Hear, and How

Racing to be first to solve a math problem, fourth-graders at Round Meadow School cocked their heads when they heard a voice in stereo praising one of them.

“You got it already, Justine?” the voice said. “That sure was fast.”

Teacher Ed Squires, who is still getting used to the speaker system in his classroom, forgot to turn off his lapel mike, and the whispered encouragement was heard by the 30 other students. The speaker system was originally installed in Squires’ classroom to help a hearing-impaired student, but he and other educators from Orange County to Ventura County are finding it to be a valuable teaching tool for all students.

Round Meadow Principal Rose Dunn said she is trying to raise enough money to install such systems in all 25 classrooms in her 675-student school, part of the Las Virgenes Unified School District.

“It’s the kind of thing that you get used to having, my voice sounding so clearly to all the students,” Squires said. “Plus, with the equipment on, I look more important.”

Squires wears a lapel microphone attached to a transmitter on his hip. Two speakers in the back of the room relay his voice to the class. His words come through just as clearly when he turns to the grease board as when he faces the kids.

Students who have been in classes with the surround-sound lectures say the lessons are better.

“We didn’t have a microphone in my class last year,” said 9-year-old Adam Berger. “But this year my class is bigger and noisier, so it’s good we have a microphone now.”

The PA systems offer hearing-impaired students more options than the old-school solution of seating them at the front of the class, and it keeps teachers from having to repeat a lesson afterward to students who did not hear it the first time, said first-grade teacher Laurie Flaherty.

“With the microphone, no matter where I move, they can hear me,” said Flaherty, who allows students to wear her microphone when they address the class.

Christina Simon, who has an additional set of speakers playing music beside her vocal speakers, said she uses her microphone to teach fifth-graders how to address a crowd.

“They now know when they speak into the mike, they have to speak clearly and concisely,” Simon said.

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Manufacturers point to studies conducted in school districts in Illinois that show “sound field amplification” systems improve test scores and give teachers greater control in the classroom.

“More air conditioners and computers and everything add more noise to the classroom environment these days,” said Bryan Van Waay of Laguna Hills-based TeachLogic Inc., which supplies systems to schools in Lake View Terrace, Los Angeles and Compton. “All the studies show a measured improvement in amplified classrooms, and the teachers find the same thing out when they use them for a little while.”

Squires, a 23-year veteran instructor, measures the system’s success by the number of bonus points he awards students for good work. In years past, students who sat near the back received fewer points, presumably because they did not hear lectures and instructions as well as those closer to the teacher.

“Students who sit at the back of the class already have more challenges,” he said. “There is a glare on the chalkboard. They might be in a difficult position to see the [film projection] screen.

But getting microphones into classrooms costs money. Dunn said she does not yet have a commitment from her school board to put the $600 systems into all the classrooms.

Some schools in small, well-funded districts in Orange County have amplified systems, as does Fenton Charter School in Lake View Terrace, which is not required to go to the Los Angeles Unified School District board for budget decisions.