The curse of the flying sheets: when can I hope for an end?

[Kibbiekat]

Originally Posted by Sally_Sparrow

Nope. They'd be SOL with us. Half the time our printer prints everything horribly, even with a new cartridge and I would not be able to go buy a printer just for this purpose. I already get annoyed with the assumption that EVERY kid has their own computer at home with internet! Yes, we have that (obviously) but there have been times in the past when we did not.

We got a new printer for Chrsitmas, but we've had problems in the past too. Sometimes we're told if we need a form printed we can get it st the office. I'm sure if I told my kid's teacher we couldn't print, she'd get us what we need. But, for the most part, we are expected to print ourselves.

[psr13]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

The flying sheets are a result of copiers in schools and a movement away from textbooks. It used to be much harder for teachers to create tests and worksheets because they had to be run off a mimeograph machine. A stencil first had to be created before copies were made. Copiers became common in schools in the 1980s.

I question your comment about textbook companies being state owned. What has happened is a consolidation of the textbook industry with many of the smaller publishers being bought out by the major players like Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin.



I remeber doing the same thing except my mother bought notebook paper that was prepunched for the loose leaf notebook. It seemed to make more sense than the folders that kids now use.

She grew up behind the Iron Curtain, so the companies WOULD have been state owned.

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by suzy_q2010

Syracusa, just get loose leaf notebooks, punch holes in the worksheets, and put them in the notebook. An early elementary child probably only needs one notebook with dividers. That's really all you need to do. You now have something just as useful as a bound notebook. If everything is in a bound notebook, work that needs to be turned in has to be torn out. That defeats the purpose you see in a bound notebook. As you have been told, teachers do not want entire notebooks turned in for grading. That is impractical.

You can use pocket folders to organize odds and ends. Have a folder for homework. When the homework and tests are returned, put them in the loose leaf notebook.

Once a grading cycle is over, the papers can be removed from the notebook and put in a file box at home. At the end of the year, you can pull out a few things to save. Have a file box with a file for each year.

A combination of notebooks and folders will solve your problem.

You and your child can work out a system that works for you. Organize the backpack, assist your child in checking it daily for things you need to see, like grade reports, permission slips and activity schedules (your child should have a folder for those and you should have your own files at home for them), recycle what becomes obsolete (that field trip is over and last month's calendar can be tossed). Homework gets completed on time, put in the folder to be turned in, and actually makes it into the teacher's hands.

So, for your first grader:

• A loose leaf notebook, lined paper (see the links above), math paper (see the links)

• A folder for things that you need to see: grades, permission slips, activity fliers.

• A folder for homework.

Color code the folders, maybe red for things that need action and green for homework. Let him organize his backpack, so he sees how it makes it easier for him.

Art work can be scanned (or photographed) and only a few pieces saved each year for mementos. You can get an artist's portfolio for larger items.

Insisting that bound notebooks are the only way that will work will do nothing to help the frustration you are feeling.

This is actually the method that our schools use. In elementary school the kids are to buy spiral notebooks that have clean sheet tear offs and a folder for every subject. They also are to buy a folder that is to be used for take home papers which only go home once per week - these are papers regarding school/classroom/community events. Parents are trained early to ask their kids for the "Friday folder".

Once kids get to MS, they are asked to buy a three ring binder, paper, and a folder that has punch holes and will fit in the binder and a three hole punch Some teachers were known for doing notebook checks to confirm that the kids were saving necessary work.

Students in grades K-12 get a homework notebook where they are supposed to write their homework. In the higher grades it also contains hall passes that make the notebook more valuable.

At the end of the semester, my kids and I would keep a few things and trash the rest.

One of the reasons I got involved with the PTA was that there were some things that the school was doing that bugged me. If you are an active member of a group, you can often initiate change, but you have to have a realistic solution in mind that will work for everyone.

[longnecker]

Originally Posted by Sally_Sparrow

Nope. They'd be SOL with us. Half the time our printer prints everything horribly, even with a new cartridge and I would not be able to go buy a printer just for this purpose. I already get annoyed with the assumption that EVERY kid has their own computer at home with internet! Yes, we have that (obviously) but there have been times in the past when we did not.

No computer?? No internet?? That's bordering on child abuse.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by syracusa

I can only speak from personal experience growing up, which is not American experience. At the beginning of the school year, first day of school, we entered the classroom excited as Heck to receive the new textbooks for the year. New in content, not necessarily in form - as we often inherited them from the previous generation.

The American experience was almost exactly the same.

The things to write on throughout the year (notebooks) were the responsibility of parents. The problem of children not keeping the notebooks for too long, losing them or whatever, was never heard of as a "general issue". Some children probably did it but they had to pay the price. It was simply expected you would be responsible for your books and take care of them... Most children handled their duties just fine.

You're right. We had kindergarten but no real (paper) homework until 4th grade. However, if there was an assignment, such as memorizing a set of your multiplication facts, parents made sure their kids did it. (No flying papers since those were back in the days of mimeograph machine days and it was too expensive.) Society has dramatically changed, including parenting.

[cc0789]

Originally Posted by lkb0714

So since you dislike paper, every time we, the teachers, have to bring home work to grade, we are supposed to collect, carry and transport 140 bound notebooks to grade one paper per student?

Sorry, but get over it, or don't we really don't care. Since I spend hours of my own time grading, and not just at home but at the beach, waiting for a doctors appointment, basically everywhere, I will do what is more convenient for me. And 140 lab reports held together with a binder clip is annoying but manageable. One hundred and forty bound notebooks is not.

And as a parent, I really don't want 6 textbooks and 6 workbooks and 6 notebooks coming back and forth to and from school. That sounds crazy because someone can't keep track of worksheets.

In addition, following a curriculum EXACTLY doesn't work for most teachers, at least not the good ones. There are times when you want to go deeper, or maybe a time when the class needs some extra time to learn a concept. I can't imagine any one workbook that is a one size fits all. As much as I love Singapore Math, and am thrilled that my kids use it, it does not align to our curriculum exactly, so the teacher has to come up with some of those dreaded worksheets to teach what she is expected to teach.

sounds like you just need a hole puncher.