Coveting her Pencil Sharpener

When you think about a classroom and all that it entails, one of the last things that one would think would cause such a problem is the pencil sharpener. But OH, what a nightmare that little noisy, electronic contraption can cause. For the past few weeks I have been SO close to pulling my hair out and screaming over broken tips of pencils and the need to sharpen those pesky things in the middle of class. Now mind you we are on our SECOND sharpener of the year (and I told myself I would not be one of those teachers who purchased 10 sharpeners during the course of a year) and it is slowly dying I can tell as each day it takes longer and LONGER to sharpen enough pencils for the class. At times, sharpening is being done in the afternoon and morning by my best pencil sharpening students, yet when students enter the classroom I am still having to sharpen pencils!!! AHH!! Unless you've been through it yourself you would now understand how FRUSTRATING this is. And when that little hand raises in the air signaling to me that that pencil has broken and needs to sharpened, all that is in me cringes and fights and wants to scream: "YOUR PENCIL WILL NOT SHARPEN - FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO WRITE WITH AND LEARN HOW TO WRITE GENTLY WITH YOUR PENCIL!!!!! But of course I cannot say this, so relunctantly, I stop what I am doing and take the pencil and put it in the sharpener as it makes it loud noise to let it be known to the entire room what is going on (except for on the occasion that I let them sharpen the pencil theirself)---"Can't you just sharpen quietly?" I think to myself about that annoying sharpener.
Now the Art teacher has the HUGE heavy duty sharpener, actually she has two of them, that I have admired from afar and thought "Oh, if I could have a sharpener like that!" So the other day I ask her where she got hers (knowing that this would most likely cost a pretty penny) and she of course says prob some art magazine - she doesn't remember but if she could find it she would let me know. So a little dissappointed I say "ok" and mosey on back to my room. Well, I could tell sharpener # 2 would go at any moment cause I could hear it slowly fading away. My kids tell me that their first grade teacher had a sharpener like the art teacher so out of desperation I email her, asking her if this was true and if so where did she get it. She replies that another teacher got them for her from an APT grant the last year...so another dead end road. I started researching these pencil sharpeners on the internet and have found them ranging in prices from 35 to 55 dollars - pre-tax. So, maybe Santa Claus will hear my cry?! Idk, but something must be done cause I'm going crazy with these pencils and pencil sharpeners...."Write with your finger" I want to shout sometimes.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE THESE KIDS WITH ALL MY HEART! But some days I just want to SCREAM stupid pencil sharpener!! and another thing, I have reached the conclusion that pencils should come pre-sharpened, don't you agree!!! You should! :)
Oh, WAIT, I alwmost forgot, the 2nd sharpener DID die on Monday and so long story short....I took it to walmart and exchanged it for a new one (thank you Lord that I didn't have to fork over more money).

Meanwhile - I had 2 kids steal things on monday...one tried to steal 2 brand new pencils from the classroom and the other stole 3 pieces of candy from the speech teacher....really, do you learn that in my classroom????

Lost in pencil shavings,
four days til Thanksgiving break!