Can you hear me now?
Students in the Washington Township School District will hear their lessons loud and clear over a new classroom voice amplification system this year.
The district made use of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act federal grant funding to purchase multiple wireless audio systems called Redcat that amplify a teacher’s voice in a classroom for students.
According to Mike Rolen, assistant superintendent for student and special education services, the Redcat audio systems will be installed in primary school classrooms around the start of October.
The district ordered 20 Redcat units that will be put to use at the Grenloch Terrace Early Childhood Center for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students and for students at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School. The entire project cost the district about $16,000 in grant funding.
To use the system, Redcat is installed at a central location in the classroom, and teachers wear a microphone around their necks. They speak normal tones to be heard without straining their voice, which, Rolen said, is one of the greatest benefits to using the classroom amplification tool.
Rolen, who began working at the district in June, previously worked at the Manassas Park School District in Manassas, Va., as the director of special education.
During his time as an educator in Manassas, Rolen helped to implement and use the Redcat audio system in the school.
After gaining experience with Redcat, Rolen felt the technology was worth the investment and noted its value in language arts subject areas, such as phonics and pronunciation.
After speaking with teachers who used the audio system, Rolen also found it helped to filter out background noise in the classroom and keep students’ attention focused on the lesson.
“We really had a lot of success with it. It not only helped the students pay more attention, but teachers told us that their discipline problems were reduced and kids could focus on picking up sounds,” Rolen said.
The district chose Grenloch Terrace Early Childhood Center and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School to benefit from the funding in order to intervene with the educational process at an early age.
At Jefferson, students in the first and third grades will receive instruction over the Redcat systems.
He hopes the system may prevent some special education referrals down the line, and he plans to evaluate the scores of third- graders this year on the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge Test.
The audio systems, directed at the general student population and special education students, is intended to be used as an early intervention technology tool. About 400 students between the two schools will benefit from Redcat.
Depending on how successful the Redcat units are in the schools, and if grant funding becomes available in the future, Rolen said the district may consider installing more Redcat systems in classrooms.
“I feel good about it. In my previous district we had success with it and were very interested in increasing the number of units in those schools,” he said.
Redcat developer Lightspeed Technologies released the technology product to educational institutions in the fall of 2007.
Lightspeed Technologies marketing communications director Bruce Bebb said the device uses infrared technology rather than radio frequencies to transmit the sound. Teachers can plug audio sources into the system for lessons including CD players, televisions, streaming online video, laptops and iPods
Bebb thinks the system helps students in all subject areas and particularly language arts and spelling.
“In lower elementary levels where phonics is taught and word sounds are critical to language acquisition, students are able to do much better simply because they can hear the lessons clearly,” Bebb said.
The district made use of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act federal grant funding to purchase multiple wireless audio systems called Redcat that amplify a teacher’s voice in a classroom for students.
According to Mike Rolen, assistant superintendent for student and special education services, the Redcat audio systems will be installed in primary school classrooms around the start of October.
The district ordered 20 Redcat units that will be put to use at the Grenloch Terrace Early Childhood Center for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students and for students at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School. The entire project cost the district about $16,000 in grant funding.
To use the system, Redcat is installed at a central location in the classroom, and teachers wear a microphone around their necks. They speak normal tones to be heard without straining their voice, which, Rolen said, is one of the greatest benefits to using the classroom amplification tool.
Rolen, who began working at the district in June, previously worked at the Manassas Park School District in Manassas, Va., as the director of special education.
During his time as an educator in Manassas, Rolen helped to implement and use the Redcat audio system in the school.
After gaining experience with Redcat, Rolen felt the technology was worth the investment and noted its value in language arts subject areas, such as phonics and pronunciation.
After speaking with teachers who used the audio system, Rolen also found it helped to filter out background noise in the classroom and keep students’ attention focused on the lesson.
“We really had a lot of success with it. It not only helped the students pay more attention, but teachers told us that their discipline problems were reduced and kids could focus on picking up sounds,” Rolen said.
The district chose Grenloch Terrace Early Childhood Center and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School to benefit from the funding in order to intervene with the educational process at an early age.
At Jefferson, students in the first and third grades will receive instruction over the Redcat systems.
He hopes the system may prevent some special education referrals down the line, and he plans to evaluate the scores of third- graders this year on the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge Test.
The audio systems, directed at the general student population and special education students, is intended to be used as an early intervention technology tool. About 400 students between the two schools will benefit from Redcat.
Depending on how successful the Redcat units are in the schools, and if grant funding becomes available in the future, Rolen said the district may consider installing more Redcat systems in classrooms.
“I feel good about it. In my previous district we had success with it and were very interested in increasing the number of units in those schools,” he said.
Redcat developer Lightspeed Technologies released the technology product to educational institutions in the fall of 2007.
Lightspeed Technologies marketing communications director Bruce Bebb said the device uses infrared technology rather than radio frequencies to transmit the sound. Teachers can plug audio sources into the system for lessons including CD players, televisions, streaming online video, laptops and iPods
Bebb thinks the system helps students in all subject areas and particularly language arts and spelling.
“In lower elementary levels where phonics is taught and word sounds are critical to language acquisition, students are able to do much better simply because they can hear the lessons clearly,” Bebb said.
