Inservicing the teachers on the FM system

So I went into Chance's school with two consultants from The School for the Deaf to give an in service to the teachers that work with Chance and the other little boy at the school who uses an implant to hear.

It was just an awareness sort of thing to let the teachers know simple things that can be done that make a big difference to kids who wear implants.  For example,  not talking  into the white board when writing on it, but instead facing the class when giving instruction.  Or when kids answer questions, having the teacher repeat what was said such as,"Jimmy said conifers are trees that don't shed their leaves in the fall."  These steps are especially important right now since many classrooms in Chance's school are large and combined, as the school is waiting for dividers to be put in.  Clarifying who just said what is a great help to implant users who may not hear a child from the back of the room.

I told the teachers about the FM system and showed them how it works and demonstrated how the microphone piece would be worn as they will be wearing a headset.  The teachers were very helpful and when I opened it up for questions, I was impressed with their concern about what they could do to make sure the kids were getting what they needed. For example, the chorus teacher asked about music and implants.  I told him that it usually takes kids with implants longer to learn the words and tune to a song and so he asked if it would help if he sent the songs home that they would be working on.  I told him that would be very helpful and today he sent me an email listing the songs they would be working on for the next bit and the words.  I am very grateful for that.

I told the teachers that they did not need to be afraid to teach these boys, that they had been in school for several years in regular classrooms and just taking a few steps would make all of the difference.  I also told them that we as parents were more than willing to talk to teachers about questions or work with them to solve any problems that may arise.  I feel good about the meeting and feel that the teachers want to help these kids with implants succeed.

So after the afternoon meeting with the teachers, I went home and Chance and I went over the FM system and how Chance would give the headset to each teacher and told him he would need to remember to get the headset from each teacher as he moved from class to class.  Then the next morning, I went to Chance's first class with him to help him get comfortable with the FM system and to make sure that it worked like it should.  It actually didn't work like it should much to my consternation.  I ended up taking it home and finally realized that one part of it was not charged all of the way.  This little FM system needs LOTS AND LOTS  of time to charge we have realized.  It needs to charge all night and then some so we have to get Chance in the habit of putting it right onto the charger as soon as he gets home from school.

The next day I headed back to the school and helped Chance set up the system and he  said that it is helping him to hear better in class.  Except P.E.  First of all, it is hard to run around while wearing the equivilant to a wide cell phone hooked onto your pants, and number two, the gym is just one huge spot for noise to bounce up down around and through. I don't think the FM system would do much good in there.  But Chance is used to PE class, he watches the other kids and the teachers try to make sure they give instrucions on how to play games etc. before all of the kids are running around the gym making all kinds of noise with both their voices and their bodies:)