Pen Donations?

[Papamud]

MMG,

Your kind donation of the Pilot Metros and Notebooks is greatly appreciated! The notebooks are proving very popular as I have several students aiming at writing and journalism careers and they never even knew paper like this existed!

 

It's such a pleasure watching these students become enthused.

 

One of the pen winners from last quarter brought me a fountain pen she'd found at home, I soaked the nib in water, filled it with Parker Quink and BINGO, she has a new fountain pen!

 

These kids are ending up with nicer pens than mine!

 

I'm sold on the Pilot Metros, and one of my students let me write with his TWSBI Eco, which was lovely. Now I know what to save up for for my EDC pen!

Anyway, thanks again! Hope all is well with everyone.

D.

[OmegaMountain]

Wait... you are doing all this for your students and don't even have a TWSBI Eco for yourself?

[Papamud]

Wait... you are doing all this for your students and don't even have a TWSBI Eco for yourself?

No, but I will soon! That thing was SWEET!

[OmegaMountain]

PM me your address and what nib you would like and we'll take care of that. You do a lot for your students - you need a nice demonstrator in your hand to inspire them!

[mmg122]

MMG,

Your kind donation of the Pilot Metros and Notebooks is greatly appreciated! The notebooks are proving very popular as I have several students aiming at writing and journalism careers and they never even knew paper like this existed!

 

It's such a pleasure watching these students become enthused.

 

One of the pen winners from last quarter brought me a fountain pen she'd found at home, I soaked the nib in water, filled it with Parker Quink and BINGO, she has a new fountain pen!

 

These kids are ending up with nicer pens than mine!

 

I'm sold on the Pilot Metros, and one of my students let me write with his TWSBI Eco, which was lovely. Now I know what to save up for for my EDC pen!

Anyway, thanks again! Hope all is well with everyone.

D.

You are most welcome, David! Always happy when the UPS folks get the packages safely to you.

 

You like the Pilot Metros...is there a specific nib width you recommend? I've been sending you Medium nibs but can adjust obviously. What about notebook size? I've been sending 8.5 X 11. I think your recommendation has been for black ink. Am I correct?

 

Congratulations to your pen winning scholars this term! They should be very proud of the work they're putting out.

 

And thanks to you, David, for sharing this project with us.

 

Mary

[mmg122]

PM me your address and what nib you would like and we'll take care of that. You do a lot for your students - you need a nice demonstrator in your hand to inspire them!

 

Awesomesauce (as my grandkids would say)!!

[Papamud]

You are most welcome, David! Always happy when the UPS folks get the packages safely to you.

 

You like the Pilot Metros...is there a specific nib width you recommend? I've been sending you Medium nibs but can adjust obviously. What about notebook size? I've been sending 8.5 X 11. I think your recommendation has been for black ink. Am I correct?

 

Congratulations to your pen winning scholars this term! They should be very proud of the work they're putting out.

 

And thanks to you, David, for sharing this project with us.

 

Mary

Hi Mary,

The Mediums are great. The notebooks are wonderful. The kids love them! Thanks so much!

 

I checked out the Newton site and will be contacting him soon. I am thinking of doing a fund raiser house concert at my house to raise $$ for his scholarship!

 

D.

[mmg122]

Hi Mary,

The Mediums are great. The notebooks are wonderful. The kids love them! Thanks so much!

 

I checked out the Newton site and will be contacting him soon. I am thinking of doing a fund raiser house concert at my house to raise $$ for his scholarship!

 

D.

That would be just awesome!!

[Papamud]

Hey there!

OK! Quarter 2 pens have been awarded and allthough I can't post photos of the winners, I can tell you who won and WHAT they won.

 

Mary, the notebooks were awarded to several of my students and I gifted several to the Creative Writing Club for their very dedicated group of young writers. I'll let you know who won them, and which teacher awarded the notebooks.

 

In my classes, starting with Grade 9;

 

Best Essay- Da'Vaughn C. Mr. Too Cool for School, who once laid eyes on a Senior girl and had the stones to sidle up to her and be all... "Say, hey, baby. How you doing?" Also, who wrote an essay about his childhood that opened my eyes to who he really is, rather than the jock, cocky young man he portrays. He deserved the Pilot Metro he won.

 

Best Grade - Koroionna S. Korionna is an amazing student who is funny and works her tail off every day. She's kind and caring and not the best reader, but tries to get better every day. She's amazing. Her quarter grade was 107%. She's a total killer, and she won a JinHao 599.

 

Most Improved - Cole B. Great kid, super smart, friendly as all git out, but sometimes disorganised. His grade was suffering mostly because he was forgetting to turn his work in. He handed me a pile of papers that looked like they'd been squashed in the bottom of his backpack through several typhoons and a revolution before being handed to his dog to turn in for him. But he got all A's on it all and was awarded a Nemosine for his troubles!

 

Honorable mention - A Black and Red notebook went to Tabitha W. who couldn't stop talking with a gag order and a brick, but who writes almost obsessively. Pretty good stuff too!

 

Grade 11

 

Best Essay - Cavon G. won for an essay that really blew me away. The kid gets straight A's anyway and could have just written any old thing, instead, he elected to really dig deep and work hard and ended up writing something Amazing. He got a JinHao X750 for his work. I re-fill it every second day.

 

Best Grade - Don'ye Stokes. Football player, smart dude. Very low-key guy. His final grade was 104% because he always works harder than I ask him to do. He's got this very bemused look on his face most of the time and he makes me work harder as a teacher... which I always really love. He won a JinHao 599.

 

Most Improved Grade - . Erick J brought his grade up from a 39 to an 86 by choosing to hand me his phone at the beginning of class so he wouldn't be distracted He got a Hero.

 

Red and Blacks were awarded to Kateland E. and Victoria H.

Next Installment soon. Papers await my grading attention, and then it's my 13th wedding anniversary and I have to get a card.

D.

[Papamud]

Grade 11:

 

Best Essay - Brian R. It felt great awarding him a pen. He and Lindsay (the winner for Best Grade) are both great kids, great students, and they exist in that world where they are neither trouble, nor straight A student, so they largely get passed over when it comes to being recognised for everyday consistency. Hero 599

 

Best Grade - Lindsay D. Great student, and she loves her new pen, a JinHao xs740. She has nice handwriting, is always cheerful (currently has a concussion from her badminton team's last game) and is just a delight to have in the room every other day.

 

Most Improved - Samatha H. Another quiet genius. She loves her Hero 599.

 

Grade 11, period 4:

 

Best Essay - Ellis B. Ellis and I have a great time in class together. He's friendly, fun, and works hard to get good grades. I worry about a lot of my students, but I don't worry about Ellis. He's got it going on. He won a Jin Hao 599.

 

Best Grade - Desiree G. Friendly, LOUD, and worked super hard to achieve this. She won a Pilot Metro!

 

Most Improved - Henry Z. Not even a native speaker of english, Henry worked his tail off to get better grades, I let him take some work home to finish and he really rose to the occasion. Great stuff! His JinHao is working great and he uses it every day!

 

ok. There we go! Thanks everyone, for your kindness to my students!

 

All the best, and Let's go, Quarter 3!!

 

[mmg122]

Congratulations to all the 2nd Quarter student scholars!

 

A package from Amazon should be arriving in the school office on Friday (3/10) morning. Hope this helps with your 3rd quarter awards.

 

Keep up the good work, David!!

[Papamud]

Congratulations to all the 2nd Quarter student scholars!

 

A package from Amazon should be arriving in the school office on Friday (3/10) morning. Hope this helps with your 3rd quarter awards.

 

Keep up the good work, David!!

Mary, the package showed up this morning, as predicted, and it is FULL of pens and notebooks that my kids are going to love. Many continued thanks...

D.

[mitto]

You are doing great job, Papamud. Thumbs up.

[oneill]

...and two more today!

 

Girl on the left was in my Film Appreciation class and did amazing work, really high-order thinking ability and just rocked our class discussion every day.

 

Girl on the right is a sweetheart. Great worker and wrote a fantastic essay dissecting the zombie flick Warm Bodies. She pointed out that setting the movie in an airport was intentional on the part of the director because airports are like zombies. You're not home, you're at your destination, your in limbo, just like zombies, neither alive, nor dead.

 

She won the classroom that day.

I think that it is about time you stopped begging for pens, you have had a fair go for some years, no

doubt that it is a great idea but its not about what FPN can do for you its what YOU can do for them, what if we all started begging where would we be???????? Trust Me. oneill

[elenita]

David—you're doing great work here, encouraging these students. Keep it up!

 

When does Quarter 3 finish? My finances are tight right now, but hopefully I can contribute something by the end of the school year.

 

Incidentally, a fellow teacher here on FPN started a pens and writing club at his school. Of course, that's a different tack than rewarding individual students, but you still might find it interesting. I wanted to bring that thread to your attention, just in case you weren't aware of it.

[EagleLobes]

This is wonderful to hear and everyone's generosity is heartening. I have only read the first few pages of this thread but if you're still accepting pens, I have a couple Fellowship Black Bird EDs I would like to donate, and if you're still in need of bottled ink, I have a large bottle of HOD that's like 98% full for you. I only wish my kids went to your school. One of my kids went to Arbutus Middle and is now at Hereford Middle. The other one is at Sparks elementary. I hope teachers in other schools hear about your pens award program.

 

At Arbutus, my daughter had a math teacher who gave out Eagle Bux (eagles are the school mascot) whenever a student did well in class, showed leadership skills, was kind to another person, that kind of thing. Then, he'd offer items the kids could purchase with their bux. Actually, I think the entire school participated in handing out bux, and the kids were able to use their Eagle Bux to purchase things like notebooks, erasers, and pencils from the school store too. But occasionally, they'd have special items available for auction or raffle in that math class, and those days made school especially fun for the kids. I'm just throwing this idea out there for any educators in the midst. And apologies if it's already been covered on a page that I didn't read. It's just a good way imho to help democratize the chances of a student getting a pen a little. If all the students had 1 ticket, they'd know there was at least a tiny chance of maybe receiving a pen, with the idea being that they'd work harder to gain more chances for a pen. Idk, I'm just thinking out loud. I feel like what you're doing is absolutely beautifully wonderful and the students who are already high achievers are certainly going to be motivated, but they already are in the first place, right? I do like how you gave the pen to the kid who had most improved, but does that happen enough for students to remember that even if they are low achievers, they can still get a pen? I'm curious to see if installing a ticket reward program would instill a more diligent mindset in your students. If you'd be willing and able to try out something like that, I could up my donation of Black Birds to 5, earmarked for that system; it's not much I know, but it's all I've got. Towards the end of the year, I'd like to know if that kind of reward system, with more regular reminders of an opportunity to win a prize shows improvement in lower achievers. I live about 15 minutes from Parkville High, and will drop off the pens and ink on Monday. Tomorrow, I have to be in court, otherwise I'd be able to do it tomorrow.

[oneill]

Obviously lots of you did not agree with me, oneill however I stand firm when I say the FPN is not here to provide pens by donation from good hearted members it is here to assist with advice and help but not in the manner which David thinks is fitting, I make the point if we all asked for donations where would we be? I will continue with my criticism of David every time I see him use these pages to prostitute himself. Trust me. oneill

A JUSTICE person.

[Connly33]

I think what your doing is great David. it's getting more kids interested in writing and potentially the fountain pen community in the future. If anything it is strengthening the community, from what i see its not so much asking for others to help in his efforts, but more members offering help in response purely because they want to.

[OmegaMountain]

Obviously lots of you did not agree with me, oneill however I stand firm when I say the FPN is not here to provide pens by donation from good hearted members it is here to assist with advice and help but not in the manner which David thinks is fitting, I make the point if we all asked for donations where would we be? I will continue with my criticism of David every time I see him use these pages to prostitute himself. Trust me. oneill

A JUSTICE person.

You're entitled to your opinion, but that doesn't mean you have to voice it continually. If you choose not to contribute, that is your perogative. Others feel differently. You have made your opinion known and that is enough. Show some tact.

Edited April 9, 2017 by OmegaMountain

[oneill]

You're entitled to your opinion, but that doesn't mean you have to voice it continually. If you choose not to contribute, that is your prerogative. Others feel differently. You have made your opinion known and that is enough. Show some tact.

With regard to voicing it continually check how many times David has put himself out there, I repeat that its not about what FPN can do for YOU its what YOU can do for FPN,I rest my case.