Monday, January 09, 2012

Teachers Have Sensory Needs Too

Being an Avoider does not stop at childhood.  These sensory processing patterns tend to stay with us throughout life.  Hopefully the more we understand our sensory selves, the more we can develop strategies to help us navigate through life.

Having grown up in a large family, I am used to a significant amount of auditory chaos.  I can generally tolerate a noisy working environment.  This suits me in my current job as I work with students in a variety of natural environments: classrooms, loud cafeterias, boisterous playgrounds and gyms with poor acoustics.  Each classroom has different noise levels.  I think this reflects the range of tolerance individual teachers have for sound.  If a teacher is an Avoider, the classroom is probably more structured and quiet.  If a teacher is not bothered by noise, the sounds of students working and playing are more noticeable.

The TooLoud! app is ideal for the teacher who needs to limit noise in the classroom environment.  It records decibels, displaying the volume levels in numbers.  Use it to let the class know when they cross the auditory line.  Hook your iPad up to the projector and manage the working noise level in class by letting the students see the feedback for themselves.  The data is also visualized in a live graph and in a sliding bar that indicates the rising levels of clamor and babble.  Watch out for the red zone...time to bring the level down!

14 comments:

  1. Ok how do you hook up an I pad to a projector?

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  2. You need to buy this Apple VGA Adapter, Christine. Good luck!
    http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC552ZM/B/apple-vga-adapter

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  3. Can this be used through the smart board in the classroom?

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  4. Is there something like this for a pc?

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    1. This sounds like a BRILLIANT idea. I have a house full of sensory seekers who only have three volumes...loud, louder, and loudest! They swear they aren't screaming, but my ears *hurt*.

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  6. Sheila, I don't have experience with smart boards, but it sounds like a great way to display this for a class. Justin, I have not come across a program like this on a PC. This link may help http://www.ehow.com/how_5978382_use-pc-db-meter.html @School System OT...the dinner table idea would be a hoot. I should have tried it this Thanksgiving!

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  7. Sheila: We are projecting our iPads to our smart boards (Promethean) using an apple tv and a Kanex ATVPRO AirPlay Mirroring for VGA Projector cable. HDMI out of the apple tv to the Kanex dongle, then VGA to either the doc cam or directly to the projector. The Kanex also has a sound port for speakers. You can get one on Amazon for about $40. $60 from Kanex, Apple. You can search around for a discount deal on the Kanex. There are others that cost less. There is also a dongle that will go directly from the iPad HDMI to VGA and then to the doc cam but then you are tethered to the machine. The apple TV allows you to do wireless. The newest iPads have a different connector. The iPad 2 and 3 use the Kanex dongle.

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  8. Hey this is cool also. I found a sound meter and show the student what kind of voice level we could use when we are in the library. this was good for all of us. Minus the noise around us (the music class)

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  9. You can always just put your iPhone under a Document Camera then post it on the Promethean/Smart Board.

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  10. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kr.sira.sound

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  11. Is there an app for Android phones?

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