I allow my students to swap out a broken pencil for a sharp one. This keeps from having to deal with the ongoing, never ending, nerve wrecking drone of the pencil sharpener all day. It also discourages kids from the personal sharpeners that make a huge mess. My class isn't cleaned that much so it helps out.
Not sure why it took me so long to realize that my students just outright steal my pencils. Everyday I drop 20 sharp pencils in the cup. Every afternoon I have a broken pencil, a scrap of paper and something that looks like it was chewed on. I started keeping the pencil cup near me and guess what? I have 20 pencils at the end of the day. Shocking!
These small victories will lead up to a huge win, one day.
