As every teacher knows it is a never ending battle with pencils. I work at a school where I know the parents will buy their student a new backpack that week if asked so purchasing pencils should not be an issue. I used to have a small teal pencil box on the corner of my desk for students to take a pencil whenever they might need it. I thought this would work great.
The pencils starting taking over valuable time of students waiting until after the bell to find a pencil or even worse waiting until halfway through class. Pencils were never returned and students who had actually needed a pencil for once never had one. I had the chronic students who needed a pencil every class period and even resorted to making duct tape flags for the pencils would be returned. Students came back from the break and didn't have a pencil. Nothing worked and I was sick of it.
So I put a notice on my website reminding parents their students needed pencils and told my students they had 4 days to purchase pencils before the box was gone. First week in and ONE! one student has asked me for a pencil. I know this won't work for everyone, but I will refuse for the next month to give a pencil and hope to train them.
Now to get more than 80% of my class to turn in their homework.
