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RE: big deal about pencils?

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From: Kramer, Bunki [LC] (bkramer_at_TeacherArtExchange)
Date: Thu Jan 29 2004 - 08:26:07 PST

Hi, Mag. You're getting all sorts of answers to your pencil problems. Mind if I join in? I'd suggest you get some blocks of scrap wood. For pencils, drill 36 holes just the size of your pencil diameters. Next time you use these pencils you'll be able to glance at the block and see what's missing. Honestly it works. No one leaves until they are all replaced. It's not a hassle, gives them responsibility, policing each other for the common good by peer pressure. Takes about 2 days to train and then they police their own friends. The only problem I have with our pencils is replacing them when they become stubs. But....you'll probably have to start with a new group of kids. Once you set the idea from the beginning, they follow.

I also do that with my hand-held pencil sharpeners...block of wood with wood slats around the edges of the block so there is just enough room for 16 sharpeners to fit. I also do that with the erasers JUST fitting into a plastic tray so there can be only 36.

When we were using the kneaded erasers I took a thick piece of cardboard and made 36 little squares on it. I pushed a straight pin from underneath the board through the center of each square and cut the very sharp tip off the end of the pins with a wire cutter. I now had 36 little metal stands for the kneaded erasers to fit on.

You can get creative in how you can lay out your supplies and be able to glance at them and see if anything's missing. If they know you're counting, they start counting and there's no hassles...and everybody wins! And beats picking up dirty pencils off the floor(grin). Toodles...Bunki

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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!"

Maggie 

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