Blended Learning Journey: Day 22--What is a pencil?

On Day 22, we have included a timeline of the use of writing utensils and how they have been modernized. Can you imagine what the classrooms will look like in 5 years? Scroll down to the bottom and see the pictures Mrs. Barnes our Kindergarten teacher sent today. I predict in 5 years or less that pencils, crayons, and pens will no longer be included on back to school supply lists. It will be like asking parents to go out and by a quill feather. Times and learning are changing so fast. Are we willing to move ahead with the times or we will hold on to traditional methods. Let's make all our decisions in the best interest of the student and move toward a future of preparing our students for career and college readiness. Question: How often do you use a pen or pencil at school compared to an electronic device? When was the last time you wrote a hand written note to your colleagues as compared to an email? When you communicate with your friends do you do so with handwritten notes or with text messages? As we have shifted let's have the confidence to shift our students in the classroom! Until next time, Keep Blending your Learning!	Around 4000 BC Man scratches the surface of moist clay tablet with a bronze or bone tool.
	Around 3000 BC The Egyptians developed a form of writing with pictures. For writing on papyrus scrolls scribes used thin reed brushes or reed pens.
	1300 BC The Romans have been developing form of writing, that they scribed into thin sheets of wax (on wooden tablets). Romans used a metal stylus. When they no longer needed the writing, they rubbed it out with the flat end of stylus. In Asia scribes used a bronze stylus.
	Dark Ages As well as writing on parchment, the Anglo-Saxons also used tablets filled with wax for notes and for planning the layout of large books. They wrote on the tables with a metal or bone stylus, that had a pointed end and rubbed out the words with flat end.
	600-1800 AD The Europeans found that writing on parchment with a quill pen altered the style of their writing. At first they used capital letters all the time, but later they developed faster styles with small letters. Quill Pens (firstly appeared in Seville, Spain) were the writing instrument from 600 to 1800 AD.


	1790s Pencil lead was invented independently in France and Australia.
	1800-1850 A metal pen point has been patented in 1803 but patent was not commercially exploited. Steel nibs came into common use in the 1830s. By the 19th century metal nibs had replaced quill pens. By 1850 quill pen usage was fading and the quality of the steel nibs had been improved by tipping them with hard alloys of Iridium, Rhodium and Osmium.
	1884 Lewis Edson Waterman, insurance broker invented the first proper fountain pen.


	1888-1916 The principle of the ball point pen actually dates from the late 19th Century when patents were taken out by John Loud in 1888 for a product to mark leather and in 1916 by Van Vechten Riesberg. However neither of these Patents were exploited commercially.


	1940s The modern version of ball point pen was invented by Josef (Lazlo) and Georg Biro. On Summer 1943 the first commercial models were made. The rights to Lazlo's patent were bought by the British Government. The ball point pen is more rugged than the fountain pen which may be why sales rocketed during World War II when the Military needed robust writing implements to survive the battlefield environment. October 1945 The ball point pen was introduced to the U.S. market. The pen was sold as "The first pen to write underwater" this must have been an unsatisfied demand as some 10,000 were sold at the launch at Gimbel's department store in New York on October 29th 1945.

1953

First inexpensive ball point pens were available when the French Baron, Bich, developed the industrial process for manufacturing ball point pens that lowered the unit cost dramatically (BIC, Co.)

1960s

It was invented fibre, or felt-tipped pen (Tokyo Stationery Company, Japan).
Papermate's Flair was among the first felt-tip pens to hit the U.S. market in the 1960s, and it has been the leader ever since. Following their initial success with felt-tips, manufacturers branched out with a variety of fiber-tipped instruments, including newly popular highlighters.

1980s-1990s

Roller Ball Pens. The introduction of the roller ball pen have been made in the early 1980s. Unlike the thick ink used in a conventional ball point, roller ball pens employ a mobile ball and liquid ink to produce a smoother line. Technological advances achieved during the late 1980s and early 1990s have greatly improved the roller ball's overall performance.