hithertokat:

I know this seems like a silly question, but:

1. Continually buying pencils is expensive, man;
2. so it’s best to have a way to keep them in the classroom
3. and I saw some pretty neat methods when I was a substitute.

When I was working in a second-grade class in Little Rock, they seemed to have the best method I’ve seen yet.  There was a bucket in the middle of every table for students’ folders, for common worksheets, and for pencils/scissors/glue sticks. 

Either the school or the teacher bought the pencils in a bulk box — I’m not sure who supplied them specifically — in the solid yellow.  Each morning before school started, and during recess, the batch of pencils at the desk would be sharpened, replenished, or replaced.  If a student wanted to bring or use a special pencil (usually ones earned from the principal by doing good deeds), they needed to keep it in their seat sack, not in the bucket.

Pencils rarely went missing, and because they were all common property and looked the same none of the students fought over whose was whose.  They shared them all.  It was beautiful.

(Source: hithertokt)