Sliced Bread does NOT even compare!!!

Seriously, you wouldn't believe what an issue the whole pencil thing is in 2nd grade. I love to tell my class that 2nd grade is the year to make mistakes and learn from them and that's why we have erasers, but the pencils! Neither Kendra nor I can stand the incessant "whirr/grind" of our electric pencil sharpener (especially since the kids just stand there and watch their pencil spin in circles and nothing gets sharpened) so we have a time to sharpen (8:00-8:15 or 3:00-3:15) and we have a "sharpened pencil bucket" for the kids to trade out pencils when theirs is broken. The perfect solution, right? Except out of 22 kids, at least 5 have a pencil obsession and spend what seems like HOURS standing at the "sharpened bucket" surveying each pencil point and rating it for sharpness and effectiveness. Then, the "sharpened bucket" becomes the 2nd grade equivalent of the office water cooler. Lots of deals and play dates have been made and broken at the sharpened bucket, I feel certain. And, of course, in every spelling test at least 5 pencil leads get broken necessitating a trade. It is just an ORDEAL and it really shouldn't be. It's a pencil, for crying out loud.

Yesterday, I was introduced to these:

Can you hear it?

"The Hallelujah Chorus" while the spotlight from the heavens shines on these "Never Need to be Sharpened Pencils"? I saw these back in August, but thought, "For almost $1/pencil, I don't mind walking to the sharpener!!" Oh, my sad little naive self!! Now I know, now I know the GLORY of the never-need-to-be-sharpened pencils!!! I, also, thought it was another mechanical pencil -- the click, click, SNAP(new, too long lead breaking) of a mechanical pencil.

No, these babies are LIQUID GRAPHITE!! Are you with me? They are ball-point pens with graphite as the ink. My first question is: Why didn't someone (like a 2nd grade teacher) think of this sooner???? (and, yes, to my standardized-test-grade-level teacher friends they are Number 2 lead!!!) I have now bought almost a class set (it IS the end of the month, you know) and every child in room 24 will have one (until they lose it or their neighbor steals it) and it will be a beautiful day. I shall flit about like Snow White while the butterflies arrange the sash of my dress as the children ever-so-dilligently work with their liquid graphite pencils while the birdies sing on the window sill. I can't wait.