Electric Pencil Sharpener

Tools of the Trade Tuesday

For my first Tools of the Trade Post I thought I would tell you all about one of the best things I have found that makes my life as a teacher so much easier!

An electric pencil sharpener.

As I’m sure every teach is aware- pencil sharpeners are loud, obnoxious, distracting, and annoying when used during teaching time.

When I first began teaching, I moved into a retired teacher’s room and had to eliminate 35 years of accumulated junk teaching materials. She had 3, yes 3!, electric pencil sharpeners that must have been manufactured during the stone-age. One broke during the first try, one would sharpen for two seconds and then freeze up, and one would sharpen but overheat after about 4 colored pencils.

I didn’t initially throw them all away and go buy a brand spankin’ new one, even though that’s what I really wanted to do. Because I believe in reusing items to save $$$ as much as possible, I packed these babies up and brought them home to Mark to take a look at. He loves a little mechanical project here and there and he was so cute with his reading glasses, tools, and cup of coffee surrounded by little pencil sharpener parts.

Luckily, he was able to fix one of them and I took it back to my room and it lasted me about 3 years. While I knew I was making a good decision by reusing something that didn’t cost me a dime- I still hated the little thing because it was sooooo loud and the shavings tray was so small I could only sharpen about 7 or 8 pencils before needing to empty the thing. Also, it only had one sized hole so I couldn't use it to sharpen my kindergarten pencils. I just cringed grinned and bore it until it froze up and stopped working all together. I was so excited sad to lose such a handy tool, but decided it was time for a new and improved model.

I did my homework, shopped around at all the stores that sold office supplies, searched online for an affordable one and came up empty handed. Finally, after weeks of using the mechanical pencil sharpener attached to the wall in my room- I landed on this pencil sharpener:

 the Bostitch Quiet Sharp 6. 

THE BEST Electric Pencil Sharpener

Here is a list of my favorite aspects of this sharpener:

Price: $23.00-which is a steal, because all of the others I looked for cost about 40 bucks. You can find it at Amazon here: Bostitch Electric Pencil Sharpener

Hole Sizes: 6- and even fits the large kindergarten pencils I use in my classroom. That is a feature that isn’t always easy to find in sharpeners on the store shelves.

Pencil Sizes

Pencil Shavings Tray: Huge! I only have to empty it once a week or so. 

Large Shavings Tray

Quality of Sharpen: Perfect- if I make sure to switch to the correct sized hole.

Stability: Suction cups underneath to keep it in place!

Suction Cups Add Stability

The best feature of all you ask??? 

Volume: Quiet- I don’t let my students use it, but my paraprofessional will sharpen on occasion while I am teaching and I can barely register that it is running in the background. 

Placement in room: Long Cord-when I feel the need to reorganize or rearrange my classroom- I can always find a spot for it.

Extra Long Cord

Overall this electric pencil sharpener was well worth the money, has withstood two years in my classroom, and meets all my needs as a kindergarten teacher. I would recommend it for anyone!