September 2nd, 2008
Where are my class lists?
This year we didn’t give teachers at the high school class rosters before school started. We’ve always put their class lists in the packets of information they receive on their first day back (along with parking assignments, updated phone trees, etc.). Even last year, when all teachers had full access to our student information system, we still did it; I guess the tradition just couldn’t die that easily.
This year, the secretaries, who are both fairly big tree-huggers themselves, decided that enough was enough and didn’t include the rosters, instead simply reminding teachers to log in to the SIS and check the attendance view. A few teachers were perfectly happy that we’d taken one more small step towards reducing paper consumption in the building. A few teachers promptly printed out their lists. All too many, though, asked over the first couple of days, “Where are the class lists?” “Why didn’t we get class lists this year?” Because they change every bloody day for the first week of school and they’re available in real time on the Web! That’s why!
Now we’re really going to throw some teachers for a loop. One of the secretaries came to me today and asked if teachers could generate their own attendance reports (she previously placed a list of absent students in every teacher’s box, every day). As it turns out, they can create a PDF of the same report she generates right from the SIS.
I asked her if she’d like to post the teacher bulletin in the SIS, as well. Her eyes lit up at the idea of saving 20 reams of paper from these two simple tasks every year (not to mention the savings on the copier).
Stop the madness, folks. This is 2008; if you can’t put it online, is it really worth reading?
Follow Chris Dawson on Twitter! Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts and a member of the Internet Press Guild. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.
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