I got the thumbs up from, yeah, that guy, well, first, it's busted pencils fully
let it education talk educated educators talking education and that thumbs up came from nobody
other than the producer Jacob and you know what? It's producer's choice, but I'm Dr. Tim
Slicker. Dr. Johnny Lon, John, John, John, John, I'm the chapter now. Dr. Johnny Lupinati is here
and yes, of course, Jacob, the chairman of the board is here because this is probably our favorite
day of the week because Johnny, you and I get to sit back and we get to be guests on our own show,
Jacob, how are you doing, our friend? I'm doing good. And Tim, I got to say, Johnny's a hockey coach
and a doctor, the jockler might make sense. Right? We might be able to work that in somewhere.
Down the line. I'm not going to lie. I got excited. I'm chairman of the board. He's the jockler.
Tim, we just need to get you a catchy nickname for the t-shirt and then we'll be set.
And when we do our next live show, we have to have wrestling at it. Obviously. Obviously,
yes. Obviously. You know, I perfected the triple suplex in my day. We'll save that for the show
Tim because they might that might help you later. I don't want to spoil anything,
but it might help you later. And without further ado, let's do the producer's choice intro for
Choo Choo producer. Jacob's choice chairman of the board. You and I will have two choices.
Chairman of the board, Jacob. Jacob chairman of the board.
I bet the board is spelled B-O-R-E-D. We choose to go to the moon. Life's full of tough choices.
I hope you guys are ready for this one because it's been a long time coming.
Okay. I've been planning this one for some time now. And it's finally coming to fruition.
Now, you guys are teachers. Am I am I right about that? Absolutely.
And do you guys know a little something about punctuation?
So I'm going to tell you a bit about a punctuation based internet meme that you may have seen
before. I'm just going to read it to you and then you can tell me if you understand this funny meme.
It says, let's eat grandma and says punctuation saves lives because depending on where you put
that comma, you're either eating grandma or you're inviting grandma to have something to eat.
Does that make sense? Yeah. And I think punctuation is important for this show too because today,
we're going to move some of the punctuation in the producer's choice show.
We're going to move it over just one spot because today we're having multiple producers
present questions for you guys. It's the producer's apostrophe show.
Does that make sense? Nice. So we've got questions from some of the fans favorite former
busted pencils producers for you guys. And I'm glad you could be here. Obviously,
the booking was tough to get you both here, but it worked out and we got the producers and it should
be a lot of fun. So we're going to lead off with a question from a former busted pencils producer.
Hey, Dr. Tim, Dr. Johnny, longtime producer, first time caller here, Luke Mathers,
really appreciate the work that you guys do on busted pencils. And I got to know,
what is your back to school routine? What is the thing? You got to hang up now that summer is over
and class is about to be back in session. I and I think the listeners would love to know.
So to tell you and show you how long this is taken, I got Luke to do that a month ago.
When class was just getting back into session, but I think the topic still stands. Can you tell us
about some of your favorite, a coach or mall for your classroom, Tim?
Back to school routine regimen, things that are there. Well, I mean, the first thing,
though, to actually get ready for back to school is the night before preparation of getting ready
for back to school. And that would include the ironing board. Oh, because I have spent the entire
summer not using anything like an iron or an ironing board. T-shirts, shorts, underwear, socks,
no need for that type of preparation. But you know, here we go, coming into it. So yeah,
it put that together though that that means, you know, essentially taking an assessment of the
quote, back to school clothes. I actually don't do a back to schools shopping because that takes
while I do the, what do I got from last year that I can put back in service with an iron
and an ironing board that'll get me through so that I can be ready for that first day. And now
there were a month in that entire first month. So that's part of my routine if that's what Luke
was asking about in really getting ready. And you know, the other part is that I believe this
and I try to go to bed early. I do, but I'll admit this though, it's kind of like trying to go
to bed early on Christmas when you're eight. It doesn't work out so well because
I'm sitting there thinking I'm excited Jacob. It's especially a bad idea because no matter how long
you stay up the night before school starts, Santa doesn't come. So it's just, it's a bad idea.
So I believe that that's, you know, I'm going to say, I can't wait there with Johnny Lupinacci's
got to say about this. Johnny, the job's coming in hot. You know, I'll keep it pretty,
pretty short on this one. I am a person of, of routine. And also maybe some may say
superstition or compulsion like it's, I like to keep a real good in season and off season routine.
And so the end of the off season is right. Baldwin school starts up probably when Luke asked
us that question. And that is when I, I guess my part of my regiment is I get out the
dress clothes, make sure they're all hung up in the order that they need to be in for which dress
shirts go on which day, you know, get the suits out, send them, take them to the cleaners, make
sure that they're all, you know, fresh and ready to go, make sure like each pair of shoe color
coordinated with the ties and the shirts are all. So I kind of, I redo my closet, redo my bedroom,
and I get ready for the season because the season is a marathon. It's a grind and
organization is everything. The other thing I do is I stock, I make sure my tools of the trade
are topped off, right? And so as a teacher, those are the supplies that I know I'm going to need
to do my job at its best. And my favorite supply to make sure I'm stocked up on are Sharpie markers,
our good writing pens, and our dry erase markers, the X-Pose, so that I can do some really cool
artwork on the board. I look forward to that every year. So like Tim, a kid on Christmas Eve,
not quite for me, but I get excited about being in the classroom, being able to put all those
big sort of lecture notes up on the board and play art before I teach and run through those in
class. So yeah, I get excited about tools of the trade and my routine going from off season to
end season. So for the people who are just listening, they, they who aren't watching our video feed,
Johnny was actually able to grab a Sharpie marker and some dry erase markers. Now my question,
Johnny, is did we just get super lucky that you have those or if you had like a turkey leg and
some mashed potatoes, would you have held that up and said, and over a year, I get my mashed potatoes
ready for the new class year? Well, Jacob, I'm at the workstation. And yeah,
always have to have tools of the trade in multiple places where you will need them. They need to be
in your desk, on your desk, and it'd be in your backpack. If you have more than one backpack,
you have to have ample supply in each backpack. You also have to have some at home, some in the car,
some at the classroom you're going to. And that way, you're never caught without any of the tools
of the trade. Boom, I held them all up. I'll have to send you some fun pictures. Maybe you can
throw in there too. It's a joke around the college that why he always got three or four dry
erase markers like between his knuckles. Like I have to have multiple colors and I have this whole
theatrics of teaching thing I do. Jacob, I might have to send you a video because I'm ambidextrous
on the board. And I do all this crazy math teacher stuff, even though I'm not teaching math,
it's always a little bit of a show to put the board notes up in multiple colors. And
you know, everything's off if you're not ready. So always have your tools of the trade at your
disposal at literally less than arm's length. So you're not just the jockter. What I'm getting here
with this cool marker hand thing, you're also kind of like the doctrine with all these claws you've
got popping out there, which is very important. The marker, the marker mark up like like Wolverine
ask, but it's markers instead. You know, when I was a high school math teacher last one, my favorite
back to school thing ever was I wore, I would sometimes wear like a lab coat and sewn into the line
of a couple of my suit jackets and my lab coat was a TI85 calculator on a track. So I could go
and I looked my arm out forward like a karate chop and a calculator. I would say,
stand back and I chop and boom, the calculator would slide out of my sleeve and kids,
you know, a couple of times thought it was cool. I thought it was cool every time I did it.
But you know, it was more of a back to school fun thing for me every year and kids kind of
thought it was a bit over the top is I think what they told me, but hey, I have fun in class.
Boy, doing a little bit of a Robert De Niro. Yes, that's where I learned it.
I would say when I was early on in my teaching, I, I, you know, I fabricated that and I would say,
you're talking to me. Crack your calculator. Crack your leg. Get it out.
Did you use the the drawer rail just like Robert De Niro did exactly what I used.
That's what I used. I took, I took a part of drawer. I used the drawer rail and that,
that was to what keep it from flying completely off when you, the early prototypes, you know,
didn't have a stopper on them and you flick it and hope, hope you catch it and it didn't work.
It just kind of flying every time. So we had to put a stopper in and, you know, and, and, and slightly
alter, you know, the sleeve of the suit jacket. So it was a little awkwardly large to, you know,
not impede the forward motion. I mean, you could not do that today. Why? Oh, man. I didn't,
I didn't ever like aim at kids and pretend it was. I mean,
Johnny never, he never aimed a calculator at a kid, you know, just to be on the record.
Well, it was like a robot, like a robot move, like now boom, you never aim a calculator
at anybody. You have to assume it could be loaded. You don't want any accidents with that
calculator. That's right. There could be numbers punched in already. Quadriotic equation solved.
We're a non-violent show guys, but we could admit that time that Robert De Niro had that
cool thing in his sleeve. That's awesome. I think we can all agree on that.
Regardless of where you come from, I bought in, I bought in all the way on it, clearly,
apparently so. So that's one producer, Luke Mathers. Do you have any nice words about Luke?
He's my boss and he told me to tell you to say good things. So please, he's our day, he's my day one.
Yeah, man. He was the producer that I first had. Way back, was it mad radio, Tim?
Yeah, man. This is pre-static media days by by a few years. And Luke spent many
of COVID days with us, you know, cutting tracks, developing clips. Man, I still love every chance we
get to chop it up with Luke. He'll say, my doctors, and I get a big giant smile on my face. Love
your Luke. Guys, a beauty. Yeah, those were the times. Like I said, it was truly what they'd say,
a mom and pop radio station. And yeah, Luke was, Luke was there, man, and thank goodness because
Johnny, we, we truly were at that point only able to talk.
He's the idea of being radio hosts and knowing that and Luke was just there to really just,
you know, help us and steer us and, hey, Luke Mathers, man, we love your brother.
Luke's great, but he's not the only producer you guys have had over the years. In fact,
there's more. So let's keep working down the chronology here to our second producer question.
Hey, Dr. Tim. Hey, Dr. Johnny. Hey, producer Jacob. It's a pencil busted from your past producer
Jess here. I miss talking education with you educated educators. And I've been busy giving
some education myself, as of myself, who's returned to leaving a classroom after a year away.
Now he and I have been having some long talks about technology in the classroom. And I'm looking
for your input. His new high school has a quote bell to bell phone policy, meaning the expectation
that phones are not in student's possessions, even in a locker or backpack from first to last
bell of the school day. In my own classroom, teaching seventh graders on the weekends,
I have a more relaxed phone policy. I allow students to use their phones during designated
breaks. And if those phones come out at any other times, the phones take a vacation to a box
on my desk until the end of class. My question for you too. What is your ideal school phone policy?
And how do you propose enforcing it? Really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.
Until next time pencil busters. Nice. I'm going to let Johnny lead off on this one.
Oh my gosh. I thought I was going to go to him. Just asked multiple part questions.
Yes, he did. That are extremely situational and contextual, which is why she was
an amazing, amazing producer and just listening to that question, you listeners,
you know, that Jess is also an amazing educator. So truly, you know, always, always happy to have
educated educators talking education here on busted pencils. I have to say, for me,
the ideal phone policy, I love what Jess is doing. And that's what I would do too in the context where,
you know, she has great relationships with her students, you know, it's one where
it's probably maybe a smaller scale than the full school or the full district. So a little
easier to enforce. And like most great education, I think Jess is successful with that in her
classroom because of the relationship she has with their students. She's empathetic, but she's
firm. She's disciplinary, but she's not punishing. So any policy should be those things carried out
by a leader who's empathetic and firm, disciplinary and not punishing and has established a trusting
relationship with the students. So does that mean students get mad if their phone goes into the
box on Jess's desk? No, they probably have big, big emotions about it. Are there a little bummed
or they might even say, Oh, man, why aren't you being cool, right? And Jess gives them the lecture
about like, cool. Well, this is actually pretty cool in my world, right? If, if you're an old
timer like me, but, but I will say that this is going to maybe be surprising listener and Jess
may not be surprised because we talked a little bit about how sometimes over to the course
of my teaching career, I learned that a unified policy, even if it didn't match exactly my teaching
style, benefited everyone. And I will say at first, when I heard about these bell to bell policies,
I thought, Oh, man, I've been in schools. All you're going to be doing is chasing kids around
trying to get their phones away. But yet, here I am surprised having talked to a number of
teachers and students in many of the districts around our country who have these policies,
who say, giant's not really that big of a deal. Like we still use technology and classrooms. And
you know, it's kind of nice to be on a break and talking to our classmates and seeing each other
in the hallway. And of course, I underestimate our young people. And the curmudgeon in me was like,
you know, they're on their phones all the time. That's a problem. But actually,
they've been quite embracing of this. And of course, they still get upset when the phones get
taken away or they get reminded, you know, don't bring your phone to school or, you know,
put it in your locker or we're keep it, you know, in your car, if you drive yourself to school
in your student or leave it at home. So I'm a big fan of these policies shockingly because
very seldom do I like like control of kids. But I think again, when teachers carry it out
empathetically with firm reminders like, hey, we don't do phones, bell to bell, remember, hey,
put that phone in the box, right? Those kinds of things, we get to be disciplinary without punishing
and we get to see kids talking to other kids, make it eye contact, you know, with their teachers
and with the other staff in their building. And being kids, which is I know I sound like
an old timer, but man, if there's one thing I tell every young person is sort of like Billy
Madison, you don't want to go to the fifth grade like stay, stay young forever. Right? But no,
really be a kid. And part of being a kid is having relationships with your friends that aren't 24
seven, you know, multi-layered connections. You can do that after school. You can do that in,
you know, sneak it, you know, you got to give the kids something to sneak Jacob. You asked us
about teenage rebellion, a couple of producer choices ago, right? Shout out Terry Barr wrote an
article about it. We love that. But no, giving something to rebel with, you know, sneak in their
phones, but also invite them to the opportunity of human to human connection. And that's what I've
been seeing. So that's my long version. Kick it to you, Tim. Whoa, sending it over from the joxster.
Whoa, you guys think I'm ever letting that name go. He's keeping it. Oh, um,
well, yeah, Jess, leave it to Jess to put, you know, some complexity into the question,
you know, kind of pushing us to explore some some ideas there, you know, hey, is it good? Is it
bad? I might, I have an evolution on this. And I think there was a show where they kind of revealed
this where I'm actually okay and and supportive of, um, bell to bell, no phones. Um, I just am.
Um, I didn't, you know, ask me that a year and a half ago, maybe, maybe not, you know, would have
been like, well, you know, it's good. Um, you know, the, the fact that they have this, you know,
incredibly powerful computer in their hands, it could be a companion to their learning,
who are we to cut access off to that. But, um, you know, the reality is is that, um, the phone,
particularly the smart phone, it, it, the ability for students to get pulled away,
John, you say socialization, the isolation that a phone creates because you have it,
whether it's to scroll, whether it's to get on the social media, whether it's to be, you know,
texting with, you know, your neighbor or, you know, even your parents or other family members,
what's going on, it, it just totally really doesn't have to me a place where somebody can say,
but it's essential to the learning atmosphere environment and social situations that we want to
see. It's, it's just not essential at all. And so if it's not essential, then we don't need it.
That doesn't mean that it's a curmudgeon anti technology statement by saying this. It is,
to me, truly of, of saying it doesn't, it creates more pain and more problems than it actually
for anybody who could say, but it does, no, I don't care, but it does. Now, if you wanted to talk about
technology, if we could say, um, and here's what I put in there, give them a device that only has
access to, and in today's world, some form of an AI enhanced technological advice,
different story, totally different story, but phones, there's really no, there's nothing you can
say to me that says it's an, it's an essential, it's, it's, you know, punishing students for,
for things it's taking away their ability to communicate. And I would say actually it enhances
their ability to communicate and puts back in place something that, you know, more and more
kids need, which is the social, you know, the social contacts that, that schooling typically provides
that has really gone away because while you're socially present in a, in an environment with,
with others, the reality that the isolation, in fact, even think about that, that you can be surrounded
by people, but yet be isolated because that phone creates like a sphere of isolation around you.
Um, there's, there's nothing good that, that can be put forward as to saying, well, here's an
exception to the belt, a bell rule. So Jess, yeah, I'm sorry, I don't care how responsible you are
and how they are on this one, it's a policy decision that I as a leader would be carrying out.
Okay, so I've got two things to say about this. Number one, Johnny was on his phone during that
segment. So I'm just, I think he should know I was, I was, that's why I was, I was, I'm texting back
my players. I was telling them, hey, guys, I got a new nickname. It's the jockster.
And, and my second comment for you, Tim, is that if we had Fred Flintstone here on this show,
we know he'd say, yeah, but dabba do. Okay, can we agree on that? Yeah, yeah.
And if we had Hulk Hogan on the show, we know he'd talk about Hulk Emania or say something
racist, but we can be pretty sure it's one of those two things. Yeah, he's consistent.
And I knew from the second this story started, it was going to end with, but if there's an AI on
that phone, I think it's okay. No, no, I didn't say that. I didn't say on that phone. I said,
on a device that phone like device that only talks to artificial people, I think that's probably
okay. And curveball, actually, some of the students I talked to you, a few of them now have,
you know, also smiled a little bit and said, it's just nice because when I used to bring my
phone to school, my parents would text me all day long. So parents, if you're out there,
don't text your kid during school, right? As each of that used to drive me nuts. Like,
you need a break from them. They need a break from you. They're with us. They're safe.
Well, our legislators could do more to ensure they're safety. But hey, Jacob, man,
it was so nice to hear Jessica's voice, beloved producer, and really co-host of our show,
of many of our shows. So big ups to Jess out there, continuing her education. And obviously as
we heard, continuing to teach. So much love to you, Jess. And there's one more producer I want to
get to who I think we all, we all love this guy. It's me. I'm going to have a question here
for you guys. And it's going to be our 60 second question of the day. So don't worry. You don't
have to think too much about it. But let's go. Fellas, I'm going to start with you, Dr. Tim Slucker.
So don't try to get away from me on this. All right. I know we say all the time that we can't do
this show without the fans. And that's true to an extent. But you know who we really can't do
this show without our wonderful producers, folks? Let's give credit to those guys. So Tim, if you want
to say something about your producers, please, you've got 60 seconds or more if it's about me.
Wow. Jacob, actually, you nailed it right there is is that there is no busted pencil show
without producers and the different talents that they bring in and elevating the show,
pushing us to do more, supporting us in ways that is just truly to say it's like to have now,
what is it? You know, since 20, 19, actually, Johnny, right, six, seven years of doing this show,
three different producers, you know, an assortment of, you know, substitute producers that have been
available here is that without all of you, there really is in busted pencils. There's just two
guys who talk a lot of nonsense. And you know, you guys bring something different and each of you,
so with Luke and Jess and now Jacob, actually, too, with you, you have brought to this show
a whole new experience for the listener in the way that and just framing bringing up this
producer's choice and, you know, the organizing of also bringing on guests and putting together
some of the prep work, but your creativity in realizing what it is that we're doing here has added
a depth to the show that it didn't have. So there you go, Jacob. I'm tempted to end on that because,
I mean, really, who could disagree with those remarks, but Johnny, I want to give you a chance,
I want to talk about the value of producers and the great experiences you've had with them over
the years. Absolutely. Everyone who's ever produced us has been phenomenal. And like Tim said,
we had, you know, substitute, we had people training on our show that got moved to other shows.
We've just had an amazing group of people. And like I said, for me, I have to big give big ups to
my day one producer, Luke Mathers, because I think he has a hand in getting those great producers
to our show, Jacob of which you have filled those mighty big shoes that Jess and Anya and before
that Luke really did just an amazing job with Unreal. Love it. Oh, yeah, Aeron. We got Aeron was
there, man, and Sam, we've had them a few times. So big ups to all of those cats who have been
amazing listeners. Tim and I would not know what to do, right? Or how to structure into the small
amount of time that we have with you listeners, any semblance of, you know, thoughtful conversation,
we would just be rambling back and forth with each other. So it's truly the efforts of all these
producers. If you like the show, then you love the producers. So thank you, Jacob, for producer
choice today. Yeah. So Johnny, thank you for coming on your own show. Dr. Tim Selecker, thank you
for coming on your own show. I always love having you guys here with me. In a way, I was on my own
show on your own show today, which was kind of weird. Producer, section you might even call
yes. But thanks for tuning in for the producers apostrophe show today. And I want to thank my
predecessor producers as well, because if they didn't do such a great job keeping this show going
with you guys, I'd never have gotten to work with you guys. So I'm very grateful of them. But
Tim, I think there's one more thing we have to do today. Yeah, it is time for your moment of zin.
We don't have to engage in grand heroic actions to participate in the process of change.
Small acts when multiplied by millions of people can transform the world.
This is the joctored Johnny Lupinachi here to say thank you for listening to today's episode of
producers choice. We got to hear from some lovely producers of the past doing amazing things
in the present. And remember, you could grab great podcasts, jam packed full with more
busted pencils content on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and of course, on the civic media website,
or on busted pencils.com where you can head on over follow like review. Do however it is you do,
just be a fan and a follower and pencil buster with us. And don't you dare be late for a home
room on Monday and be sure to grab next week's class and session on Wednesday. And if you don't
already know, well, then you're going to love this one. You can catch busted pencils broadcast
at three p.m. Central time across every civic media network station for one hour of your favorite
blue collar scholars. Tim and Johnny and keep busted pencils.