Hey teaching friends! Hope the summer is treating you well! I hate to say the BTS phrase as I know some of you just started break a few weeks ago, but I know for a fact that I have some close teacher friends who have been putting up bulletin boards and attending planning meetings in preparation for back to school, which is just a couple short weeks away for some of you! AHHHH! Isn’t it funny how quickly that summer slips away?
Well – how about something that might bring some sunny weather back to the rain clouds that just appeared over your head? lol!
The super nice folks over at Classroom Friendly Supplies shot me a note after seeing THIS thread about pencil sharpeners. Well, after I noticed we had 231 comments, 387 likes, and 160 shares, I figured maybe I ought to check it out myself so I could actually speak to how it works. HA!
They sent me over one and at first, I have to be honest – I had NO IDEA how to use it. There were no instructions in the box. They did send an optional mounting bracket with instructions which I will use for sure, but there were no directions for how to use the sharpener itself. It might seem like a silly thing to have instructions for, but I could see there were some moving pieces – and I wasn’t sure what to do. 🙂 Luckily, I quickly googled a video online and within 60 seconds I was able to see how to use it. hehehehehehe.
For all those mechanically-challenged as I am, I will show you in a quick picture tutorial how to use this sharpener:
First, pull out the silver piece until it stops – it clicks into place.
Next, grab your pencil and squeeze the black pieces at the top, slide your pencil in to the sharpener, and then release the black pieces. It is now locked into place.
Third, start cranking the handle on the back. The pencil will sharpen and the silver piece will move back towards the sharpener as it does so.
When it stops, it is ready! Squeeze the black pieces at the top again to release and slide out your pencil.
I was amazed at how sharpened this pencil was! Almost to the point I was afraid a student might stab another’s eye out accidentally with it – lol! And for the record, it really was SUPER quiet. You could sharpen pencils during a test if you like – it was that quiet, which was great!
A couple of points other readers mentioned:
-It DOES move around if not clamped down. Not an issue at all if you don’t mind it moving. If that bugs you at all (it sort of did me), then simply use the optional clamp piece and screw it down so it doesn’t move. Problem solved.
-Also – if you are looking for a sharpener that does larger round pencils for the littles, you won’t find it here. Only standard pencils will work in the model I had anyway.
-While I didn’t try it, most of the fans mentioned on the fan page to not use colored pencils or anything pencils with the plastic coating on them in the sharpener. I think that goes for pretty much any sharpener, but I did want to mention it anyway.
I know many of you hate the pencil sharpener sounding all day long – this would definitely be a wonderful replacement! I actually always had a rule that 2 students would do the sharpening in the morning while the others were doing bellwork – that way the sharpener was put away for the rest of the day. This would certainly still work for that option if you had 2 sharpeners for them to use.
And I love the fun colors too: Black, blue, green, red, and pink! Something for every classroom!
Talk to you soon,
~Charity
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