Meet the Pencil Police and Your New Best Friend

Missing pencils, broken pencils, pencil shavings all over the floor, sharpeners that don’t work… we’ve all been there.

To cut down on all this nonsense, I have a pencil policy in my classroom…. enforced by the Pencil Police. The PEPO, if you will, with a long E and a long O. The PEPO are invisible, and in fact do not exist. But I reference them often: “Pick up that pencil! The pencil police will come!” And the kids believe me, I think.

The pencil policy rules are simple:
{one} Make sure you have a sharpened pencil first thing in the morning.
{two} You must exchange a pencil to get a new pencil. The only exception is rule one, because we all know that the Pencil Prowlers come in at night and take pencils, which is why no one ever has one in the morning. But don’t worry, because the PEPO are on the case.
{three} Never ask for a replacement pencil with words. Simply raise your broken one, wait for my nod of approval, and do the exchange.

{four} You are only allowed ONE pencil at a time. This cuts down on playing.

{five} NO personal pencil sharpeners!!! They’re distracting, and messy. I know what you’re thinking. I gave my sweeties heart sharpeners for Valentine’s Day. I told them to keep them at home 🙂 Only my aide and I can sharpen pencils.

Which brings me to possibly the worst pencil problem of them all: the sharpener that doesn’t sharpen! You know the one. It ruins all your pretty holiday pencils, and the points {if you can call them “points”} break within minutes.

Cringe no more! I found a solution:

I know you’ve seen this sharpener, and you might even own it. And if you own it, my guess is you’ve fallen in love with it. Because I’ve owned it for one day, and I’m.in.love.people. It’s quiet. It’s quick. It works. Every.single.time. I tested my new baby out with two packages of cheapo dollar store pencils. Look at how SHARP they are:

Every pencil sharpened perfectly on the first try. Can you say that about your sharpener? Unless you have this one, then the answer is NO!

This sharpener is cool. It’s easy to use. It’s attractive.

It’s also incredibly easy to clean. Just slide out the clear box on the bottom, toss the shavings, and pop it back in. I sharpened 16 pencils before I felt that I needed to empty it. I think I could have gone for more, but I wanted to play it safe 🙂

This super sharpener is priced at $19.95 with FREE shipping… a great price for a great product, if you ask me!! And it was made by a teacher, what more could you ask for!?

Thank you, Troy, for the opportunity to use, review, and absolutely.fall.in.love.with. this pencil sharpener!

If you haven’t yet, please visit Troy’s site, and check out this product! There are pics and videos on his page, and they’re worth seeing! If you don’t go, I’ll send the PEPO after you {that’s PEncil POlice, for anyone who scrolled to the bottom of this post and didn’t read the top, LOL}.