Nine Inches of Education

Woody the Pencilman! Have you heard of him. A teacher friend of mine called me in hysterics after stumbling upon this teaching tool in a catalog. Yes, she’s as dirty-minded as the rest of you. Sadly, the material on the web isn’t nearly as funny as the stuff she read to me–material which included talks about taking Woody home, using him in a circle and the teaching of oral skills–but it gives you a taste. A taste of wood. I’ve bolded the parts that had the entire staff of one school in stitches.

Catch that flying pencilman! Woody the Pencilman was developed as a way to put fun into writing. Woody is a plush toy waiting to be described and animated. Students often need inspiration and motivation to think of creative writing ideas. Toss Woody to a classmate and ask him to name a verb or adjective that describes how Woody looks and moves. Eighteen writing activity cards come with the Woody Writes Set and each card has a different type of writing assignment on it for kids to ponder and create. Woody Writes makes writing fun to teach and model. Use Woody Writes whenever you have an extra 5 minutes to fill, or as a base for daily writing. Show students that generating writing ideas can be hands-on and fun!

If you’ve got a handful of mid-30s degenerates giggling like school girls over Woody, imagine what would happen if you brought him into a classroom of 13-year-old boys. Full-on riot, I’d imagine.