Maybe this belongs in some FAQ section, but some people here constantly refer to “sticky balls,” often pejoratively. What are they, and why do they get the rep that they do?
from rice dumpling day to barbecued chicken ass day Taiwan is a hot sweaty mess. a lot of newbs come here and forget to buy talc, go cheap on the aircon, and the bag cheese they produce is quite impressive, but more importantly they walk around all day with their balls sticking to the side of their leg (if they sport boxers) or their undies (if they rock briefs). Hence they have sticky balls.
And to play games with them…just horrible.
The other posters are just messing with you. It’s a toy used in class.
Just go to Google image search and search for “sticky ball”. Don’t search for “sticky balls” unless the prospect somehow seems strangely exciting.
You need to get to a clinic ASAP!
When a new batch of sticky balls comes in it is like the pellet hatch has opened up and the teachers jump readily for their new equipment. At your cheaper end of the market are ones that either don’t stick to the board (defeating their purpose) or the little spores come off if you yank the ball too hard from the whiteboard. But a decent sticky ball, top of the range 70 nt stuff, that you can whang around with no fear of destruction, well that’s the golden sticky ball and you’d rip the ball sack off any man who tried to steal it from ya.
Second only to sticky ball is squeaky hammer. When the hammer falls you have to produce the sentence. Or BANG repeated smacks on the noggin to the delight of the other children.
Holy crap! I have sticky balls and I never even knew! All this time, and I didn’t even know. My kid tries to shove his ones up the dog’s arse. I sincerely hope he’s not doing this in school. We might need to have a meeting.
sticky balls=life saver/ life support
I haven’t used a sticky ball once in 11 years of teaching EFL. I’ve only ever seen lazy/atrocious teachers use them.
They can be used by highly effective teachers to motivate flagging 9 year olds at 9:00 at night. Depends very much on the job.
I just recently retired my trusty sticky ball that I used for about 4 years. It was handed down to me, so I don’t actually know how old it was. It only had like 4 or 5 suction cups left on it, it would just bounce right off the whiteboard and we would just estimate about where it hit.
They can be used by highly effective teachers to motivate flagging 9 year olds at 9:00 at night. Depends very much on the job.[/quote]
I have to agree with jimi here. I’ve never seen a good teacher needing to use sticky balls to motivate students.
They can be used by highly effective teachers to motivate flagging 9 year olds at 9:00 at night. Depends very much on the job.[/quote]
I have to agree with jimi here. I’ve never seen a good teacher needing to use sticky balls to motivate students.[/quote]
Hey, are only good teachers allowed to post on here? 
They can be used by highly effective teachers to motivate flagging 9 year olds at 9:00 at night. Depends very much on the job.[/quote]
I have to agree with jimi here. I’ve never seen a good teacher needing to use sticky balls to motivate students.[/quote]
OK, so I was not a good teacher then. I’ll go amend my C.V. now. 
They can be used by highly effective teachers to motivate flagging 9 year olds at 9:00 at night. Depends very much on the job.[/quote]
I have to agree with jimi here. I’ve never seen a good teacher needing to use sticky balls to motivate students.[/quote]
OK, so I was not a good teacher then. I’ll go amend my C.V. now. [/quote]
I never said you were a bad teacher. I’m simply saying that the teachers I have personally seen using sticky balls are always the ones who couldn’t teach their way out of a paper bag. Some even used to brag about what a great “time killer” it was. These were also the teachers who needed to resort to playing a lot of games, giving stickers and candy every class, etc. They were always amazed that the kids liked me even though I did none of those things.
Thing with sticky balls is that there’s always some tit named Jacky or Andy who wants to show off and blast the thing at the whiteboard. And the girls hardly ever win. And it makes the class raucous. And it eats up time.
Unless eating up time and making overtired elementary scholars hyperactive is your aim, I don’t, quite frankly, see the point.
After 8 to 10 hours at school and then straight into buxiban I would feel very sorry for those kids. Recognising this and playing the odd game where they get to break out of their chair, run around and whang a ball while doing sentence drills is the sign of a teacher who knows his audience. For me, anything those kids pick up after 7pm at night is simply amazing. Plus there is as much safety and pedestrianism in a structured and silent environment as there is in the total chaos of a sticky ball fight. Kids need a bit of both.
Besides, the sticky ball is just a tool. Some good teachers use them, some bad teachers don’t.
I was told to use them/play a game every hour. I don’t like it very much though. It gets the kids all noisy and too hyper.
I achieve the most teaching progress with quiet, calm and disciplined students.
A lot of excitement is well perceived with the management and makes a teacher look good.
However, if you teach younger kids at late hours, you’ll better get them moving a little bit. The legs have the biggest muscles which support the blood circulation.
Activating these muscles will make their blood pressure rise and wake them up.
[quote=“jimipresley”]Thing with sticky balls is that there’s always some tit named Jacky or Andy who wants to show off and blast the thing at the whiteboard. And the girls hardly ever win. And it makes the class raucous. And it eats up time.
Unless eating up time and making overtired elementary scholars hyperactive is your aim, I don’t, quite frankly, see the point.[/quote]
Jim knows allot about sticky balls despite never using them.