Howdy Teacher Friends,
I don't know about you, but one of my pet peeves while teaching is an obnoxious electric pencil sharpener grating away. Sharpening pencils can be akin to folding laundry for me. And I despise folding clothes.
I actually went old-school last year and resorted to using a hand crank sharpener last year after my most recent electric died. It was the LAST time I spent $70.00 plus on a sharpener that lasted less than an entire school year. While old trusty was free, and it got the pencils sharp, it was LOUD and ate the pencils to nubs pretty quickly.
After our custodian installed a sharpener like this:
it seized up. He could't fix and we had to install an entirely new one.
Enter The Quietest Classroom Pencil Sharpener!
I ordered the Precious Pink version to review here.
Since I don't have my own classroom this year, only the Harry Potter Cupboard Office, I was able to recruit some of my teachers to try it out in addition to me.
Pros:
- The sharpener was quiet. Not silent, but by far more quiet than an electric sharpener or even my old trusty hand crank.
- The price is right. You can't beat 24.99. You can get three for $53.97. I would consider purchasing one for each student group in my class (if I still had one).
- Every single pencil that I sharpened with had a perfect point the first time. And it didn't chew the pencils up or grind them down to unusable nubs. Score!
- Shipping is free.
- Lots of fun color options are available.
- They sell replacement blades, so you won't have to scrap the entire sharpener if it dulls.
Cons:
- It is a little confusing to work when you first try it. I recommend watching this video.
- You have to hold the sharpener with one hand. It also comes with a handy little clamp for mounting on a flat surface, but I wasn't able to get it clamped really tight. With that being said, they now offer a permanent mount. Woo hoo!
- While my big kids (grades 4 and 5) would be totally capable of using this sharpener, I think that it would take lots of practice for littles to work it.
I will order more of these little babies. In the spirit of full disclosure, a couple of the teachers who tried the sharpener were not totally sold. I think that they were turned off by the mechanism that holds the pencil.
Give it a try! For $24.99, it is TOTALLY worth it!
Thanks for stopping by!
