Have you ever tried to teach someone math while they swirl a pretty, sparkly green pencil with fuzzy feathers and frogs on it?
How about the poor little, very ADD, child in the next desk that keeps trying to listen but just can't tear himself away from it? And the battles between the little girls over which pencil belongs to whom- because they all got very pretty fuzzy ones at Susie's birthday party Saturday, and they are all identical?
How about waiting for what seems like a lifetime for a boy to finish his test, while he disassembles and reassembles his mechanical pencil no less than seven times? Then how about explaining to the same boy why he has to stay in at recess to finish his test? Hmph!Now let's move on to the worst ones- the super sparkly really, really cool glitter pencil with the really, really soft lead that breaks every .02 seconds, requiring its owner to sharpen it constantly.(Even while the teacher is explaining the writing assignment that this child will yell about not understanding 5 seconds later.) But it gets better... these pencils have this crummy plastic coating that dulls the pencil sharpener, sticks up in it, and makes it virtually impossible to sharpen any other pencils for the rest of the day, or until the teacher performs pencil sharpener surgery with 22 pairs of eager eyes over her shoulder and 22 eager voices telling her how to do it successfully.
Really now, I know kids love cutesie things, and pencils make great little rewards and favors, but can't they use the fun ones at home? Please? Pretty Please?
Ok, rant over. Glad to get that off my chest. Really, I am thankful that I've had such amazing kids to spend time with as their sub. They are so smart, and really a lot of fun.
Now, if you need me, I'll be sneaking into my kids' pencil bags to replace all those offensive type pencils with dear, wonderful, amazing plain ole yellow No. 2 pencils with pink erasers!
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1 comment:
The clicking on the mechanical pencils always irritated me, and I was the one using it.
Nothing like the classics. Did you see that video of the LDS Boy Scouts meeting with the general authority? There was a kid who gave him a box of pencils he carved himself.
I thought that was pretty cool. Nice blog!
Chris
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