sharp

A new favorite

Earlier this month I wrote about the little things that make a difference in the classroom. One little thing that I failed to mention, or to elaborate upon, was pencils. Pencils can be one heck of a hassle, especially when students are learning how to write and how much pressure needs to be applied to write effectively. This year I also have some kinders that would rather color with a pencil than with crayons. All of this leads to dull pencils. And broken pencils. And student complaints about someone having a sharper pencil than they do.

Enter, the pencil sharpener. I have a good old fashioned pencil sharpener attached to the wall of my classroom. It works really well, but I know from experience that sharpening all of the pencils in my classroom at the end of the day can also result in blisters when using this method. This year I put little handheld sharpeners in each of my student supply boxes, and that works pretty well. Except for the fact that they frequently get dropped and pencil shavings go everywhere.

Enter, the electric pencil sharpener. I have known for a long time that electric pencil sharpeners are a fantastic resource, but teaching kindergarten I also use a lot of beginners pencils. Electric pencil sharpeners can be expensive, especially when you need one that adapts to fit these special pencils. This brings me to my staff meeting this past Monday. All of the classroom teachers at my school were blessed by the admin fairies with electric pencil sharpeners! And ones that adapt to the big fat beginners pencils that my kinders use. I can now easily sharpen about 50 pencils in a couple of minutes and achieve the same level of sharpness on all of them. No more complaints. No more blisters. I think I'm in love.