Hi,
I think middle school kids are still in transition from k-6 where the
teacher supplied pencils on demand. Yes, I found it very hard to get them
to bring a pencil to class as minimum equipment.
That said, I think it is very important for middle school kids to start
taking responsibility for having a pencil with them. I enforced this in two
ways. If they borrowed a pencil from me, they had to give me one of their
shoes as collateral. They would argue and beg to leave something else;
student body card, watch, backpack, jewelry etc. I ended up with a nice
collection of student body cards, watches, backpacks and jewelry. However,
no one ever left the room with just one shoe! LOL!
Also, I bought a box of those short golf pencils and put eraser caps on
them. These barely met the requirement of being a pencil and quickly
discouraged kids from having to borrow one from me. I almost never lost one
of those golf pencils.
-Alix E. Peshette
Technology Coordinator
Emerson Junior High School
Davis, CA
-----Original Message-----
From: Maggie White [mailto:mwhiteaz@cybertrails.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 6:22 PM
To: ArtsEdNet Talk
Subject: big deal about pencils?
Hi, all,
Every day my 5th-8th graders teach me how NOT to teach art. This year
has been a really difficult transition but things are going a little
better now.
At the HS, we stressed students taking responsibility and coming to
class prepared--like with a !@#$% pencil. I've been doing the same
thing at the MS but wonder if I'm making much ado about nothing. I want
them to have a regular wooden pencil, not a mechanical pencil which
seems to require a lot of fiddling around with. If they're not prepared
for class, I give them a five-minute lunch detention; on their third
strike, they have after-school detention.
Am I expecting too much? I pick up pencils from the floor after each
class, and know they must lose them in their other classes as well. The
teacher of a long-ago EEI class told us, "Just give them a pencil and
get on with your class!"
