This week I took a moment to ponder the importance of pencils in my daily life. It is amazing how much of my time is devoted to discussing the quality, color, effectiveness and size of pencils. Here are just a few examples of pencil talk at work:
“Ms. Teacher, I don’t have a pencil” Where do they always disappear to?
“Ms. Teacher, I can’t find a pink colored pencil.” There are none at her table, but 5 at another.
“Ms. Teacher my pencil only sharpens down one side.” Why is that and how on earth do you save the pencil once it’s so mangled?
“Look, the whole middle part just came out of my pencil. Ms. Teacher, can I write with it like this? Pleeeeeease.” I’m not as annoyed when this happens with colored pencils, but you wouldn’t believe the mess when regular pencils decide to up and separate.
“Crash, clickity, clackity, tip, tip, tap. ” Pencil bin being knocked over and offering up its contents to the table, floor and children’s laps in the middle of my lesson. Luckily, since changing pencil bin styles, this only happens every few months.
I had the kids clean out their cubbies on Wednesday. 15 beautiful long pencils were found. Why must they try and keep them in their cubbies? They just sit there, forgotten, until we clean them out and then the kids look around all sheepishly. Silly, silly children.
