So much time spent right here, trying to get those copies done early in the morning before the line forms, or after hours where I can take both for myself – I know, I know, it’s rude, but we all do it. Trying to get those copies unstuck in the bowels of an unforgiving machine, so I don’t have to ask the busy office staff for help (which always gives me some anxiety). Trying to find the exact spot with that tiny corner eaten away, just enough to make the copier jam , and pulling it out, and . . . SUCCESS!

Wasn’t there supposed to be no need for so much copying, with those Chromebooks each student has now? But how many windows can they actually open before they don’t see anything? (Pun intended.) So . . . copies. Class sets of instructions, so they’ll be RIGHT THERE. Color coded sets of editing symbols, and requirements for the writer’s notebooks, and how to choose a book, and developing reader’s response journals, and on, and on.

And should I really complain, thinking about the world that existed just at the beginning of my career as a teacher, with mimeographs in a smeary, teary blue that – let’s face it – no one could ever really read?

As this photograph was taken, I had spent 1 hour and 15 minutes copying approximately 8 different sets of materials without a problem. And I remember being ridiculously, supremely, absurdly, happy about that.

How much copying do you do, as an educator? Do you come in early or stay late to do it? And do you double dip?