Pencils.
Necessary in kindergarten but such a headache for me.
I inherited a mechanical sharpener bolted to the counter that merely chewed pencils until it left only a gnarly stub. I banned the use of that device and created a sharpened pencil tub. Students were to leave a broken pencil and get a nice fresh sharp pencil in return. It worked.. kind of. I have a hate/hate relationship to the electric sharpener. It is so loud and never really works.. how does it only sharpen one side??? I NEVER let kids use it.. because I couldn't stand the noise.
I made PENICLS a class job. The idea was a student would come in before the bell to sharpen pencils. I would plug in the sharpener by the back door (as far away from my desk as possible) and put them to work... Well, the sharpener gets too hot after about 4 pencils so.. I never had enough sharpened pencils. Thankfully, I usually have a little group of pencil hoarders that will have 6 or more pencils in their desk. I have said, "who has a pencil for ....." more then once.
I often sent bags of broken pencils and that cheap pencil sharpener home for parents to deal with. I always felt bad doing it.. knowing that it would take hours.
Over the summer I learned about Classroom Friendly Supplies on one of the various kindergarten blogs I read. Even at $24.99 and FREE shipping I didn't order. I couldn't spend money on a new pencil sharpener when I had one in my classroom that worked... kind of.. that I had already spent $45.00! The bloggers loved it.. I saw it on Pinterest and I even visited the website.
Last month I went to sharpen a pencil and nothing happened. Electric sharpener officially dead.
Excited.
I went to the website and ordered. It came REALLY fast.
THIS IS THE BEST SHARPENER EVER!!
I can sharpen a NEW pencil in less then 30 seconds. I counted 20 rotations and I got a perfect sharp tip. I taught my class how to use it.. it has gotten a lot of use the last two weeks and it is holding up just fine. It sharpens perfectly every time. The best part.. it is SUPER quiet! I sharpened pencils while I was on the phone!
I am NOT getting paid or a free sharpener to write this. I just love it that much!
It comes in red, blue, black, and green :)
I will definitely look into this sharpener. I am finishing my degree and began subbing a few months ago. I quickly noticed that the pencil creates a lot of issues! Teachers have lots of wacky ways of dealing with this problem and I'm hoping that maybe your suggestion will help me address this before I ever even get in my own classroom!
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