Greatest Pencil Sharpener EVER! :)

Okay, so I have to admit, I was skeptical when I saw others post about this "fantastic" pencil sharpener and how every teacher needed one in their classroom.  Out of frustration one day, when our pencil sharpener yet again would only sharpen one side of the pencil (sooo annoying!), I clicked on a link to the website.


I was skeptical about shelling out $25 for a pencil sharpener when I wasn't even sure how it worked.  Plus, it just looked...strange.  Definitely not your traditional pencil sharpener.  I was surprised when I saw a link that you could ask the inventor, Troy DeCoff, to possibly send you a FREE one if you would review it.  I thought...what could it hurt?

I was even more surprised when Mr. DeCoff emailed me the NEXT DAY and told me he had checked out my blog, it was what they were looking for, and my free pencil sharpener was on its way!  Woo hoo! :)  You know teachers - we're all about the free stuff!


So, it took awhile, but it arrived.  I waited to play with it after school, took it out of the box, read the directions, and grabbed a pencil.


It sharpened one side only, just like my traditional one.  What?  I tried again. Same thing.  Read over the directions.  What was I doing wrong?


Well, thank goodness for other bloggers!  I emailed Traci over at Dragonflies in First, convinced I was doing SOMETHING wrong!  Why would everyone rave about this fantastic new thing?


So, Murphy's Law....I WAS!  After rereading Traci's post about it, I realized that the cool silver plate thing?  You pull that out, pinch the black clamps together, insert the pencil (let go of the black clamps and the pencil STAYS!), and sharpen in a clockwise direction.


It WORKED!  The hallelujah chorus could be heard throughout the building!  Okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but after one of my students and I had spent the last week trying to figure it out, I was so happy to show him HOW it actually worked!  Well, we just had ourselves a pencil sharpening party!  EVERYONE wanted to sharpen pencils! 

So...take it from a skeptic...it is sooo worth the $20 to buy one!  Ours is still going strong through even a tug-of-war that broke out one day between who got to sharpen pencils! (and a few drops).  Troy is simply a GENIUS!  So, please, click on my button to the side to see more or this link here!  It's definitely worth it!