Let Teachers Make Copies
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder argues that restricting teachers' access to photocopiers is a small indignity that wastes time and erodes trust.
Key Takeaways
- Copy restrictions waste time - Having to submit copy requests days in advance disrupts lesson planning
- Trust teachers - If you trust educators to shape young minds, trust them to make reasonable use of a photocopier
- Small indignities add up - Seemingly minor policies like copy limits contribute to a culture that treats teachers as less than professionals
Transcript
Let teachers make copies.
Teaching requires photocopier use.
Even when we have lots of other technology like Chromebooks or iPads and Google Classroom and all of that, teaching requires paper and photocopies.
And I've heard from so many people who say they're given like one ream of paper for the year or they're given just like a ridiculously small copier allotment.
I'd love to know how much copy paper do you need?
How many copies do you need to make in a month?
If you can't budget for copies, don't run a school.
You just have to have a copier budget or a printer budget, some combination there, if you're going to educate students.
There's just so big an advantage to having things on paper.
Kids learn how to get organized.
Kids can show their work.
There are just so many advantages to having paper that I worry that we're losing sight of because we have technology and because...
it bugs us to spend money on copies that we know are going to be used short term.
But like, I find myself printing things all the time.
I was reviewing a book today, printed the whole thing out on the printer to read it in hard copy, even though I had it in PDF.
It just works better.
Is that the case for you?
Do you like reading stuff on paper, even if you have it electronically already?
I just feel like we have to be willing to spend the money on copies.
When I was an elementary principal, we had about three teachers per grade, under 500 students in the on copies.
And yes, that felt like too much.
So we tried to do some things to kind of keep an eye on that.
But what we should not be doing when it comes to copies is micromanaging.
We should not be giving people an impossible job and then micromanaging them as they make their copies for it.
And I think we especially have to be careful when your curriculum requires those copies.
When you say, You've got to run off all these pages for your students to actually teach your curriculum.
Well, then you can't go and get on people's case about actually making the copies.
People need to make copies.
Like this should not be controversial, but I heard from so many people who just are not allowed to make the copies they need to do their job.
So how many would that be?
Let me know and let me know what your school allows or doesn't have rules on.
I'd love to know what you think.