What to do with all the paper??

Paperless offices. Paperless utility bills.  Paperless contracts. "We're going paperless," my dentist's receptionist proudly told me a few years ago. "Click here for paperless billing" says a little box on my bank's website.

Paperless sounds like the new best thing. Why then are we still swamped in paper?

This looks a little like the stack of paper generated by my correspondence with a certain U.S. company,
which shall remain nameless. They l-o-v-e paper! 

I gave the nod to paperless at the dentist, but even so I often leave the office with a piece of paper. Years ago, I clicked in the right place to stop receiving my VISA bill in the mail, to no avail. When I did contract work for 2 different post-secondary institutions, not only was there paper, but the contracts extended to 4 or 5 pages, often in duplicate. 

In spite of this, a paperless classroom is still my dream. 

Recently another instructor showed my colleague and me how he has reduced paper in his class. Because of the limited technical abilities of our students, it is not truly paperless, but it's a start. It means the students don't have to lug around binders laden with their assessments and other papers. 

Students create folders, one for each skill, in Google Drive. They then snap photos of their assessment sheets, and upload the photos to the folders. Careful labeling of the photos ensures that they can see how many assessments they have for each of the four skills. 

To each of the skills folders, they also add an inventory sheet, which lists the assessments completed for that skill. 

Next, they add an About Me folder, which contains needs assessments, goal statements, learning reflections and the student's CLB levels, as well as any writing they do about themselves. 

Finally, they can add a folder with the Can Do statements for their CLB level.

These folders all go in a master folder labeled with their name, the year and their CLB level.

Because most CLB 4 newcomers don't have exceptionally good computer skills, they still need to do the majority of their assessment tasks on paper; however, as they improve in this area, that will become a thing of the past. 

A paperless classroom just might be an attainable goal.