Saturday, December 11, 2010

I DID IT!!


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?"


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.



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.


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.


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.


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!!!


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

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...

2 comments:

  1. Again, love the pics that go with your great writing!
    Love, Mom

    ReplyDelete
  2. Papa's proud of you too!

    ReplyDelete