Pencils

So every year the kids come to school with a million supplies. As part of their supplies they each have to bring a pack of 24 pencils. I am one of those teachers that regulates pencils. I don't just let the kids keep them in their desk and use a sharpener when they want, because let's face it, first graders feel their pencil has to be sharpened after every single word they write. So in my classroom I have two pencil cups, one for sharp pencils, and one for broken pencils. If your pencil breaks, you put it in one cup and take a new one from the other. Every couple days I use my electric sharpener to sharpen all the broken pencils. In three years I have NEVER had a problem with this system. There have always been enough pencils that when I go to sharpen them, if I notice one has no eraser, I usually would just throw it away and get a new one. At the end of the year I always end up sending home extra pencils with the kids because there is SUCH a surplus.

This year however, is a whole other story! Let this be an example of the kind of kids I'm dealing with here: EVERY day I have to sharpen pencils, and on a fairly regular basis by noon the next day I have to sharpen more because so many have been broken. If I get out new pencils, the erasers are gone on every single one by the end of the day. I have a kid who chews on pencils (and I have no idea who it is). Not just lightly, I mean flat out gnaws on the pencil until the metal part pops off and the wood is shaved down almost to the lead. One apparently likes to break pencils over their knee, and no amount of punishment seems to put an stop to it. Someone has a pencil sharpener hidden somewhere in the room (not the desk because I searched those) and often will sharpen the wrong end of the pencil so both sides have a point on it. And lord knows where half the pencils go, they just flat out disappear.

In previous years I have sent home packages of pencils at the end of the year. This year, we ran out of pencils a month ago. This is insanity! I flat out refuse to buy more pencils for them! What is it about this group?? There must be something in the water... haha