5 easy tips for the Paperless Classroom

Going paperless this year? Welcome to the club! Here are some tips and resources for a smooth transition to digital learning. 

STARTING WITH THE PAPERLESS CLASSROOM

If I ask teachers what would make their work better, their answer often is – a more efficient and organized classroom.

More time for students and less time doing paperwork.

Paperless classroom is a concept which, if implemented thoughtfully and carefully, can make your teaching wishes come true.

Courtesy of: chalkup.co

However, when starting to think about going paperless, you’ll have to consider some facts. As in every concept, you have to take into account both benefits and challenges. At the beginning, set your expectations low, and see how the paperless concept works for you. Test it. Adapt it to your needs. When you’re ready, set the goals and keep track of them.

In this blog post I would like to share 5 easy tips to get started!

1. Pick ONE part of your daily classroom routine to start with.

Picking one portion of your day is not going to be as overwhelming for you or your students. Maybe it's your morning work, maybe it's your reading log, or maybe it's a Daily 5 center. Having just one activity makes it easy to plan, assess, and evaluate the progress you and your class are making. 

• If you're in primary grades, try Sight Word Typing Centers!
• If you're in upper grades, try Calendar Math or Number of the Day!
• If you're looking for center work, try Word Work for Any Word List!

2. Just keep swimming

It's going to be hard, and you're going to have issues.  It's ok! Issues include, but are not limited to:

I can't connect! The battery died! The Internet is down! My screen is cracked!

Have a contingency plan for emergencies, such as device sharing and alternate activities. You can assign one or two of your students to be the "Device Manager," and let small issues be diverted to them. Watch their confidence soar!

The two most obvious benefits of paperless classroom are smaller cost and less time spent!

3. Decide how you will monitor or grade work

If you're using Google Classroom or One Drive, make a plan for grading assignments, and share that with your students so they know what to expect.  

With i3LEARNHUB, Google Classroom or One Drive, students can access their work from home, so homework assignments are a great way to get your feet wet with digital learning, especially if you're short on devices in the classroom.

Distribute lessons digitally. It is important that you can easily distribute your lessons and assignments.

i3LEARNHUB has a great feature that will help you share your saved lessons with a click of a button to the entire class.

4. Once you've gotten the hang of one activity, add one more

Going paperless one activity at a time is the best way to work out the technology kinks.

You want to make sure you're not sacrificing quality instruction to jump on the paperless bandwagon. Here's a really fun character traits activity using hashtags to try- kids will eat it right up!

Students can participate in shared research.  Group work takes on a whole new meaning!

5. Don't forget to be a learner

Over the course of your first paperless year, you will learn more about going paperless from your students than you could have possibly learned from a blog post, text-book, or e-course.

There are going to be things you don't know how to do, but your students will, and vice versa. Let them teach and help each other. Create a mindset where sharing knowledge and intelligence about technology is the norm; you will reap the benefits of a strong classroom community and even stronger technology skills.

Please let us know you're experiences with paperless learning! What were/are your challenges and successes? Want to share your story in a blog post?

Don't hesitate to contact us on i3allstars@i3-technologies.com.

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