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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The ecological implications of the phrase \u2018going paperless\u2019 are obvious but it somehow hasn\u2019t worked out exactly as planned. \u00a0Admittedly, there are many organizations that give their members the \u2018electronic delivery\u2019 option. \u00a0Off the top of my head, local groups like The Friends of the Porkies and the Ontonagon County Historical Society come to mind. \u00a0Gains made in the paperless society movement, however, are often offset by the simple fact that we can now make more paper waste faster and more efficiently than at any other time in history. \u00a0Perhaps this wouldn\u2019t be such a sticking point if we had a viable recycling option for these mountains of waste paper (are you listening Waste Management?).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When I got started in the education game forty plus years ago, text books and mimeographed worksheets ruled. \u00a0If you aren\u2019t old enough to remember the dizzying smell of a freshly mimeographed worksheet, then this won\u2019t be terribly relevant to you without a little context: \u00a0we didn\u2019t have a Xerox copy machine available for classroom prep until I returned from a year back at NMU in the fall of 1980 (and Xeroxed copies don\u2019t make you dizzy). \u00a0Mimeograph sheets were tricky affairs in that making a mistake while preparing the print master required several steps to repair. \u00a0It was much more prudent to dial back my speed typing while pounding the keys on an old manual Underwood typewriter. \u00a0This helped because one then avoided time consuming template repairs. \u00a0When I discovered there were mimeo backing sheets (where the ink lived before being transferred to the waxy surface of the print master) available in red and green, it became possible to jazz up those monochrome purple worksheets by inserting the different colored highlights as needed. \u00a0One of my colleagues at the time spied one of these multicolored creations and asked, \u201cHow did you DO that?\u201d making \u00a0me feel that perhaps I had just taught an old dog a new trick. \u00a0His take on my great discovery \u00a0was, \u201cThat is cool, but then again, I was happy when we got this new electric machine – the old one you had to hand crank.\u201d \u00a0Touche!<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Teachers using mimeographed sheets to make worksheets wasn\u2019t a new trick. \u00a0One can probably recall getting copies that had been run from reused masters so many times that they put a strain on the eyes when reading the faded print. \u00a0In those early years, I found that 120 student copies per assignment )(with a few extras just in case) were about all one master sheet could produce. \u00a0As class sizes shrunk over the years, it was possible to run a year\u2019s worth and re-use the same master the next year before having to retype it. \u00a0It was also possible to run two year\u2019s worth and stash the extras in the file for the next year thus saving a few trips to the office to run them off. \u00a0When we finally did get a Xerox machine in the JH office, it ran a blazing three copies per minute so it could be used for making some reference copies of newspaper or magazine articles, but it was much too slow to copy classroom quantities of material. \u00a0As far as receiving instantaneous electronic delivery of materials, we had that, too. \u00a0It was called the fax (we didn\u2019t use the Pony Express or Telegraph for anything other than history lessons, so don\u2019t even go there).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By the time the junior high grades had made the move to the high school building in 1983-84, the Xerox technology had progressed to the point where the copy machine was the preferred method for making student worksheets. \u00a0I can\u2019t actually remember using a mimeograph machine once we were in our new digs at the newly christened Jr-Sr High. \u00a0The copy machine was still slower than a mimeograph machine, but being able to type assignments on regular paper (yes, still banged out on my old Underwood manual machine) saved time because one never needed to retype a \u2018master\u2019 sheet as was the case with the mimeographs. \u00a0A couple of our newer copiers even had an option for black, red, or blue ink, but eventually the colored inks were phased out. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the district began equipping each classroom with a computer for staff use, they were set up with a colored printer that made it possible to incorporate more color elements into student sheets. \u00a0About the time we got used to having a colored printer at our beck and call, the economics of the situation moved us into having a centralized black and white printer for most printing and one centralized colored printer for special projects. \u00a0Why the change? \u00a0The ink and upkeep of a bunch of individual printers was much more time consuming and expensive than fewer, more efficient printers. \u00a0Read the word \u2018efficient\u2019 here to mean \u2018faster\u2019. \u00a0As our technology improved, the speed at which we could print class materials made it possible for us to produce printed material from many sources faster than ever. \u00a0Our current copier-printer makes the older models pale by comparison as it can staple, hole punch, collate, shrink, enlarge, fax, and e-mail items as well make multiple copies at blazing speeds. \u00a0For all I know it might even make coffee.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The improvements in our computer technology has also had an impact on that other stalwart of classroom education: \u00a0the textbook. \u00a0When I started, my seventh grade science book was a recycled ninth grade level book that ended the space unit with the declaration, \u201cSomeday man may travel to the Moon on a regular basis.\u201d \u00a0I began using this book three years after the final Apollo moon landing mission. \u00a0I limped along with this book for my first four years and when I took a leave of absence to return to school in 1979-80, it never dawned on me that the person who filled my job that year would order a new book. \u00a0They did and it was heavy on the life and biological sciences. \u00a0Upon returning from NMU for the 1980-81 school year, I found it a poor match for the two year Geography\/Earth Science curriculum I was teaching. \u00a0After four more years of teaching around an inadequate book, teaching my GES classes without relying on a book was becoming my norm. \u00a0The year Jr-Sr High principal Tom Hartzell put the science department on the top of the list for ordering new books, it made my day. \u00a0I replaced the two book set with a single volume that we could use in both seventh and eighth grade. \u00a0By the time Chuck Zielinski and I were team teaching ninth grade Physical Science in the early 1990s, it was time to look at new books again. \u00a0We decided to get one book to cover grades seven, eight and nine. \u00a0The best book we previewed was already ten years old so we had to write a letter to the Board of Education explaining why we wanted to purchase an older book. \u00a0Our reasons were sound: 1) they were cheaper than the newer books being marketed \u00a02) they had a comprehensive flow that met all the areas we wanted to teach in grades seven through nine, and lastly 3) most of the physical science principles we taught would not be changing anytime soon. \u00a0New trends in science could kept up with by using current events taken from magazines and newspapers.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The okay was given to purchase the new text series. \u00a0My classes had now cycled through four different texts in less than twenty years. \u00a0I told the superintendent at the time that the book we were recommending was so good that we wouldn\u2019t need to purchase another series for the another \u00a0twenty years. \u00a0I may not teach Physical Science any more, but a quarter of a century later, I am still using the last two texts purchased for my classes (the green book and the blue book as I refer to them) for reference in my science classes. \u00a0Why are they used only for reference? \u00a0Over the years I had contended with less than helpful books, I began to rely on more and more outside sources of information to teach science and less and less on the old \u2018read a chapter, do the worksheet, take a test\u2019 teaching format. \u00a0The books were there for backup, but they were no longer the primary tools employed in my class.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With the increased availability of instructional materials on-line today, we have been encouraged to use more computer and chromebook based teaching sources and less text book bound lessons. \u00a0Text books have also become prohibitively expensive, giving us even more reason to explore other avenues of delivering educational content. \u00a0\u00a0I would like to state that not basing my instructional style on a book meant I was ahead of the curve. \u00a0In truth, \u00a0I stopped relying exclusively on text book lessons and branched out into other areas to expand the curriculum out of necessity. \u00a0Who knew the last textbook purchase I made would last almost 30 years.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Back in the day, \u2018cut and paste\u2019 had a different meaning than today. \u00a0As the self-anointed \u201cKing of Cut and Paste\u201d, I modified a lot of sources into lessons by physically cutting them apart and reassembling them for classroom use. \u00a0These days, a few computer mouse clicks can accomplish the same thing and with a couple more clicks, the lesson can be sent off to the office copier to be printed, collated, stapled, and\/or three hole punched in less time than it takes me to walk down to the office to retrieve it. \u00a0Don\u2019t get me wrong, I still do plenty of the old fashioned cutting and pasting, but my crown now extends to the electronic version of \u2018C&P\u2019 as well. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It has been a decade or more since I taught ninth grade Physical Science so it made good sense \u00a0to me that those boxes and file drawers of old units could now be cleaned out. \u00a0Among the various \u00a0worksheets filed in my archives, I found a packet of unit notebooks from one the students in my last PS9 class. \u00a0Since my second year in the classroom, I have insisted that students save all of their assignment work. \u00a0At the end of each unit, they bind them into a unit notebook and hand them in for a final unit grade. \u00a0While scanning over this student\u2019s accumulated work, it hit me: \u00a0I am sure there are many ways to electronically file all of one\u2019s assignments. \u00a0As an old mimeograph guy, it would be hard for me to find looking at pages of electronic files with the same satisfaction one gets from having a physical pile of work. \u00a0Paperless society? \u00a0We are still working on it, but I don\u2019t see it impacting an old cut and paste guy like me any time soon. \u00a0Until push came to shove, I still preferred getting an old fashioned paycheck in lieu of a pay stub indicating my pay has been electronically deposited. \u00a0My accountant won this round and my paycheck now gets deposited after a short flight through the ether. \u00a0In the meantime, I will keep sorting my piles of work because I am not ready to go totally paperless.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Okay, you find a better song about paper . . . I love Alex Chilton’s Box Tops, but Joe C did it well also!<\/p>\n