After the Bell: Teaching Tips With a Twist

Stunt Summer Sessions #3: What's Behind Roy's Door Number Four?

• The Stunt Brothers

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 47:00

In Episode 76, summer is in full swing but the Stunt Brothers agree that we haven't reached peak "Dog Day afternoons" just yet! Our duo keeps their Summer Series rolling with Roy’s #4 pick from the vault: Episode 44, Weapons of Mass Distraction. This selection was inspired by the current classroom invasion of Dumpling Squishies, (feel free to look them up) that drove teachers crazy this year. So, grab your fidget spinner, sit back, and enjoy this nostalgic episode which will have you wanting to look in the attic for your childhood Weapons of Mass Distraction. 


Learn more at stuntbrothers.ca

Send us Fan Mail

Get Involved

Speaker 2

Good afternoon, podcast listeners everywhere. Welcome to After the Bell, a Stunt Brothers production.

Speaker 1

I'm Martin Stuible. And I'm Roy Hunt, and we share your pain, having taught a combined 70 years. 70 years. I know. Wow. So get out your marking, organize your supplies, or just pour yourself a coffee. I think I need something stronger. That's okay. Okay. And listen, engage, and interact with After the Bell, a podcast for you, the hardworking, dedicated teacher who wants free lesson plans, free advice, and a free meal.

Speaker 2

Well, I always show up for a free meal. Mr. Hunt, lucky 13 today.

Speaker 1

Yes. So what when they say the uh what is it, the dog days of summer.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

What does that mean?

Speaker 2

Well, usually it's like the the height of the summer, right? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Speaker 1

The height of the summer. But we're not even close.

Speaker 2

No.

Speaker 1

So what are we like the puppy?

Speaker 2

Puppy days. Puppy days at the summer. Puppy dog days, but I guess.

Speaker 1

The kittens.

Speaker 2

It's when the dog fly around because of the heat. It's so hot. Right. I think that's where the origin of it is.

Speaker 1

Trevor Burrus My dog started laying down like that the first week of June.

Speaker 2

At least. Or April, some dogs. But we are into the summer. Yes. And we hope you are enjoying your summer. And maybe some of you are away on holiday, on different trips. You should be. Camping, having fun, enjoying yourself, relaxing. And we have repackaged some of our episodes to kind of celebrate what we think are our top five. We've each have done our top our number five.

Speaker 1

Trevor Burrus So now we're going to do our number four.

Speaker 2

Yeah. So tell me. What is your number four?

Speaker 1

Trevor Burrus Well, my uh my top four, or not my top four, my four. My number four is from episode 44.

Speaker 2

Okay. This is this is all about four. It's all about four. Lucky four.

Speaker 1

I like number four. It's uh weapons of mass distraction.

Speaker 2

Aaron Ross Powell That was fun.

Speaker 1

I really enjoyed that. And and we just talked about the goofy trends that somehow found their way into the classroom and caused chaos. And they're still there. I uh what I was gonna say probably just about mid-June, I was in a classroom and I saw this little bamboo box on a on a desk. Oh. And it it's basically a box. Well, it's a bamboo box that they would use for steaming dumplings. Okay. Like shumai, and um I I think like um there's you get those pork buttons. Yeah. Right. So it's a white bun and you open it up and there's like barbecued pork or something. Very delicious.

Speaker

Yes.

Speaker 1

So I looked at that on the desk, and it's and it's exactly like a steaming basket. I go, well, that's okay. And then the student opened it up, and inside is a pork bun. I go, like like an act, and I said, Is that an actual pork bun? No, it's a plastic pork bun. Not another squishy toy. It's a squishy toy, like a pork bun squishy toy. And so I saw the one and I go, okay. And then I looked around and there were like four or five. They just went out and just bought them. So I'm like, ugh. So that's uh what was on the desks when I was weapon of mass destruction classroom mid-June. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Speaker 2

And I like this because maybe this is where we kind of got into the TikTok videos more. And you and I did our own segments and we had some fun being students in a class pretending to have these distractions with pencils, rulers, all chairs-style paper.

Speaker 1

And what I really enjoyed about it that my my grade seven students from Ridgway, they because they're on TikTok a lot, and they all uh saw those and said, that's Mr. Hunt. So the the responses, uh a number of the responses that we received were from the uh grade seven students at Ridgway. So that kind of warmed my heart because it was they were it was all positive from them, and they said, fire Mr. Hunt. So that was great.

Speaker 2

So enjoy everyone. Enjoy our rebroadcast of Weapons of Mass Destruction and keep on enjoying the summer.

Speaker 1

Are you here? Because we're recording. Okay. I'm here and uh Well, that's good. I'm in in in the box, it's a little chilly today. It's getting cool snow on the mountain, it's a snow on the mountains. Yes, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 2

Winter is coming.

Speaker 1

Cool. I guess cool, and it is cool.

Speaker 2

And it is cool. Yeah. So episode forty-five.

Speaker 1

Wow. That's a lot that's a lot of episodes. It is. And this is season two, episode fourteen. That's right. Yeah.

Speaker 2

Moving along. I tell you. I know. And you got and uh well, I was gonna say and you got your headphones, but those aren't the headphones.

Speaker 1

Those aren't my headphones. Yeah.

Speaker 2

You uh you you thought about maybe making a drinking game out of it. Like every time that you forget.

Speaker 1

Every time they wanted to solve a problem, they bring up alcohol.

Speaker 2

There's another drinking game involved. But I'm kind of you're encouraging me to look forward to you m forgetting your headphones because there's a beer in it for me.

Speaker 1

Yes. Yeah. But then as I uh thinking about things that I could uh pick out about you, I know that probably when I'm thinking about it, you would just say, well, there's nothing you could find fault with.

Speaker 2

I'm perfect.

Speaker 1

Yeah. You you just handle that delusion as much as you can. I imagine there's people out there, uh family members, that might be able to point out some things uh that you uh might have a problem with. Yeah. Okay. Do you want me to do a deep dive? No, that's not even that one.

Speaker 2

I've been doing a deep dive, though. Oh, you have been digitizing. You know, we tied Ev on last week, who was a former student, and I've been here at the library where you can use their services to digitize VHS tapes. I found old tape recordings of myself putting on a Star Wars play when I was in grade seven, my squeaky little voice with my friend Sam. It was quite amusing. But I've been putting stuff, I've I'm really my brain is really into the 90s, right? Because I've been watching when I took my class to the Hyatt Hotel, where we actually had a day where we got to pretend we were working for all the different parts of the hotel. It was a great, great day they did for the grade fives. And they actually did there's a news segment, BC TV, yeah, did a whole news segment on it. But then I got into the tape, and I had mentioned earlier, one of the first movies I made with my class was called The Vancouver Secret.

Speaker 1

Ooh.

Speaker 2

Vancouver Secret. And I had these kids.

Speaker 1

That's a really captivating title.

Speaker

It is, I think so.

Speaker 2

Vancouver Secret. Yeah. Anyway, it was a great film for the time. For the nine's all. We didn't have CGI yet in those days. Okay. No green screen. No. So we f we filmed things on location, and I this is how times have changed. I actually got some ed leadership time, which is just time that schools have to do um things that will benefit the whole school.

Speaker 1

So Did this benefit the whole school?

Speaker 2

The principal decided it did. It did. We had a film festival, and I borrowed a teacher's car for one of those ed leadership days. And two students and I, we went to the Vancouver airport and filmed a scene. This is like gorilla filming, right? When you don't actually have permission to film, you just show up and film. So here I am, I'm 25 years old, these two grade six kids, right? Ten, eleven years old, dressed in trench coats, sunglasses, fedora hats. And we're at the old Vancouver airport, which was kind of funny because when I saw the film, you go, you're like, oh, that's not how it looks today.

Speaker 1

Okay.

Speaker 2

But we're walking through the airport, I'm filming them going up the escalator, they're kind of hiding, watching each other. It was all just part of the a major plot twist point of Vancouver Secret. And uh no one's batting an eye. I can see everyone like no one, no security came to me. No one said a thing. Only one woman. We go up the escalator, and I can see her head kind of turns as this short adult in her mind is wearing this big trench coat and fedora and sunglasses, and she something tweaks in her that this doesn't seem quite right, but we pulled it off. Thank you for secret.

Speaker 1

There you go.

Speaker 2

Maybe we'll stream on Netflix.

Speaker 1

Netflix will stream anything. So there you go.

Speaker 2

Well, I got lots more where that comes from. Maybe I'll be back here finding all these things that are bringing me back to the same thing.

Speaker 1

How do you even when you look at that all of that digital stuff?

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

All the stuff that you want to digitize. How do you like sort the good from the bad and the ugly?

Speaker 2

No, I mean I I'm trying to do that first, but then you often have to watch it, right? And then go, okay.

Speaker 1

This is so then if you're watching it, you might as well uh spend the time and digitize it. Yeah.

Speaker 2

But then you want and then you you go back to that time. Yeah. Right. And I'm seeing my class from Longsdale and those students whose names I can remember so clearly. I don't know because I I had a younger brain then. But I can remember all their full names in my time there when I was a young man. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Many years ago. Many years ago. And there you go. So that's been distracting me. That's been kind of my focus, right? You know, I could go on. I could talk to you about some other th Oh.

unknown

Okay.

Speaker 2

Why what what what do we c why are we clicking our pen here?

Speaker 1

What I'm bored.

Speaker 2

You're bored. Yeah.

Speaker 1

Well it's this is all about you. And all you're doing is talking about my thing. A little jealousy here, is it? No, no, no.

Speaker 2

Oh. Mr. Hunt is can't have his moment. So now we have to create his moment. Okay, young man.

Speaker 1

Was that annoying?

Speaker 2

Well a little bit. Did that bother you? It's a pen. Did that distract you? It did distract me. It was uh a bit of a weapon of mass distraction. If you could call it that. Well, and we've been doing some videos on weapons of mass distraction. I think teachers get it.

Speaker 1

Yes. It's the things that well in the classroom, uh classroom supplies, they almost seem like the the devices or the materials to create something. So where you see a pencil, a student sees a drumstick. Right. Or I don't know, when you where you see a water bottle. Yes. Uh maybe a student sees a swirling water tornado.

Speaker 2

Or how about when they take their pencils and they get uh scissors? Oh, get the scissors. And start to create shavings off it. That's right. Before you know it. The pencil has gone down to almost nothing. And on their desk.

Speaker 1

It's this tactile.

Speaker 2

Have you ever had them when they also take like the markers together, and you know how they stick together? And they can make these massive well, in their minds, swords or who towers or whatever.

Speaker 1

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Or b basically something that an uh extension arm that you can go and poke your neighbor with.

Speaker 2

What are those things called that if you you tear a hole in your three-hold punch paper and you want to repair it with those they're like white adhesive reinforcements. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: I've never seen a child use it for that purpose. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: I don't even think why do they have those?

Speaker 1

They don't need those. So they just put them on their face and and look like a confused Dalmatian. Some new form of measles or something, right? Or uh the erasers that have yes, no, maybe I don't know on them. So uh do I want to do work today? And they flip their eraser. No.

Speaker 2

Do I like Mr. Hunt? Yes. Yes. Okay. It's gonna be a good day.

Speaker 1

Is Mr. Stuble's ideas are they good? I don't know.

Speaker 2

But you spend all this time talking to kids about, okay, don't bring these toys to school, don't bring that, but they don't need to have their own toys. They can turn anything into some what we call weapons of mass distraction. And I think that's kind of our theme and our having fun with. And we've been making these TikTok videos, so I put them on Instagram too. There'll be more coming. Yes. That uh yours truly stunt brothers are kind of playing the characters.

Speaker 1

Well we we get to be the students.

Speaker 2

We do.

Speaker 1

And uh showing these different things. It was fun. Yeah. It was fun uh being then the other side of the desk.

Speaker 2

Aaron Powell Yeah. So keep your eyes open for those. And we've got our theme for today, and we'll just uh somehow we're gonna get a nugget out of this. Yeah. We'll try our best.

Speaker 1

Something to learn from that.

Speaker 2

There's the nugget sound. We're not there yet. Don't have the nugget.

Speaker 1

Don't have the nugget yet.

Speaker 2

We have the sound.

Speaker 1

We have the sound. Yes. And uh so what we're talking about is distractions. Yeah.

Speaker 2

I mean, and it doesn't necessarily be weapons of mass distraction. That's our episode title, because it we we thought it was kind of clever.

Speaker 1

Yes, we would.

Speaker 2

But it could be other distractions. I mean distractions are part of a day.

Speaker 1

Open a window in the summertime and watch how the class goes nuts when uh a wasp flies in the wrong.

Speaker 2

I mean everything shuts down.

Speaker 1

Right. Yes. So you can't teach anything. And it's so like and there's always someone who uh isn't afraid of the wasp but pretends to be afraid and runs around the room or anything.

Speaker 2

They're usually not the person that needs an EpiPen.

Speaker 1

You should know who needs an epi pen in your class.

Speaker 2

Or how about wintertime? Wintertime, that first snowflake that comes, just one. One comes down. One snowflake comes in. This mass rush to the window.

Speaker 1

Yes. Well, I was I was in a c a classroom um as a uh as a substitute teacher at T T O C and uh the class was really hard to keep focused, but I I I they w they were doing some some drawing, and it was nice and quiet. And then there was a few students reading a book. And this boy took his shoe off. But took a sock off. And so he's got his foot up on his chair, bare feet. He's playing with his toes. Oh and the student beside him goes like is you know really loud. What? You're in bare feet?

Speaker

Yeah.

Speaker 1

And the class is rather excitable. The entire class, like they've never seen a barefoot before. The entire class. The entire class. They turned their head, saw the barefoot, and they all ran to it like it was free pizza. What? What did they just crowd around it? Like look at the barefoot. Oh, he's got a foot. Look at it, he's got five toes, just like oh my gosh. But it was just one of the it's like they were waiting for that moment. It's like that spider that crawls across someone's desk. Right.

Speaker 2

Yeah. No, that shuttles them up. And with the snow flake, I tend to be running up to the window with them. Right. Let's all have a look. And sometimes that helps. Make it a thing, they're excited. Hey, look at the snow. When I was at this one school, we were right in the woods, and we sometimes a coyote would go by, we could see it, or a woodpecker, right? So that might stop everything. But that's also okay. Like I think sometimes we're we're saying it it's okay to have distractions, and you kind of have to learn to deal with them and make fun of them sometimes. Yes. Bring some humor in. And then maybe that might help minimize them or their impact. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Speaker 1

And then and then there's always a way to to establish some rationale, some reasoning, and some some rules maybe in where you can say, like, okay, it is snowing. Yeah. Right? We need to do some things, but you know, maybe we can go outside for uh brain break and catch snowflakes on our time.

Speaker 2

Do some kind of hour of a good long time of work while the snow is coming down.

Speaker 1

Yeah. There'll be more snow.

Speaker 2

But how about like let's say you have a class and they're like you were earlier this episode and they're into the clicking the pen, right? How do we deal with that kind of stuff? Because that that I that could be kind of annoying. Do you just put up with it as a teacher, do you think? You just go, listen, okay, well, that's I'm just gonna try to ignore it. Or what?

Speaker 1

Well, uh I I remember doing this once with a class where we had their binders, and you opened up the binders to put the paper in and then click. And then as soon as they hear that click, it's like their eyes go huge and go like, oh an annoying sound. And they go click, click, and I'm like, I said, okay. I want everyone to do this. I said, So everybody open up your binders. Okay. I'm gonna time it. You have one minute to click your binders as much as you can.

Speaker 2

Brilliant.

Speaker 1

And count how many times you do it, and we'll see who could who it can be the champion binder clicker.

Speaker 2

Well, maybe you could like with the pens, you can create like a whole percussion section of the day, right? Where you just say, okay, the last five minutes of the day, right? This has been an issue in this class. Talk about it in a class meeting and maybe come to some agreement. You know, it's really annoying when we're in the middle of math class. But get out your binders, get out your pens. What are some other things that you could use percussion with, put on a good song and see if they can follow along. And follow along. And that might at least satisfy that percussion aspect they're bringing you to, which isn't such a bad thing, because then you're getting into some music. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Okay, make a a game out of it. Yeah. But sometimes if you you know give it another place in time, that takes away, and then you can also focus on the quieter times in the day. Yes.

Speaker 1

Because you do need to help your students to be able to regulate when there's not a lot of noise. I think a lot of students sort of they they actually feel unnerved when they find it hard to concentrate when it's when there's no noise.

Speaker 2

Aaron Powell No. I don't think they live in a world that has quiet anymore, right? So they're they're not used to that. And distractions are part of the day, and I do know, I mean, the six-seven is certainly something going around. That's certainly a big one. Yes. But maybe if you approach it with a bit of humor sometimes, I think that one's starting to disappear because old guys are you know, they're a talk show host like Stephen Colbert, they're out there doing the 6-7, and I think kids are going, that was our thing. Oh, I'm not doing that anymore.

Speaker 1

I saw Mr. Hunt do it. I'm not going to do that. He did it and looked creepy from my side.

Speaker 2

So a little humor, right? A little bit of understanding sometimes makes it go away. I think with kids, I mean, because they're they're smart. They're smart. When they see they they got something that gets adults, they're they're they may keep doing it up. They're for a while. Yeah. We all want a sense of power and control. So I think when they think they can do that and get away with it and it gets to the teacher, they're Yeah.

Speaker 1

But if you don't let it get to you, and if it becomes uh a moment of laughter, right? To sort of say, okay, yeah, that's funny, okay, let's get back. But I think we have our uh nugget here. I think we do.

Speaker 2

I think I think it makes sense what we're getting at.

Speaker 1

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: So the in the nugget, which is something that you can use in in the classroom, something that can help you with your teaching and with your practice. I think the nugget that we're looking at is you know finding the humor in those distractions and then finding ways in which that you can with your class negotiate or work through a way where you can give them opportunities to make that noise or see those snowflakes, but still get the things that need to be completed. Completed.

Speaker 2

Because I think we're saying it's it's all right as a teacher to say there are times in this day that will be silent. That's okay. Yes. You don't have to go, wow, kids these days, they're doing six, seven over there, and they're rushing to the window to see the snow over there, and they're cooking their pencils over there, and they're making uh what's that, slime? Yes. That became a big thing. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Pulling out bags of slime that they made at home. I in the 90s, uh that was my idea. It was a science thing, right? And suddenly, you know, in 2010, 2012, I see kids coming with piles of it. And and you know, little containers and giving it away. Yeah. Thank you, YouTube and uh what else? Yeah, TikTok videos, something like that. Yeah. Didn't you say didn't didn't one of your kids actually bring in slime? And they were like, is it like a business? They were selling it.

Speaker 1

Yeah, the the the students would put in uh orders. Something the night before. And then so someone had an entrepreneurial spirit. Well, you know, it's well, okay. My costs are right, ziploc bags, but my mom and dad pay for them. And then the right?

Speaker 2

The borax, uh the blue and it's like the lemonade stand, right? Modern lemonade stand. But it's okay to say you want times in the day when you are have have students who are focused. But I think you if you approach it with a little bit of humor, bringing these things up in class meetings, find ways to incorporate the distractions into a part of the day or part of the week, you know, even if it's like I I remember I had it was a pajama party we were having, and uh kids I told said you could bring your stuffed animals in. Yep. Right? And you know, they all brought their little teddy bears and little smurfs and small little things. This one kid comes in with a tyrannosaurus rex. I think it was my size. It was my size. And he said, Mr. Stuble, can I have a chair for T Rex, my buddy, right? He can he need his own chair, right? So we because it was it was a special day. So we had a special chair for this giant tyrannosaurus rex that was towering over all of us. But I think that gave it its place where next day he didn't bring it in. Yes. Right? He got it out of his system. Exactly.

Speaker 1

So then you're making it into like a special day.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

And you're looking at your students' uh social emotional needs. Yes. That being able to bring something in. I know in younger grades they have show and tell where they it would be that student's day to bring something in that's important to them. And hopefully, you know, you know, we often tell students not to bring anything that's of great value, that's expensive, that you know, irreplaceable, things like that. But having special days and just having those opportunities where you can sort of get some of that out and you could and and you can make it a memorable experience. You could take pictures, right? Yeah. Digitize them later in your old memory. Oh, there they are. Uh and uh, you know, then it becomes part of the whole experience of the school year. And then when you do a culture, yes.

Speaker 2

We talked about building a class culture, but this is this is part of your culture. It is these things that happen, particularly just to your class at certain moments that then you celebrate, it's so important. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Speaker 1

You could pass out slime recipes. Who's got the best slime recipe? Yeah. And so then it doesn't become a you know, like the these are the rules, do not bring anything in there. It's like these are the rules. Yeah. However, we will have some special days and we maybe we work on that. Uh special days, you know, just before the uh Christmas time, I think before uh spring break or something.

Speaker 2

There's always when you're starting to get kind of antsy, right? It's those.

Speaker 1

So the perfect time to do that and uh to acknowledge that they they're kids and they want to have fun and they want to laugh and and check out. And we laugh with them, right?

Speaker 2

I think as teachers. So sometimes those moments are fun and they actually make it more than just a job.

Speaker 1

I I remember wearing my pajamas uh to school for pajama day and bringing uh a stuffed animal that I had from my childhood. Yes. And and I carried it around with me, and they laughed. They thought that was the most ridiculous thing they've ever seen.

Speaker 2

But there you go. There is our nugget.

Speaker

What's that sound?

Speaker 2

What's that sound? How are we gonna do homework? That's the homework board sound, and we we have to come up with homework now. There's no field trip. We had a field trip last week. What will be the homework for the listening audience this week, Mr. Hunt? We have to make it fun? We have to make it fun. This is weapons of mass distraction.

Speaker 1

Yeah. Homework board, homework board. Ooh, I love my homework board. No. You got the singing going on. Homework board, homework board. Are you gonna give me some? Ah Yeah. Well, what is it? Are you gonna give me some? Okay. So how about for homework board? We have our listeners think back.

Speaker 2

Oh. To like right back to when they were a child.

Speaker 1

They were in elementary school. Okay. For some of them, and I might not be that long ago. For other people, it's hard to think back that far. Way back. Trevor Burrus, Jr. And what are they gonna do when they think back? Trevor Burrus, Jr.: And I'd like them to think about what was the one thing that they, when no one was looking at home, they sneak into their backpack to bring to school to maybe take out and put in their desk. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Speaker 2

This is good because like in rearview mirror, we're gonna look back at some of the different changes over the years, right? And some of the different distractions. So I would love to hear from our listeners.

Speaker 1

What was your favorite weapon of mass distraction?

Speaker 2

In the 70s when I went to school? Yeah. Do you remember rubber cement? Oh, I do. It came in that glass jar, right? And first of all, it's no longer allowed because it the fumes.

Speaker 1

Oh yes.

Speaker 2

Yes. I think away for that. But you could like you'd make it in bigger and bigger and bigger rubber balls. Yes. Some kids would put it near their nose to look kind of rude, like it was coming from their nose. Like boogers. Yeah, right? Okay. But people would make the and then they would make these bouncy balls with it, right? And I used to do that. You'd just be you'd somehow I don't think we all had maybe we all brought a bottle. Maybe that was one of your supplies, I guess. And you'd just be slowly making this ball. It got bigger and bigger. And it because it was rubber, it bounced.

Speaker 1

And uh I remember that glue clearly. And I have a story to tell you about that in uh in my elementary school, I believe around grade eight. Because we had in in Ontario, grade eight was in elementary school. Okay, right. Right. And uh so we had, you know, back in my day, we still had student teachers. And so we had a student teacher, and he was walking around the classroom. Um we were supposedly doing work. Trevor Burrus, Jr. But weapon of mass distraction. But the weapon of mass distraction was be one of those rubber glue balls. And uh we had someone had made them and then would break off little pieces and then throw them across the room, to flick them at people. And uh this one student flicked it while the student teacher was talking and it went right into his mouth. Good thing he didn't die. That could have been the end. Yes. Well Wow. Um The student teacher uh after gonna coughing and trying to figure out what the heck happened, and our our teacher um was not kind. No. No. There was quite a outrage for shown. It did cause some I can imagine.

Speaker 2

Some problems in the state. There we go.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

But well, we want listeners to share their distractions from the past. And we have a Facebook group after the bell, so you can share it there. And also on our website, stuntbrothers.ca, there'll be places you can share those ideas. And we would love to hear them. And then next episode we'll share some of your own weapons of mass distraction from 1950, 1960, 1970, whatever era you grew up in as a child.

Speaker 1

Aaron Ross Powell Because there there's lots of stuff that was popular and people would bring to school. Yes, yeah.

Speaker 2

Well, that's the detention hall sound. And uh we I don't think I mean a lot of people would think, oh detention hall, let's put weapons of mass distraction into the detention hall, but that's not what we're getting at.

Speaker 1

That's not what we're doing.

Speaker 2

We're actually saying they're gonna exist. They've always existed. It's more how do we contain it and make it work within the class? Um people may not like that. Some people would ban everything.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 2

So maybe it should be something to do with those that think we can ban all things.

Speaker 1

Yeah. And then we could just get to work. Aaron Powell Yeah.

Speaker 2

I mean obviously you have to ban some things. You gotta ban crack cocaine, right? Trevor Burrus I don't know what it is with you.

Speaker 1

Zucchinis and crack cocaine. It's my go-to extreme example. Crack cocaine. What's extreme? Zucchini, crack cocaine, right?

Speaker 2

So that's the police. So obviously there are some things you do ban, is what I'm trying to say. Yes. You need to ban those things. But not necessarily every little weapon of mass distraction, because as we've no know with kids, they'll figure out things. Right. You'll come up with this, this is not allowed. Well, what are you gonna do? Take away all the supplies, right? Right. So the idea of always banning, I don't think, in school is a good one. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Speaker 1

In the detention hall, what we're talking about is this the the that extremism where it says ban everything. Yes. And with no negotiation. And the idea is that we're still dealing with a very young population of children who need to find opportunities for joy. And everything that you do with if you do a complete ban, where's the learning from that? If you do a uh sort of okay, the we're banning this for safety, right? But we're flexible here uh and this is why. And then you can you allow them to understand the continuum of, well, I understand why you can't bring this to school, but uh uh and you're allowing me to bring this to school at this particular time.

Speaker 2

Yeah. Because I think we like we've talked about weapons of mass distraction, but sometimes you have general rules that can help you deal with it. Because one of our TikTok videos we have is sitting on a high stack of chairs, right?

unknown

Yes.

Speaker 2

Well, obviously I don't think you need to ban kids specifically sitting on a high stack of chairs when you have rules about safety in your class. Yes. That's clearly not safe. So you say that, right? It's clearly not safe. If you start to get so specific about there's no sitting on more than five chairs, well then they'll sit on four or three or two. You just got to deal with safety, right? And they know that that should not happen anyway in the class. But it was always fun as a kid to sit on that. Oh, yes. The king of the class. And that's what a lot of it is about. It's just asserting your power, feeling like you're confident and you're in control in a world that sometimes feels like it's not in control. Trevor Burrus, Jr. That's right. Yeah.

Speaker 1

That's the rear view mirror sound.

Speaker 2

Tell us about that.

Speaker 1

Well, uh uh rear view mirror is while we're looking forward, when we look in the rear view mirror, we see things in our past. Oh, and so I thought this was pretty exciting. We're talking about weapons of mass distraction. So why don't we look at those things from our past? That we might have smuggled into our uh backpacks to bring to school that caused some chaos or some distractions. We're gonna go way back. We'll go way back. We're gonna go to the sixties because I'm a child from the sixties.

Speaker 2

Oh, that's your time.

Speaker 1

That's my time.

Speaker 2

Okay. So what were some of the things from the sixties?

Speaker 1

So from the sixties. Silly puppy. Right? And it is uh I think it's called the Newtonian um Newtonian fluid.

Speaker 2

Okay.

Speaker 1

Right? And uh it was made to that's when it's neither a solid nor a liquid.

Speaker 2

That's correct. Yeah.

Speaker 1

And it was originally made because they were looking for a replacement for rubber. And because during the war, World War II, uh rubber plantations were being occupied by uh um enemy forces. And so there was a shortage of rubber, and so they they tasked the scientists to say, find us a replacement for rubber from rubber trees. And so Silly Putty uh uh became the replacement that didn't work, but then someone marketed it it as a toy.

Speaker 2

It's funny, like you know, like stickies were that. It was supposed to be a super glue, but it didn't work, obviously. And they were they were gonna throw it out, and someone thought, no, it's perfect. It's a glue, it's a very light glue. So silly putty. And I I remember you could take it and you could actually put it over like a comic. A comic, right?

Speaker 1

Yes, and peel it off. And it would be so much fun. I remember yeah, things were simpler than mood rings. Oh gosh. Uh right? So you would look at your ring and due to your body heat, it would change colors.

Speaker 2

I remember this girl in like grade three. She's saying, Martin, you can tell I'm in a bad mood, can't you? I don't I didn't know. Just look at my ring. Okay. I didn't know it was so accurate.

Speaker 1

Sorry. Uh Pet Rocks.

Speaker 2

Yep.

Speaker 1

Yes. You know, someone who walked along a beach, uh, got a paper box, uh, made a f care and feeding of pet rocks and made millions. Yeah. Yes. Umkies. Yeah. I remember Slinky. Yes. I remember plenty of things.

Speaker 2

Never could I, though, get it to go down the stairs as well as they did. They did on TV. Somehow it would make it three steps down and that was it. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Speaker 1

And then yo-yos. Yes. That to me was a good thing. And they I loved the yo-yo. And again, it's it's a skill-based toy. So I I like that.

Speaker 2

Yeah. No, and there was so much, and and I still see yo-yos to this day. Yes. And there'd always be that. I guess I think in the fifties as well, maybe that's when it first came along, they actually had yo-yo like gym presentations and people would come and do all kinds of tricks.

Speaker 1

Yo-yo clubs.

Speaker 2

Yeah. Okay. So that's I think the the idea of the slime first came along, but it was a store-bought bought slime, and it was certainly not made by students who were bringing it in the cell themselves. Yes. Towards the end of the 70s is when Rubrik's Cube kind of appeared. Um but there was always that kid that would pretend they did it really fast. They had just peeled off all the time. Yes. And there was also because of that, there was a lot of sticker collections. I do remember a lot of people would suddenly collect different things and have them all over the place, if not all over their face.

Speaker 1

Yeah, all over their notebooks. I can remember that. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Speaker 2

Roller skates, bringing roller skates to school in uh North Vancouver and parts of BC Stardust Roller Rink was always a big thing after school to go down to the roller derby and have backwards skate. Girls choose and this all these memories I could tell about going down to the roller rink. Stardust. Stardust memories.

Speaker 1

Skateboards coming to school?

Speaker 2

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's when they first appeared out of it. It's funny, some things you can just it's almost like they appear overnight. Like suddenly, I I think I was grade six, grade five or six, and suddenly all these kids on these skateboards. It was quite phenomenal. And pogs. Pogs. Pogs kind of appeared at that time. That was something to collect. I think. I mean, like I don't did you have hockey cards? Because that became a big thing too, collecting, right? Yes. And um I it's funny because later on I remember in the 90s, kids would bring hockey cards and they'd be in these perfect little envelopes, all plastic separated. But we'd be down on the basement at Ridgeway where I went as a school, and we'd be playing card like games if you landed on top of everybody else's, you'd win all those hockey cards, and it was just a rite of passage down there. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Speaker 1

And baseball cards? I remember those two. Yeah, with the with the gum in it. Oh, yes.

Speaker 2

And then how many people out there do you think probably have that Wayne Gretzky rookie card that their parents threw out, right? That could be worth a lot nowadays.

Speaker 1

Okay. We're going to go to the 1980s. There's these things called kush balls. I didn't know that was the name. But they're soft, squishy balls. Right.

Speaker 2

I remember them. Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 1

Slap bracelets.

Speaker 2

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Those that do you just slap in your arm?

Speaker 1

Like a little metal.

Speaker 2

They're fabric covered and you just slap them on your yarn and kids nowadays are still they love those things.

Speaker 1

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Rubik's Cube was still height of popularity.

Speaker 2

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Became most aware of it for sure.

Speaker 1

Those ugly-looking cabbage patch kids.

Speaker 2

There's no beauty in some of these things.

Speaker 1

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: You talk about parents, you know, at Christmas time fighting for cabbage patch kids.

Speaker 2

Trevor Burrus There's that Arnold Schwarzenegger film that's kind of about him getting the last of a certain type of toy that's playing on that thing that happened. Yep. And uh the Nintendo Game Boy. Trevor Burrus, Jr. That was a game changer when that appeared. Wow. Yes. And then the nineties, and I've been stuck in the nineties with my digitization going on. So I can remember a lot of these things. As I was as a teacher, I started to see these distractions. So Tamagotchi. Remember that?

Speaker 1

Yeah. And the student comes up to me and says, Mr. Hunt, I have to feed my pet. If I don't feed my pet, it dies.

Speaker 2

Oh, the anxiety.

Speaker 1

So what do you say, right? Do you say no? Or do you say, All right, go feed your pet and then get back to work. That's it.

unknown

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Oh my gosh. And Furbies was the other weird-looking thing that came to mind.

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 2

And I was just listening to this CBC report about Furbies. And when they first came out, there was this whole theory that they were actually a device that was spying on people. The Chinese had developed it and they had built in some tr listening device. And they it was a legitimate thought and it was investigated by the CIA. It was found not to be true. But they actually had a worry for a while. This was a way to gather information. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Speaker 1

That came from the movie Gremlins, I believe.

Speaker 2

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Why did they they did they use it for that? So they did it on the air.

Speaker 1

Yeah. Because it the the gremlins was the kind of cute little thing. But then if it got wet, then it became this like ugly monster. Ugly monster. Yes.

Speaker 2

And then the beanie babies. Yeah. And uh those slap bracelets were still popular. But and then I started to remember all the pens, the gel pens, um, they suddenly appeared. And then the scratch and sniff sticks, right? Yeah. These kids just sniffing away.

Speaker 1

They had scratch the scratch and sniff movies. You'd have a card. Yeah. Right? And then the scene in the movie smell now.

Speaker 2

One I liked that I remembered, I don't know if they were here earlier than the 90s, but hacky sacks. Yes. And I even now I just I uh some people get so good at those things. I'm amazed with their feet and how they kick them up. And then yo-yos is one that to me kept coming back and back and back. And even when I taught in in I think the 2000s, people would come and do demonstrations and then sell yo-yos to the class. Great way to make money.

Speaker 1

Yes, yes, yes. All right. Uh in the 2000s, and here we are. Tech decks. Oh the number of times I saw those miniature skateboards on a desk, right? With their fingers, finger skateboards. Doing tricks and oh yes. Wonderful. Uh Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon cards.

Speaker 2

Oh, I remember my son teaching me, trying to teach me Yu-Gi-Oh! It's like the late 90s, and he's like four or five. And I really felt like the rules were changing as we spoke. Like something this was worth this many points, and that was worth that many points, and somehow, no matter what, I would not win. I would lose without fail.

Speaker 1

Uh brats, dolls, and collectible toys, kind of fashion dolls for trading and showing off and silly bands. Yeah. I remember having a little silly band loom and my daughter spending hours and putting them together.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

You know, it's like it's like someone sits down and says, okay, we've have a hundred thousand plus elastic bands. What do we do with them? Well, call them silly bands.

Speaker 2

And you know, and sometimes we say, oh, kids can't focus and concentrate nowadays. They find the right thing. They can focus just fine in many cases.

Speaker 1

And then the next thing is iPods and MP3 players.

Speaker 2

That certainly is a game changer. And then we'll just end with the the 2010s, which I think is that's not that long ago, but we're still talking, you know, 15 years ago now. Yes. Fidget spinners, which I think like a lot of things, they they had a good purpose at first to deal with kids that had to fidget and move. And it for certain students is important, but it just seemed to be too many of them, too many types, and ones that caused a lot of noise, and that was not always done with a way that I think helped anyone. Right?

Speaker 1

Well, and I I know that I we I tried to respect the student who got a fidget spinner and the story was, well, Mr. Hunt, my mother bought this for me to help me focus. Okay. So you can spin it between your fingers under your desk.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

Right? If that helps to wake you up and keep you focused, that's fine. But if you hold it above your head and spinning it and look at me, look at me, then that's not a fidget spinner anymore.

Speaker 2

I was always like that with the class. Like with even some would have to maybe have a pencil in their hand or a pen. They'd like to flip around when I was teaching or talking or reading. And I said that was fine. You could I understand some of you your hands have to be engaged, but if I hear it, you know, if you can't be dexterous enough to make that pen go through your fingers without dropping it every minute, then we have a problem. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yeah, go home and practice.

Speaker

Exactly. Exactly.

Speaker 2

Um slime was still around. And that was when I think it became really big with the internet and TikTok and people started to make it more squishies, that squish feeling. My gosh. I mean, the problem is, you know, this is the environmentalist in me. All these things that are plastic, I just see them always ending up in the landfill. And you know, 10,000 years from now, what will they think of our civilization with the things they find? Oh. And then the hydro flask bottles, like the water bottles changed. I guess the lid was different. The lid pops. Yeah. And then that was there's that percussion we talked about. Yes. And uh poppets, right? Oh, yes. More fidget toys. So I think you can kind of see the theme that was developing, I think, in some of those toys. But uh that is our rear view mirror looking back at some of those and many of those toys and weapons of mass distraction from the past. Been a lot of fun talking about weapons of mass distraction. And uh you've made something there, I can see.

Speaker 1

Yes, this is the uh eraser oracle 9000. Eraser Oracle 9000. What does this do? Well, you take an eraser, uh-huh, you put yes on one side, no on the other side, okay. Put the maybe on the side. On the sides. And on the ends, I don't know.

Speaker 2

Okay. Let's give this a try then. You got it? Okay. Wanna try this? Yes. Okay. Okay. Will we ever get paid for this podcast? Maybe. Okay. Here, let me try. I'm I'm holding the eraser oracle for 9,000. 9,000. Oh, the power. I guess.

Speaker 1

You can see why people are captivated using it in the classroom. Will Mr. Hunt give us homework? This says all. Yeah, it's a big thing. Okay, so you've got it, you ask me. So will you ever stop talking about zucchini? Okay. No. Okay.

Speaker 2

Okay, one more. You got the Oracle in your hand? I have the eraser oracle 9000. Okay, fantastic. Here you go. Will this episode ever end? Let's find out. Okay. This podcast is organic, taking shape with each episode. Building resiliency for teachers everywhere.

Speaker 1

That sounds great.

Speaker 2

And our website is stuntbrothers.ca.

Speaker 1

That's stuntbrothers.ca.

Speaker 2

We will chat again after the bell.

Head Shot

The Stunt Brothers

Host