As a math teacher, I am a big fan of kids using pencils for most of their work. As a math student in college, I got exposed to many different ideas about the best pencils out there. I like really sharp pencils and for a while was all about mechanical pencils. However, I work primarily with elementary students. Mechanical pencils do not work well with kids under 12. The push to hard to they just play with the pencil constantly. As such, I have good back to my roots and the original old pencil as my primary writing utensil. I still like my pencils to be VERY sharp.
Also as I have spent a great deal of time co-teaching and being in other teachers' classrooms, I have discovered how much time gets wasted by kids looking for pencils, sharpening pencils and trying to fix the pencil sharpener. Because of this, I always have a huge mug full of sharp pencils ready to go for my students. Since I spend my own time sharpening pencils, I have been on a quest to find the perfect pencil sharpener. I have tried hand crank ones and electric ones and have found that nothing seems to last long.
I was very happy when I saw a few posts on
Facebook about a small company making great pencil sharpeners for classrooms. I love that it is a small company run by a teacher as a side business. It is called
Classroom Friendly Supplies. Here are some pictures of my students using the pencil sharpener and some thing we have discovered about it.
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You don't have to hold the pencil! This eliminates students' pushing to hard and keeps the pencil held exactly where it needs to be! It comes with a clamp to attach it to a table or shelf but works great without it as well. |
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Before and after shot. The pencil on the left was sharpened using the electric pencil sharpener I bought at the beginning of this school year. The one on the right is from the Classroom Friendly Supply sharpener. |
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A shot at the inside of the sharpener. I have a group of sixth graders who think a great STEM task would be to take this sharpener and a few others apart and see why this one works so much better. It is a great idea and think of all they would learn! However, it isn't happening to my new pencil sharpener! |
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Here is the collection drawer after sharpening 5 new pencils. Not much gets wasted! My students can sharpen a new pencil in 7 seconds. It takes me about 10. |
What are your favorite classroom supplies? Please respond in the comments below!
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