pencils

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Home : 2004 : August : 24

pencils
By Tanya

When I first began to teach I'd buy beautiful pencils on sale and always have them on my desk for kids to use if they didn't have one. I was always buying pencils because the kids were always taking them. So last year I
did something a bit different. When I assigned the supply list I told parents to buy 2 boxes of pencils. This helped for about 1 1/2 months. During September and October those new pencils were always on the floor at the end of the day. Those got picked up and placed into my extra pencil box (but last year those pencils were never new.) The extra pencil box is now away from my desk.

As the year went on I stopped filling that box with pencils as frequently. When the kids said they didn't have a pencil I'd ask them to get one from a friend. I always do have extras somewhere just in case. What was interesting to see is that the problem was much less last year because I wasn't providing lovely new pencils to the kid who didn't have a pencil. I too buy these as a treat but generally I keep basic yellow #2 in that extra pencil box. Oh, I bought the golf pencils last week at Staples. I'm interested to see how they are received.

P.S. I still keep a few pencils on my desk for me and those get taken by the kids who sit right in front of me. I just couldn't put enough energy into making a change here.