Pencils.

I feel like a lot of my students have reached new levels of laziness. I usually keep new, pre sharpened pencils stocked in my classroom. Too many kids come in without anything to write with and then will just stare at the work blankly until I notice.

But recently, I ran out. A lot of kids kept bugging me until I restocked yesterday. And as soon as I pulled out the pre sharpened pencils to restock, half the class got up to grab one. This includes students who already had pencils.

I was like “woah, woah, woah. Slow down. What’s wrong with the pencils you have?”

One student goes, “it’s bad.”

I look at his desk and it’s an almost completely new pencil with a great, full eraser. Only “bad” thing about it was that it wasn’t fully sharpened. So I ask if that’s why. And the student, after some guilty hesitation, says “yes.”

!!!

Anyways, I shut that down and pointed him to my pencil sharpener. Half the time they either break or take them anyways. (The epidemic of stapled pencils in my classroom is outrageous.)

(Edit to add, these students are 14/15)