Paper

In AVID, we end up using a lot of paper.  There is paper for tutorials.  Paper for Cornell Notes.  Paper for binder checks.  Paper for writing samples.  It ends up being a lot of paper.  Some of it is necessary and unavoidable.  For instance tutorial forms, completed as homework, would next to impossible to do using technology in a setting that isn't 1:1 with take home devices.

Much of the paper could be avoided.  For instance, we've done most of the writing this using Google Docs.  This has cut down on multiple copies as most of the editing is done online.  However, for the certification, we need to have printed and filed for reference.

The picture above is what is left at the end of the year.  I encouraged students to take portfolios home and keep them for later but many just left them, it is the last day of school after all.

My goal for this summer is to figure out ways to do all the paper-based things using technology and online resources.  My goal is to recreate the Collins Cummulative Writing folder using Google Docs, create some sort of online quiz for binder checks, and make blogging for fun a bigger part of what happens in the AVID class.

If you have any suggestions on how to do any of this, please let me know.  I'd love to hear from other AVID teachers about how they have gone paperless.  Heck, I'd love to hear from other teachers who have replaced paper and how they've done it.