It seems that more and more people have been taking action to be eco friendly. Recently many teens have been going green, and now Tigard High teachers are also taking a step in that direction.
Tigard science teachers John Ison, Ken Harms, Holly Galonis, Rob Massey, and Michelle Rhee were awarded a technology grant in May of 2011. The grant supplied each teacher with a class set of Macbook Airs. The laptops given to these teachers are used in class to access online science textbooks and other resources such as videos, science games, and practice tests.

According to Ison, the online sites have more information available than the textbooks used in class. Students also use their school-linked Google accounts for their assignments. Ison says that Google’s calendar system is a “great organizational tool” when it comes to students planning ahead for schoolwork. Ison says that students using the computers for assignments saves money that would have been spent on printing up worksheets and homework.

“I bet in ten years, every teacher in this school could have laptops for their kids,” Ison says when asked about the future.

The science teachers at Tigard aren’t the only ones going without paper, school events are doing the same. Back to school night, which was held Sept. 19, went entirely paperless. Counseling secretary Lynette Bigelow says that normally a copy of every student’s schedule would be printed out for parents to use, but this year parents relied on their children to tell them their schedule.

Bigelow says, “There were no complaints from parents about schedules not being printed… Out of 2,000 schedules about three fourths of them are thrown out.”

Since a paperless back to school night went so smoothly, Bigelow says parent teacher conferences may go without paper as well. Although Tigard hasn’t gone completely paperless, the amount of paper being used has significantly decreased.