the pencil sharpener

Most of my students last year behaved horribly. They made me want to quit my job. Everyday. I got through it (with a lot of prayer) and have lived to teach for another year. BUT, the pencil sharpener didn't. The kids last year sharpened God only knows what in it and broke it. I had one boy from Cuba who was absolutely amazed by it. Apparently in his school in Cuba, the teacher sharpened their pencils with a knife. I finally had to restrict him to one sharpen per class so he wouldn't stand there the whole period. The sharpener was a heavy duty one that cost about 100 bucks, so all I could afford to do this year, without dipping into my own pocket, was to get an old school one and screw it up on the wall. One thing that I found really funny is that many kids today don't really know how to use a pencil sharpener that is not automatic. They look at me like "hey Miss, help me out here!" every time they go to use it. Finally, they seem to have caught onto the fact that you have to crank your hand fast on it, and empty it out often, to get it to go, but now the screws have pulled out of the wall. I tried to screw it back up myself but didn't have screws that are small enough, so now it is laying in pieces on the back counter. The kids are REALLY starting to give me odd looks now. They look at their pencil and then at me, like "now what, Miss?!" One girl even decided to take matters into her own hands, pulled this out of her backpack and suction cupped it to the desk. See how much better the kids are this year!