The Paperless Teachers Desk (It can be done!) Here’s how –

As you hardworking teachers know, there is a tremendous amount of paperwork in teaching. Everything from quizzes, to tests, to class handouts, to collected homework.   The goal – keep it all moving!  Over the years I have been able to reduce the amount of paper I generate in my classroom which I explored already in my post on  The Paperless Classroom? Here’s how.

BUT the REAL challenge for me is to keep track of all the other paper that flows over my desk.  The one-off sheet of paper I always spend a few minutes looking for!     I am talking about the memos from administrative authorities, weekly attendance, absent notes, late homework, hand-scrawled notes about individual students, last-minute changes to today’s  lesson or the instructional gem  I collected from a talented colleague.  It used to make me crazy..

I decided I needed a way to ease the pain. If paper is overwhelming you, there is a solution. TWO in fact. Take a look at these two mobile apps:

1. JotNot Pro is a powerful, quality pocket scanner.  It will allow you save multi-page documents to the PDF format.   You can then send the document to your cloud storage or to email.    It sells for $6.95 and it is absolutely worth the price.    I use this five or six times a day during the school year.    It is also very useful for personal business.
2. Office Lens is a free Microsoft app which converts hard documents or whiteboard images into PDF, Word and PowerPoint files. Snap the picture, save and edit!   It is great for converting your old paper documents into digital assets.  Your whiteboard from today can be quickly transformed into a digital slide show.  I love it!

Try these apps this summer  and you will DEFINITELY  be happier when the school year begins!