By Neil Farrell
Thanks to a donation by the local Quota Club, kids at Los Osos Middle School will have a little help paying attention to their teachers.
Marlene Owens with Quota said they got a call about a 7th grade girl who is deaf at LOMS and decided to bring the program of classroom sound systems to the school, after they were installed previously in San Luis Obispo classrooms by Quota in that city.The system is essentially a small public address system, with a wireless microphone clipped to a teacher’s lapel and a small receiver/amplifier at the rear of the classroom. The sound system amplifies the teacher’s voice making it easier for all the kids to pay better attention.
Owens said they donated six systems to the school and hope to donate more in the future, with the goal of having one in every classroom.
“These are being put into classrooms everywhere,” Owens said. She called it senseless not to have them when there is one person speaking in a room of 30 kids. She added that a kid doesn’t necessarily have to have permanent hearing difficulties to need help, as sometimes children who are sick have a harder time hearing as well.
LOMS Principal, Andre Illig was very pleased to get the sound systems, which he called a “Voice Lift System.” He’s familiar with them at other schools he’s worked at. Basically, he explained, a teacher’s voice is broadcast “in stereo. Research has shown that it really helps the kids’ auditory processes.”
Their one “slightly-deaf” student has been helped tremendously by the systems. At his previous school, he said, “every classroom had it.”
“It’s good for kids in general,” he said. “It’s great to be able to hear clearly and focus on what their teacher is saying. And it saves the teacher’s voice.”
They placed the six systems in bigger classrooms at the school and would love to have a lot more of them. “We put the question to our 6th grade team, how many did they want?” he said. “They all wanted it.” But they are expensive and without the Quota Club’s donation, “we wouldn’t have this.”
He took a reporter to the 7th grade science classroom of Pam Rickard, who was teaching a lesson on hydrogen fuel cells. Upon entering the room and walking to the back, it was clear that her words were very easy to hear and the kids seemed to pay better attention. The system itself is pretty nondescript and takes up just a small space on a table at the rear of the classroom.
Illig had her turn the microphone off and the difference was very noticeable.
