Apple Pencil Classroom Kit Set Up

When I posted some of the kids digital drawings online, there were lots of questions about the set up, distribution and handling of the apple pencils. I get it. They are EXPENSIVE and fragile. Two words that make me a little nervous around 9 year olds.

Our district purchased a class set of 30 for the 6 elementary art teachers to share. Our coordinator has us sign them out for a period of time and when the next teacher wants to use them they travel. To accommodate a traveling set we use the following set up:



I know. It looks like a hot mess up in there, but I'm gonna unpack it for you.
So first, there are the boxes that they came in. One idea we had was to number them, match them up to the kid's number and have them set the box on their table to place the pencil back in the box. One teacher test drove that plan and found it wasn't too practical. So most of the time, the boxes just sit empty in the big tub. Like this:




Since students need to take the cap off to pair the device to their tablet, we had to decide what to do about the caps. We envisioned them getting lost. The alternative was not giving the students the caps. That leaves the end exposed. After weighing the pros and cons, we went with that option and store the caps in a smaller container with extra pencil tips and anything else that is tiny. We keep them plugged into the chargers whenever the students aren't using them.



We have a surge protector for charging. It has three plugs for each of the Anker Powerpots. These can charge up to 10 pencils at a time in a very compact space.



We leave the wires all bundled up and out of the way. Leaving them at the full 3' or 6' length would probably mean a huge tangled mess or that they would get knocked onto the floor. Here's what it looks like with 3 units plugged in at once.



When it's time to send them off to the next teacher the pencils go back on the boxes and away they go.

Some other tips for classroom pencil use. With our situation, I told students the pencil had to sit on top of their ipad whenever they got up from the table or weren't using it. Their ipads have a rubber case that sticks up around the edges, so it won't roll off the ipad if it's lying flat. Those pencils are slippery and roll fast so I added a rubber band to each one to act as a pencil grip and to slow down the rolling.

What are your best secrets for managing apple pencils in the elementary art room?