Where do all the student pencils go?

I think they go to the same place as my socks!

You know what? I just resign myself to the fact that the kids will always lose pencils and keep spares. If it’s really an issue with me, I charge them 10 minutes of recess time. That usually does the trick.

She had a small coffee tin filled with sharpened pencils on her desk and an empty one next to it for the pencils that weren’t sharpened or otherwise lost. If a kid had to “borrow” a pencil they would take one from the sharpened tin and then they got to sharpen the “lost and unsharpened pencils at recess”. This system worked out pretty good.

Pencils, pens and socks…go in the big black hole…you know the one in the twilight zone under your bed with the dust bunnies… :-P

My son’s teacher last year was absolutely great - extremely organized (of course, she always said it was to keep HER on track - not the students ).

She had color coded cups, with color coded pencils (the outside, not the lead). At the beginning of every subject, she passed out the correct colored pencil for that subject - and then collected them at the end. She said it helped her to be able to look around the room and see a red pencil - and know they were doing math - or a blue pencil for social studies, yellow for writing, green for science, etc.

Perhaps it was a way for her to keep track of her pencils, too! As a parent, I didn’t realize this was such a problem …

I don’t have a good answer for you, but I had to chuckle, because we have the same problem at home. I buy a whole new box of pencils for two kids almost every other week when I go to the grocery store. How is it possible for two children to lose that many pencils. I personally think that they hang out with all those one-of-a-kind socks… where ever THEY go!

Karen

Ha! I really truly hadn’t read your answer when I wrote mine!

Karen

SPECIAL ED 101: punishment will not change the behavior in an LD child. Taking recess (a time to be free of classroom stress) only exaggerates the problem of anxiety for these kids.

Something this trivial requires punishment? What do you do to them if they forget their homework?

Shame on you. I’m not seeing the logic in your decision.

My……..aren’t we being judgemental. Not to mention pompous. It never occurred to you to teach responsibility to your students? You know what this sounds like? “Poor special ed. kid…….he can’t help it……he’s special ed. Let’s make excuses for him.”

Of course we can ignore the irresponsibility, which carries on into adulthood, where people will not use his disability as an excuse. Rewards AND consequences my friend…….it’s how life is, it is our responsibility to teach them to deal with it.

By the way……..I do not appreciate the “shame on you”. I’m not one of your kids. You deal with all people you disagree with this way?

You also completely ignored the first sentence in my post, which said I usually just resign myself to the fact of lost pencils. To date, after 20 years of teaching, I have never taken away recess time. (I teach high school kids anyway)
However, it does not change my assertion that if a child continually loses pencils, a reward/consequence system will help that child be more responsible.

If she is using pencil colors to remember what subject the children are doing. What an ingenious plan!

I like that color coordinated pencil idea too even though it wouldn’t work in a Montessori school because the kids aren’t all doing the same work at the same time. But I’m impressed with what a great, creative solution she came up with. And, being a woman of a certain age, I can understand the need to keep myself organized!

In fact, though, I’m of the “resign yourself to it” school. One thing I’ve noticed is that there are certain kids who are hoarders. Invariably, a couple times a year, we teachers will discover that one or two kids have a pile of pencils in their desks or cubbies. When I was a new teacher, I’d be really annoyed by this. Eventually I realized that, in most cases, the kids are doing this out of a fear that they won’t be able to find a pencil. They feel safer and in more control if they know they have enough pencils.

I wonder how many of you teachers have class meetings? That would the perfect way to bring the problem of losing pencils to the group to problem-solve. You’d be surprised at the ideas the kids come up with and, of course, a class meeting teaches them how to solve problems. Running out of pencils is a community problem; therefore the community should together figure out a way to resolve it.

We’ve had class meeting discussions over this issue many times through the years. Sometimes the kids decide to bring in pencils from home if they lose their own within a certain period of time. Sometimes the group will decide to raise money to buy more pencils. Sometimes they’ll decide to fine themselves if they lose a pencil. Sometimes they simply decide to try harder to not lose pencils. No matter what solution the group comes up with, we try it out for at least a week. If anyone, including the teacher, decides it’s not working, they can bring it up again at the next class meeting.

So resigning yourself to the fact that pencils will continually be lost doesn’t mean not doing anything about it. But let the kids take on the responsibility of searching out and then employing solutions to the problem.

Karen, great minds think alike! And in fact, I HAVE found some pencils in the wash along with the socks on occasion. So maybe it’s true, huh?

I knew one teacher that had kids take off a shoe when they borrowed a penceil. MEant they remembered to give it back :)
I have considered getting a microdrill and putting a tiny little hole in the top of the pencil and puttin gfishline in it and tying it to the kids’ binders — reckon tape or velcro would do the same.

Yea, judgemental was happening.
I suspect you pressed a hot button (for somebody who doesn’t seem to have posted, at least with that name, much if at all)… Would have been better simply to make the point that taking recess away can be an inappropriate consequence.
However, the poster seems to think that any punishment “will not change the behavior in an LD child [sic].”
The illogic of that speaks for itself. Consequences won’t give a forgetful child a memory, but they absolutely *DO* change behaviors. Not always in a good way, of course… that’s the art of finding the right consequences.
I always strive to make it easier to do things the right way than a “shortcut” way (shortcuts such as not having your pencil, so you can’t do the work… or short cuts like not bringing your pencil)— but if you need the shortcut, the cost shouldn’t be too high.

I love the fish line idea. I was thinking if I could invent an attached pencil on a chain with a pencil that I could patent it. Maybe it already exists. I have seen pens on strings that retract but not pencils.

I am still laughing. You know, I did that shoe thing years ago and forgot. I would have the kid give me collateral, a notebook , shoe, hair brush, or whatever. I might have to do that again.

I know it shouldn’t bug me but I have given out so many pencils. I also might do something else someone told me. She said go to a golf store and get those short stubby pencils to keep score. I am running out of money in my budget and have been buying pencils out of pocket. When I give out one, the next kid asks for one. I have so many kids coming and going at different times or I would hand out pencils upon entering and collect at the door.

Michelle

We actually did the string thing when my son was in Kindergarten & first grade. He was in OT for handwriting issues, and the OT wanted him using a slanted work surface and an triangular pencil grip. You think pencils disappear? Try the ones with the triangular grip. Kids with fine motor problems NEED them, but ALL the kids seem to WANT them. The school had given him a couple, and when those disappeared, I started going down to the teaching supply store and buying a dozen at a time. Still, every time I went into the classroom, he was working with a regular pencil. I finally did tape a string to the end of his pencil and tied the other end to the rings of the big ring binder that served as his slated work surface.

Then he only lost one about every other week ;-)

Karen

After we have issues once or twice over the same thing (depending on severity), I have my kids chose their own punishment. They are much harder on themselves than I would ever be. :-)

Lil (parent here)

At the beginning of the year our child’s teacher asks for each parent ot contribute a package of pencils. When she runs out, she puts it in her weekly newsletter. Parents respond. I’m glad my boss does not take 10 minutes from my lunch break for every pen/pencil I’ve lost at work. If I lose them at work, I buy them.

My daughter just had to do “Invention Convention” (a parent’s worst nightmare). Her invention WAS vecro wrapped around a pencil and a piece of plastic inside the notebook with velcro glued to it. She called it the “pencil keeper” for “messy” kids like her that always lose their pencils.

It my own children’s school this would work fine.I send in stuff all the time and so do the parents I know……… But at my school we can not ask for items. Secondly, my resource students often don’t get the newsletter home. Finally, if it does go home it most likely isn’t read. I find newsletters stuffed in desks, backpacks, and all over. Most of my kids don’t have phones that work. Of course when we have the carnaval, my students somehow have money.

I even do random desk inspections.

I even buy notebooks for my kids with my own money.

I even buy sheet protectors and dividers.

I even have pocket folders labels “goes home stays home” “goes home comes back”

And you know what? Most teachers I know do too. I am in the majority I’m sure.

I just get tired of giving out pencils.

I do like the velcro idea. I guess I could loan out pencils with flowers stuck on them so they would really stand out.
MG

There was a really long thread about this on the librarians’ email group at LM_NET. SOme of ‘em had really creative ideas — lots of ‘em bought lots of golf pencils, some of ‘em had a deal with the janitorial crew to be recipients of the swept-up-in-the-hallways pencils. One of ‘em had big pencils like the primary kids use — that tempted me but I know I wouldn’t remember to ask for ‘em back and they *are* expensive.
And it might be worth considering giving a *nice* pencil or pen out before spring break, to the students who have never borrowed one, just to let ‘em know that you do value that trait.

nt

I often put down my glasses during the course of a day and forget where they are. I’m not sure that losing things isn’t something we all do.

I have a box in the front of my room with pencils. At the end of the day, I pick up the lost and forgotten pencils left around and put them in the box. Anyone is welcome to use the pencils in the box. At the holidays, some parents sent in pencils as a contribution to the ‘pencil box’. The students wrote a note on the box, “Need a pencil take a pencil, have a pencil give a pencil’. Students will contribute to the box as well.

It works well.

I may not be an educator- but that’s a VERY GOOD idea!
Nita

Consequenting the continual loss of pencils - a refusal on the child’s part to be prepared for class - is the issue. Pencils abound, look on the school grounds. Many pencils are lost to a game called pencil break. Many are lost as a convenience - no pencil no work. Many students do not care. I always kept grubby, chewed up, nasty looking pencils for those inequipped. Though I have spent my life in 90% free and reduced lunch schools, I have never met someone too poor, or too ADHD, or too LD, or too anything to bring a pencil to class. If they can remember their shoes, they can remember their pencils. Reinforce their inattention with presents - nice pencils and cases - and you will increase inattention. Consequate (punish if you will) a continuous behavior and it may very well extinguish. Especially when the answer is so easy. They should come to class equipped and ready to work.

A point, at the middle school level, children virtually always came to my class equipped. The teacher of the previous class and the following class continaully bemoaned the pencil issue. Interesting?

Again, Jim, good answer.