Cost of paper

Printing The NYT Costs Twice As Much As Sending Every Subscriber A Free Kindle

Nicholas Carlson does the math using the cost of printing a year's worth of the New York Times.

How much paper would need to be eliminated from a student's school year to pay for an e-book reader? Or a netbook?

• textbooks
• worksheets and study guides
• novels and supplimentary reading
• forms, permission slips, newsletters
• student work turned in on paper

How much is your district now paying for print versions of textbooks, paper, copiers, printers, toner, support, repairs, printer salaries, storage spaces, delivery costs, and other print related costs over, say, two years? Divide total by number of students. Is it more or less than $350? - the cost of a netbook.

It's not the program, but how you use it

Questions about the merits or lack of them of Accelerated Reader surfaced again on our state's media specialist listserve this week. After all these years, the debate is still whether to use such programs or whether not to use them.

The discussion needs to be re-framed from yeah or nay, to how to use any tool well.

These have been my questions/guidleines about any reward-based reading program originally published in a 10-year-old column, Creating Fat Kids Who Don’t Like to Read:

1. Does my reading promotion program stress personal accomplishment and individual accomplishment? Do students have the ability to set their own reading goals? Can students at a variety of reading levels and abilities meet target goals or will only the very best readers be recognized? Are only set percentage of students recognized for their accomplishments or will all students who reach a goal be acknowledged?
2. Does my reading promotion program set goals that promote collaborative work? Are only individuals recognized for the amounts they have read, or can small groups or classes collaborate?
3. Is my reading promotion program only part of my total reading program? Do I still emphasize books, magazines and other reading materials that may not “count” in the promotional reading program? Are my students also reading books because of hearing exciting booktalks, listening to enthusiastic peer recommendations, and being given well-constructed classroom bibliographies tied to content areas?
4. Is my reading promotion program available to my students for only a limited duration during the school year? Do my students get the chance to read for the sake of reading after the promotion is over, to really experience the true, intrinsic rewards that come from being lost in a story or learning interesting facts? Have I tried to determine whether my program really leads to life-long reading behaviors?
5. Does my reading promotion program stay away from material rewards like food, stickers, or parties? Are students or groups recognized for meeting their goals through public announcements and certificates? If I have to give out some physical reward, is it at least a book? (Or low-fat, sugar-free!)

So, what are your ways to build an intrinsic love of reading through programs designed to stress the extrinsic rewards?

Greetings from snowy St. Charles, MO, and the METC conference. I am looking forward to seeing Meg Ormiston's keynote this morning. I hope the weather is good enough for people to attend. And for me to get home tonight!

Speech contest

This came as a comment to a blog post from early last summer, Everything I know in 15 minutes:

Hi, Doug-

I don't know if you know anything or not about high school speech, but I do an event called Oratorical Declamation, which is basically a student giving a commencement address or a famous speech by someone else as if they were the author. I have used your speech all year and I can't tell you how many comments I've received on how fantastic and original the speech is! In fact, I've taken first place at three tournaments with it. I hope you don't come after me for using it without consent, but I just thought you should know that your message is being spread, at least throughout Illinois, and that everyone loves it (especially the part about the gods punishing your hubris by giving you Brady)!

Mitch

As a former high speech contestant and speech coach, this comment was truly a compliment and a very, very nice thing for this young man to write. I have great hope for this generation. Isn't cool that world really is full of kind and thoughtful people - especially young ones?

Although my now iconic stature makes me feel about as old as it is possible to be.