Friday, March 13, 2015

I Have an Office Supply Problem


Hello.... my name is Mindi, and I have an office supply problem.

To be more precise, I have a pen problem.


I love to find the just right pen for whatever it is I'm doing.  When I'm taking notes at a conference, I love Flair pens.  These were also my favorite pens for grading papers.  They just feel good in my hands, and I enjoy using the different colors to take my notes.

Kind of like this:


I've tried other kinds of colored pens, but none are as good as my good ol' Flair pens.

Of course, making charts requires a different kind of writing tool.  For that, there's only one choice:
Mr. Sketch markers are in fact those smelly markers you may remember from childhood.  But here's the thing.... that chiseled tip makes making charts super easy.  The colors are bright and bold and usually don't bleed through the chart paper.

I'm stingy with my markers, though.  I don't like the tips to get mushy, so I don't let anyone else use my "good" ones.  I have a separate box that I loan out if someone asks.  Is that wrong?  I kind of think it is, but I doubt I'll change.

Also... I currently have at least 5 boxes of these in my storage cabinet at school.

Yes.  I am a marker hoarder.

But really, I doubt I am alone in my obsession with quality office supplies.  I know plenty of teachers who refuse to buy off-brand sticky notes or generic glue sticks.  I know plenty of other pen hoarders, too.

Maybe that's one of the reasons we're teachers.  We love pens and markers and colored pencils and cute paper and new notebooks.

So what's your favorite pen?

6 comments:

  1. Mmm, flair and Mr. Sketch, definitely excellent! I love how you start off naming it as a problem and then invite the rest of us to share our dirty office supply secrets too!!

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  2. Flair pens are my favorite too. I totally understand about keeping the best for you. Kids are not gentle. We have tools to help us do the best job we can do.

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  3. Mr. Sketch are my favorite! I also find that I go through certain colors much more quickly than others...and I definitely don't let students use them, either.

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  4. I was in a classroom to model a lesson the other day, and I literally started gushing to the teacher about her Mr. Sketch marker supply. It was like I had found the end of a rainbow, and it was a pot of golden markers. :)

    Loved this post!

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  5. Love those Mr. Sketch markers!!! Love using them. Love smelling them! I have a friend who turned me on to them - said her 3 year old son was trying to eat them once. She had to rush him to the hospital, but alas, they are not toxic. Phew!

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  6. My favorite pen's my computer! Seriously, I can appreciate your process. I'm pretty compulsive about my designs. As a kid, I was obsessed with the big Crayola box! Today, I keep a set of markers (100 colors to a pack) in my desk. I use them to develop a paper design of my ideas before using the computer to create a digital version.

    Frank George @ Dutch Hollow Supplies

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