grading.  I'll show you how.

After the students have filled out the Google Form, you will be able to view their responses.  I like to quickly look at them as a whole and then I click on the green button at the top to have it create a spreadsheet to look at the responses.

This is when I can easily grade my student's projects.  My students completed this assignment online, so I have a question that asks for a link to their project.  I can quickly and easily view their projects from the link that they provided in the Google Form.

Then I add a column in the spreadsheet that says GRADE and COMMENTS.  This will help me easily enter grades and then transfer those to my grade book.

It has been a great time saver when I need to collect multiple assignments as well.  It also saves me time with grading.

My last time saver tip is to send your students reading assignments using Google Slides.  It saves you time because you don't have to make copies and waste your time standing in line at the copier.

Here is a little video to show you how using Google Slides for reading assignments will save you time.

I hope you enjoyed my three time saving tips.  What are your best time saving tips?  Let me know in the comments.

Going Green: The Paperless Classroom

The paperless classroom isn’t just around the corner anymore. It is here now! Thanks to 1:1 technology, students around the globe have access to their own digital devices such as wireless laptops, Google Chrome Books, and iPads. Many teachers and students now have access to a wide array of digital resources. This allows teachers to easily manage learning environments (even from their couch at home) and allows students to take responsibility of their own learning. Teachers are now using a variety of iPads apps and web tools to increase productivity. Classroom blogs, document sharing and storing sites, cloud based tools such as Google Docs and Dropbox, and even Learning Management Suites such as Google Classroom and Canvas are becoming more and more popular among teachers and school districts.

So, how can you transition to a paperless classroom?

It’s really much easier than you may think, and maybe you have already started the transition. Even if you only have one iPad, a small set of Google Chromebooks, or a few desktop computers – you can begin the switch to seeing less paper on your desk to more online digital products from students.

And, what's the best part? Students love going digital! This transition makes up a huge part of their generation today. We are literally in the “Digital Age” and students pick up and use technology much easier than most teachers can. Remember, if you only have a few devices in your classroom students can still complete online assignments during small group instruction with rotations. 

Here are a few tips to help you start thinking about going green and creating a more paperless classroom.

Going Green with iPads

I’m constantly using iPads in my classroom. The best part about having iPads is that almost every student can pick one up and use it with very little instruction. Most students today have access or have had access to some sort of tablet since they were very small. I have kindergarten and first grade students come to the lab and touch the screen on my desktop instead of using the mouse because they are so used to those touch screen devices!

QR Codes are very popular and so easy to create. Sites such as Chirbit, Unitag, QR Code Generator, and QR Stuff make QR Codes come to life! Now, you can add sounds, voice narration, or symbols and shapes to your QR Codes. They are super easy to make!

Here's an activity from Erintegration my second graders competed earlier this year where they scanned QR Codes to learn more about shapes and their properties. This is a great lesson for 2nd grade and up! Click here to find this activity in Erin's store for free!

Here students are learning about parts of speech by playing an iPad Scoot Game from Erintegration found here! 

You can also use iPads in a variety of other ways. I love using Book Creator and Toontastic to create digital books and cartoons. Apps such as Explain Everything and Educreations turn iPads into interactive whiteboards. Plus, there are tons of spelling practice and math fact fluency apps that are fun and educational for students to use. Want students to be more creative? There’s an app for that! iMovie and Stop Motion allow students to create their own movies while Haiku Deck and ThingLink give students flexibility in creating colorful and interactive presentations. Do these apps sound too hard for your students to use? Trust me, they are not! I teach grades K-6 and even my youngest students use many of these apps.

Going Green with Google Apps

Google Apps make up a huge part of my classroom! Eighty percent of what I teach includes using one or more of the Google Apps at a time. Today, sixth graders received an assignment in Google Slides on writing a persuasive essay about their Washington, DC trip. They were required to write their essay in Google Docs and include photographs from their trip. Once they are finished, students will send their completed assignment to me through email and I’ll edit it, make comments and grade it right from my own comfy couch at home! 

And a few weeks ago, 5^th graders completed an interactive Google Slides assignment on The Water Cycle. They shared their completed work with me and I graded it from home. This lesson came from Danielle Knight. Her Go Interactive Google Notebook Collection is Ah-mazing!!!! You can check out this Water Cycle edition here.

Did you know that students can access their Google account from anywhere? Yep, several of my students finished this assignment at home and sent it to me to grade. All online, all digital, all paperless!

Right now, third and fourth grade students are working on Non-Fiction Text Features using Google Slides and the desktop Snipping Tool. They find non-fiction text features using Capstone Interactive (an online digital collection of non-fiction books that our school pays for). They take a picture of the text feature they have found using the snipping tool and insert it into the appropriate slide. My 2nd graders will start this soon! I can’t take credit for this wonderful idea. Erin from Erintegration actually created the majority of these slides. I just added a cover slide and a slide with directions. You can find it her At Home with Google Apps Series on her blog! {Can you tell I love Erin's products yet?}

I can’t leave out Google Forms. Google Forms is an excellent assessment tool! Use the add-on Flubaroo, and this Google App will grade the assessment for you! You can use Google Sheets to manipulate and gather feedback on skills you may need to reteach. Or, download it as an Excel file.

I also use Google Forms and Google Sheets to for surveys and needs assessments for our staff.

I believe that the paperless classroom is here to stay. Developing digital age learning environments by using the resources available to your students is not only “Earth friendly”, but it also prepares students for the future. The bonus is, you won’t need to worry about collecting papers, or those students who always seem to “lose” their assignment!