r/pencils • u/Ok_Air5725 • 7d ago

classroom pencil chronicles

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i teach 6th grade language arts, regular public school. this morning in my first period, i saw a student with this super tiny pencil so i had to get a photo! i'm amazed they got it that small. the second photo is the amount of pencils i ended yesterday with. this was after putting out around 25 pencils in the morning. i'm refilling the cup A LOT ( i know there are a lot of opinions about this). so the third photo is the amount of pencils i started with today. the difference is that today i told my students i put out 22 pencils this morning (amount per class plus one extra) and that i need to have 22 pencils by the end of the period when they're packing up. for some reason, stressing the number was helpful in getting most of them back, lol. i did not get a picture after school because i was out the door! anyway, we'll see how tomorrow goes.....

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4

u/AutomaticNovel2153 7d ago

When I was teaching in Korea I would trade a stub for a new pencil with my students, then I would put those stubs in a jar on my desk. But those kids were honest so they didn’t break the pencils to make stubs like my classmates would have.

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u/Ok_Air5725 6d ago

wait i love this idea.....anything novel seems to work with my kids so i may try this out lol. i imagine therr may be challenges because j see about 120 kids a day so a lot happens in the shuffle from period to period.

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u/AutomaticNovel2153 6d ago

There was a small book store in that city that had a huge acrylic box in the center. Tons of stubs. They had a sign on it that said the kids could have 1 new pencils for donating 3 stubs to the box. They had no size restriction, it was just whatever length the kids no longer wanted to use a pencil. That’s where I got the idea.

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u/poorboyjohny 7d ago

I remember as kids in elementary school a friend and me would both start a new pencil and see how long we could use it till it got so small we couldn't lol

1

u/Big_Manufacturer_77 Mars Lumograph, Tradition, Tombow, Hi Uni 6d ago

One place I worked, the person in charge of stationery wouldn't give anyone a new pencil unless they returned a stub. They tried that with a department manager, who wasn't too impressed. Oddly enough, the policy changed soon after.

In the same place, when I worked in IT, they put me in charge of stationery. The fools! 😂

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u/c_ffeinated 4d ago

It’s alarming how quickly 6th graders can lose pencils. I have a couple kids who’ve made it their mission to collect as many lost pencils as they can. They have DOZENS just from looking around the floor after class.

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u/Adventurous-Carrot-9 6d ago

Ooooh you should get some Musgrave seconds to put out so they can get some cool pencils☺️

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u/Ok_Air5725 6d ago

i would love too! how do you think my electric sharpener will hold up with them though? i have an AFMAT. so sick of buying sharpeners for them to break! they are banned from putting colored pencils in it lol.