Even if you’d love to go paperless, your school might not be there yet. Unless each student has access to technology all the time, you just can’t make that environmental jump. However, while you’re waiting and hoping for the day when your school does go paperless, there are several things you can do to use less of it in your classroom.
1. REDUCE the amount you use:
This is pretty obvious, but how do you reduce when we need to give our students information, and they need to pass in their work?
We do it by changing the way we give and receive information.
Google Classroom is an amazing platform for both of these things, as it allows both teacher and student to post online, and you don’t need to have devices for each student to make this work. Our school is far from paperless. We have some Chromebooks, but not enough for students to use them all of the time. Still, every day I post notes, instructions and/or homework on Classroom, and students can access the information on their computers at home. Before we had access to Google Classroom, I posted these things on my class website and it worked just as well. Blogger and WordPress have lots of free, easy-to-use templates that will allow you to create a site for your students.
Classroom and teacher websites have another added bonus: because students can access the information they need online, they will not be able to lose it. You’ll save paper, and extra trips to the photocopier for those students that can never seem to find their handouts. (If you know that some of your students can’t access technology at home, have some pages printed off and give them to these students as they go out the door, so as not to call attention to them). 
I also make ample use of Google Docs for assignments. Students submit their work to me and I give them feedback right on the document. I rarely take home a stack of paper assignments anymore. This is a good thing for the environment, but also for assessment. Google Docs allows me to give students a lot more feedback because I can type much faster than I can write. I can also have very direct “conversations” with them about their work with the comments.
These conversations can happen via electronic exit tickets as well. Google Forms provides a slick and easy way to get feedback from your kids.
There are also many digital lessons available now for students, including my favourite, 21st Activities for Any Text, a product that allows you to assess student knowledge of a text using social media templates — all electronic with no paper needed.
There are other ways to reduce paper use, even when you do need to print something for your students. Ask yourself: does each student need a copy? If you are just giving students instructions, project them on your screen or write them on the board. If you’re doing group work, for example, one copy of instructions per group will do. Likewise, it may be possible, depending on the situation, that students sitting near each other could share a sheet of instruct-ions.
You could also consider ways to condense the information. Set your handout up so you can cut it in half or create task cards (four/page) and cut your paper needs by a quarter!
2. REUSE paper as often as you can:
One way to do this is to take handouts back in after the class has used them or at the end of a unit. This option requires a little organization, but if you get yourself some file folders or binders, you can have a collection of handouts that you can reuse every year. As an added bonus, this will save you the time you spend photocopying (and fixing the copier).
Another way to reuse paper will result in a cleaner copying room: if you need to make a copy of a handout for your students, do it on the back of paper that’s already been used. If your photocopy room is like mine, there’s no shortage of wasted paper lying around. Just create a stack and copy your information on the back of the unused side. When you pass your handout to the students, tell them to make a big X over the backside, so they don’t get confused. Those leftover sheets in the copy room are also perfect for cutting up and using as bookmarks.
3. RECYCLE paper and buy it back:
Ok. It’s probably hard to buy back the paper that you have actually recycled, but you can be part of the process. Make sure you have a recycling bin front and centre for you and your students, and make it a priority that everyone uses it. When you buy your own paper, buy packs that are recycled, and point it out to your students. They watch what we do and any time we can set a positive example for them, they notice. Watching us take care to use as little paper as possible will teach them an important lesson that goes way beyond the class-room.
ONE NOTE:
While I wholeheartedly believe that we need to reduce our use of paper (and other things), I also think that there are times when kids should write by hand. In fact, I believe it’s necessary for their learning. If you’d like to find out more, you can read this blog post.
Do you have any creative ways to reduce, reuse or recycle paper in your classroom? Please share with us in the comments!
Our pizza place has promotional flyers by the STACKS sent to us monthly. They have become our "walk in quiz" sheets! Kids see that neon color, and they know a quiz is about to happen!
Awesome idea, Theresa!