The monster in the staff room

December 4th, 2009 · 13 Comments

Do you know what I hate? Photocopiers. That’s what.

It doesn’t matter if I’m trying to print two-sided copies, enlarge originals, or select the A3 option - my lame efforts will always result in wasted paper and lots of swear words.

You see, I lack a fundamental intelligence that Howard Gardner and his followers have so ruthlessly chosen to ignore: Photocopier Intelligence. I know I am not alone.

Sometimes I wonder why the Interactive Whiteboard gets all the attention as the most evil piece of technology. To me, the photocopier poses a much more serious threat. And it should be exposed for the dirty monster that it is.

Let’s start by asking the question, “Exactly what problem did photocopiers solve when they were introduced to the world?” For teachers, the answer to this is quite simple: Any situation in which we need all of our students to have a copy of a text, a map, a diagram, etc.

When I was at primary school, there was only one photocopier between all of the teachers. It was quite an event to be given a warm, damp sheet of paper that smelled of nail varnish remover. Do you remember that? In my class, we used to try to get high from the fumes.

I imagine that back then, it was more expensive to make copies. As a result, teachers would have had to decide very carefully what they were going to hand out. Despite this new technology, they would have been expected to resort to the old methods whenever possible. For example:

Using text books (where every student has his/her own copy)
Writing a text on the board and asking students to copy it into their notebooks
Dictating a text

Now here’s my problem: I have often found myself in lesson planning situations in which I go straight to the photocopier without even considering options 2 and 3. I wonder how many other teachers can say the same? This is a shame because options 2 and 3 should be absolute basic techniques of the language classroom.

Let’s consider option 2 (writing a text on the board and asking students to copy it into their note books).

Surely this is a great technique for the language classroom, especially if we want to use short texts for intensive reading and intensive thinking activities. When a language learner copies a text word for word, there is a lot more potential for noticing and engaging with the language.

I was speaking to a friend and colleague about this point recently. She said something very real and interesting which I asked her reiterate in an email. She said:

“When I had to copy texts at school, I used to try to get exactly the same number of words on each line as the teacher had on the blackboard. I didn’t do this because I thought I had to. I did it for the personal challenge. But as a result, I took no notice of what I was writing.”

I’m sure most of us can relate to this in some way or another. So perhaps the key is to create a thinking task which will require students to interact in some way with the text that they are copying.

Here are a few examples of texts/thinking tasks I have used in the past:

Example text 1

What is ‘it’?

“Joe brought it home from the office. He gave it to Betty and one of his kids and to Betty’s mother. But Betty’s mother went back to California the next day. On her way to the airport, she gave it to a cab driver, a ticket agent and one of the charming stewardesses. At school, Joe’s kid gave it to some other kids and Mrs Meryl got it and gave it to her husband. In California, Betty’s mother gave it to her best friend Dotty. But Dotty had a heart condition and she died. But before she died, Dotty gave it her girlfriend, the mailman, the paper boy, and her vet when she went to pick up her Chihuahua.“

Example text 2

Can you fill in the missing words?

Example text 3

What is the missing word (it is the same word in each case)?

__________ is not the lowest form of art. Despite having to creep about at night and lie to your mum it’s actually the most honest artform available. There is no elitism or hype, it exhibits on some of the best walls a town has to offer, and nobody is put off by the price of admission.

The people who run our cities don’t understand __________ because they think nothing has the right to exist unless it makes a profit. But if you just value money then your opinion is worthless.

They say __________ frightens people and is symbolic of the decline in society. But the people who truly deface our neighbourhoods are the companies that scrawl their giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff. They expect to be able to shout their message in your face from every available surface but you’re never allowed to answer back.

Example text 4

What are the missing words?

Saturn is probably best known for its system of ________ (a) which extend from 6,630 ___________(b) to 120,700 ___________(b) above the planet’s __________(c). They average approximately ______(d) meters in thickness and consist mostly of ________(e) particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust.

There are two main theories regarding the origin of Saturn’s rings: One theory is that the rings are the remains of a destroyed _________(f). The second theory is that the rings are left over from the original nebular material from which Saturn formed.

Example 5

What are splurgs?

Splurgs fly through the air but they don’t have wings.
People like to hit splurgs with sticks.
Splurgs are small and white.
People try to put splurgs into little holes.

The answers

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Incidentally, the image that shows the second text (see above) is my first attempt with an Interactive Whiteboard. I wrote the song lyrics while my students copied them into their notebooks and attempted to fill in the missing words. The advantage there was that I was able to save the display and display it again later that week to revise the language.

Of course a computer, projector and screen would be adequate for this. The five example texts above could be shown to learners on big screen. That way, the learners aren’t at the mercy of the teacher’s handwriting. And while they are copying/thinking, the teacher is free to think about/prepare what to do next.

For texts that are too large to expect learners to copy, it is still not out of the question of displaying them on the big screen for reading activities. ‘Heads up’ reading can have a more social dynamic than ‘heads down’ reading. Here is an example lesson plan that uses a Power Point text for a ‘heads up’ reading activity: Splurg April Fool.

Of course, there is still the problem that students won’t be able to take home a copy of the text. So put it on the class blog/wiki. Or send out links if the text is online. Or invite students to take photographs of the screen - anything to bring an end to that paper churning monster in the staff room.

Tags: Reading · Writing

13 responses so far ↓

1 tony watt / @cuppa_coffee // Dec 4, 2009 at 8:30 pm

I like these simple techniques, Jamie. Very effective when used appropriately.

I thought this blogpost was going to be an anti-photocopier tirade but instead you exemplify some simple techniques to avoid the p-word completely.

You forgot to mention the environmental impact. Less paper, less chemical waste from the toner, less electricity!
2 Michael Harrison // Dec 4, 2009 at 9:16 pm

So true. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve stood in front of a photocopier and felt terrible about the number of pages/amount of waste I’m creating.

Our college is attempting to phase them out, and luckily we have an absolute genius in our print room. Hopefully the individual copiers will soon go. There’s always the last minute cover lesson that you’re asked to do tho…
3 Mark Lloyd // Dec 5, 2009 at 3:25 pm

This is good stuff, Jamie. As a Director of Studies I am sadly destined to always come across as either a penny-pinching miser (as if I’d really care how much the photocopying bill was - I’m not the one who pays it!), a ‘toe-the-line’ do-gooder who is simply ‘following orders’ from my own superiors, or (arguably the worst of all in my opinion) a ‘green obsessive’, fretting that every time I uses a sheet of paper I might be doing the environment untold damage, should I ever attempt to hint to a teacher that they might like to consider whether 37 copies per student is perhaps rather excessive for just the one lesson. Give me a break - I’m only trying to help!

Thanks for the ideas!
4 Darren Elliott // Dec 5, 2009 at 4:28 pm

As you point out, technology does offer us alternatives these days and putting things on the class blog has saved me at least a couple of reams this year, I think.

But what I really like are your non-techy solutions - the simple and old-fashioned approaches that we are familiar with from our own school days. Cheers, definitely something to chew on….
5 Glennie // Dec 5, 2009 at 6:59 pm

The point about the problem of a teacher’s handwriting is well made. Mine is quite bad and students are likely to finish up with spelling mistakes if they copy from my board.

Neat board work must be another kind of intelligence. I am bottom of the class in this respect. How I envy some of my colleagues when I see their board work!

Great post!
6 Nick Jaworski // Dec 6, 2009 at 5:22 pm

I love how your sense of humor shines through in your posts Jamie.

I think we have all had that sense of panic as the photocopier breaks and there is only 2 minutes until lesson time. It is a capricious beast.

At my last school they rarely ever had enough paper after weekend classes. Sometimes we went without paper for weeks. This did two things to me.

1) Start to really look at how much paper I needed. I also eyed up the other teachers to see how much they were using and would get annoyed as hell when I saw someone print off 50 to 100 copies a class without even double-siding! I’m generally of the mindset that, as I want my students to work together, I never give each of them an individual piece of paper anyway. If they want it, I’ll e-mail it to them.

2) I started creating low or zero paper use lessons. Dictations, board work, and lots of conversation became bigger parts of my lessons. Now I wouldn’t go back.

You techniques here are great. Why couldn’t you have posted this months ago?
7 Vicky Loras // Dec 9, 2009 at 10:54 pm

I could not agree more on the photocopier comments. The worst thing is to be in a hurry and a) have a paper jam you cannot fix b) running out of toner at the last minute. I must say that sometimes I also hate the printer for the same reasons!!!
8 melhutch // Dec 10, 2009 at 1:42 pm

Just this week our “monster” broke down and the printers were playing up. I had teachers on the verge of nervous breakdowns- I want to have days where we unplug the machines and make people think out of the box ( or machine). We are so reliant on the photocopier!
9 gita assefi // Dec 12, 2009 at 7:06 am

Yes,Jamie ! I can’t agree more that photocopier can be a monster ,but on the other hand no doubt it facilitates our job and it is time -saving at other times when we are short of time and we need to cover a grammatical structure in a short time .Sometimes ,while trying to progress in the fast-moving technology,one can’t stop pausing time to time and realizing the fact that not everything that we used to do in the past deserve to be sealed off . When we come to the very fact that we need to make students write from blackboard ,ı can’t agree more ,because this is the best way they learn spelling and they recognize the usage of words in a context . Nowdays, although students learn to converse easily ,when it comes to writing ,sadly ,they are apt to make lots of spelling mistakes. Whatsmore ,now that we are going through serious environmental problems ,I can’t see the point of wasting so many papers ,while instead we can ask students to write ,or we can use the visual techniques .
10 admin // Dec 12, 2009 at 8:20 pm

Dear Tony, Michael, Mark, Darren, Glennie, Nick, Vicky, Mel, Gita,
Thank you all so much for the comments and encouragement. Sorry to be such a crap admin and not do more to continue the discussion.
I’m a bad blogger!
=)
11 James Deacon // Dec 14, 2009 at 11:45 pm

Ha, yes, the photocopier, a wonderful invention, but frankly to dedicate what is nigh on 1,000 plus words to such a ridiculous subject tells me one of two things. 1) You either have far too much time on your hands or 2) You lack the common sense required to use one efficiently. Personally, I do not see the problem, but as for doing favours for the environment, think about this. How much electricity - and by that I mean your contribution to the carbon footprint - did you waste writing this drivel? What next? A 2,000 word opus on how chalk dust can leave nasty patches on brown suede jackets? I was pointed to this blog by somebody because they said it was informative. That is all.
12 Jennifer Lebedev // Feb 10, 2010 at 5:11 pm

I loved the posting! You addressed a common practice with a touch of humor and then gave us all some alternatives to consider. Examples 2 and 4 were particularly good. Example 1 is the kind of text/ task that lends itself well to listening. I could imagine reading the text to the class, having students discuss it with a partner or in small groups, and then sharing ideas about IT as a class. You could then finally show the text on the board, and as you said add it to the class wiki later.

I agree with Gita about the photocopier being a time-saver, but if the machine breaks down it’s sure good to have alternative ways to share a text.

By the way, I may be older than you… My memories include use of mimeographs and the inky blue paper they required!

I also liked your Worlde tips, but forgot to leave a comment there. Thanks for your creative ideas! I’ll add you to my blogroll.
13 admin // Feb 12, 2010 at 10:53 am

Hello Jennifer
Really nice to hear from you. Interesting to hear your thoughts on the different texts. I have recently been working with the first text and it really does lend itself to listening. It also lends itself to graphic representation via a flow diagram and that is a part of the lesson plan I’ve been making).
I had never heard of mimegraphs - had to turn to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph
They look like fun
Jamie