Pencil Sharpeners

Do you have a love-hate relationship with your pencil sharpener?  I had a hand crank one in my room that I completely removed because A. it didn't work well, B. it took forever to sharpen a pencil, and C. it was screwed into a weird spot behind my desk.  Electric pencil sharpeners are better because they sharpen so much faster, but if you let kids use them, they can break pretty easily.  At my old school, I had an electric sharpener, but I never let students use it.  Those things are so expensive - some can be around $50 and have to be replaced each year if the motor dies!  So, when Classroom Friendly Supplies offered to send me a free pencil sharpener to review, I was ecstatic!

When we moved to Hawaii a month ago, I packed one suitcase full of teaching supplies I would absolutely need for the first two weeks until our container of all our belongings arrived.  Unfortunately, we've been here 4 weeks and we are still sleeping on the floor on borrowed blow-up mattresses and futons.  I am so happy I brought that suitcase for my classroom!  In it, I packed cardboard magazine files from Ikea for book boxes, chimes for my attention signal, Kreative in Kinder's Rainbow Classroom Decor all printed out, laminated, cut, and ready to hang, a schedule pocket chart, a turn-in basket, black sheets and new trimmer for my bulletin boards, a good pair of scissors, a pack of Ticonderoga pencils, and my new pencil sharpener.

Here is a video of my son sharpening some pencils after school.  He's a pro!

I taught him how to use it first, and he would come in and happily sharpen pencils after school!  I just started classroom jobs in my room, so now one student does it.  I love that I can rely on the kids to sharpen pencils instead of being so worried that the kids will break the sharpener.  And at $24.99, this sharpener won't break the bank, even the frugalest of teachers.  If you order more than one, you get a bigger discount, too, so team up with other teachers at your school!

Tell me about your sharpener:  Do you have an electric one?  Do you allow students to use it?  Maybe you have students bring in those tiny ones from home? Or maybe you, too, have this amazing sharpener that is not only quiet, but easy to use!  I'd love to hear how you handle this conundrum!

I was given a pencil sharpener free of charge to review.  The opinions stated are completely my own.