Lady Devos’s first question: “Now, where do I find the pencils?”
Well, you can go down to the supply closet in the front office, but there haven’t been pencils in there for at least three years. We mostly use that for holding plastic forks and spoons and paper plates.
You could go ask other teachers if they have a box you could have, but keep in mind they paid their own money for it, and you’d better lend some back if they run out.
You could ask the Principal, and they’ll be very nice to you as they explain that they have to choose carefully where to spend the allocated budget each year.
You could ask students to bring their own, but in our school students either can’t afford them, won’t spend money on them, or always forget them at home. (Some will just laugh at you)
You could go around the school at the end of the day picking up all the pencils on the floor that were dropped, broken, or forgotten. Keep in mind, though, they get pretty nasty down there, so you may have to wash them off before you sharpen them the next day.
Or, you could just go down to the store and buy them, yourself. (I wonder if YOU’ve ever actually bought pencils from a store?) I’ve worked out a system at my local Wal-mart (I hate going there, but it’s the cheapest I can find), where once a week, I spend $4.00 on pencils. I lose about half a box a day from students who don’t return them, so, if I’m stingy, I can stretch it out over the whole week. There is no option of “Well, if you don’t have a pencil, you don’t do work,” because then students really won’t do the work and suddenly you’ve lost control of your class and you’re spending more time on behavior than teaching math. So, at about a $1 a day (accounting for tax) on pencils, times 180 days for school, I’ll spend roughly $180 a year on pencils.
Now...where is the paper? Hahahahaha!