I DID IT!!

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Today I was victorious.  The electric pencil sharpener in my classroom went out today, and I tried to fix it.  Here is the set up...my class was taking a test, so it was very quiet.  Many of the students were finished, waiting for others to do the same, and most who were done watched the show, "What is Mr. Street Doing?"

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I'm always giving my students crap about how they can't get the $1.99 electric pencil sharpener (you know a really, quality sharpener) to sharpen their pencil.  Many times I'll go over, sharpen it for them, and move on.

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So when I went over to sharpen my pencil, and the sharpener didn't work, I could feel students thinking, "Okay Mr. Smart Guy, see if you can get it to work now!"  So after doing the normal tricks to get the "old lady" to work, I realized I had to try something different.

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So I go to the old faithful "Bang-it-really-hard" theory, but again no luck.  This brings more attention to what I'm doing, and more students are quietly watching as I try to solve my problem.

I got a screwdriver out of my desk, and unscrewed the bottom part, exposing the insides.

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I thought to myself, "Yep, looks like everything is in its place," while I have NO IDEA what the heck I was looking for.  I pulled out the insides, blew off the pencil shavings, moved around some wires, stuff like that so that maybe those observing me think I know what I'm doing.

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I put the "insides" back, screw the bottom, back to normal.

Insert pencil.

NOTHING.

So I unplugged the thing, getting ready to throw it away but then thought, maybe there is something wrong/stuck in the chamber where the pencil goes.

So I took the sharpener over to my desk, grabbed a toothpick and fished out a small sliver of pencil.  I plugged it in, put a pencil in, and SUCCESS!!!

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I put the sharpener back, and I hear a student say, "You're like Handy Manny."
 

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I tried not to laugh.


And yes, the first picture is a guy running with the runs.  I believe there is a phrase that goes with that...

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