By Violet Spader, Staff Writer
It’s time to say goodbye to one longtime classroom complaint.
“‘I didn’t hear you’ — I don’t hear that anymore,” Glenwood Elementary School kindergarten teacher Peggy Kenaga said. That’s due to the small silver microphone, decorated with purple and clear rhinestones, hanging around her neck. The microphone is part of a new classroom amplification system called LightSPEED, and now, thanks to a preventative special education grant, every Enid Public Schools kindergarten through sixth grade classroom has one. Pre-kindergarten classrooms don’t have the system because their class sizes are smaller and their work is more group-centered, said Amber Graham Fitzgerald, school and community relations director.
It’s been a big hit with both teachers and students.
“It’s like Surround Sound in the classroom,” said Marilyn Mitchell, Glenwood third-grade teacher. Mitchell especially likes the fact her students can use the second microphone that came with the system. She uses it in daily class activities, like reading lessons. The student answering a question gets to speak into the mike, amplifying his or her voice so the entire class can hear.
Sydney Chambers, who sits in the back row of Mitchell’s classroom, said she likes the system because “it’s loud enough to where we can hear.”
Kenaga incorporates the student mike into her classroom, too. The daily class leader gets to use it for leading exercises, like calendar time and counting by fives.
“I wish I could wear it all day,” one kindergarten student said.
It’s especially important for the LightSPEED system to be in elementary classrooms, said Becky Munday, speech and language pathologist with Garfield County Health Department, because younger children still are learning language skills.
“They don’t hear the same way adults do,” Munday said. She said about 30 percent of students in any given classroom have temporary hearing loss due to colds and ear infections, and since children’s brains aren’t neurologically mature enough to fill in the blanks like adult brains can, that’s a problem. Plus, Munday said, consonants are the part of spoken language that define the meanings of words, but they’re also the softest sounding and can’t be projected better just by speaking louder. If a student can’t hear the consonants, they can’t understand what their teacher is saying.
The LightSPEED system works by transmitting the teacher’s voice through infrared light to the amplifier, which plays it through loudspeakers for the class to hear. Teachers don’t have to speak louder to reach the back of their classroom. Kenaga said she’s noticed she hasn’t had to use her “loud voice” since the system has been in place.
Already, teachers have been finding additional uses for their LightSPEED equipment. Mitchell said they use it in the cafeteria to get kids’ attention more quickly. Fitzgerald said some teachers have placed the student microphones by computers while they’re using SMART Boards. She said the students can hear better, and it’s a more cost-effective solution than buying speakers.
“I feel we’re very lucky here in Enid that the school board felt this was a priority,” said Munday. “It’s very exciting.”
