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July 11, 2018March 10, 2020

How Teachers Can Combat Student Stress

How Teachers Can Combat Student Stress

Teachers know that their profession can be rewarding and life-changing. They also understand the big impact that they can have on their students. Their job is to educate the future presidents, CEOs, and doctors of the world; to prepare the students of today so they can become the successful adults of tomorrow. Students are constantly under stress with the normal difficulties of growing up, doing homework for multiple classes, studying for tests, and preparing for college, in addition to any problems they may have at home. Childhood and adolescence can be a hectic stage of life, and students are unlikely to succeed if there is a negative classroom climate. Continue reading “How Teachers Can Combat Student Stress”

July 11, 2018March 10, 2020

Engaging Students in Reading

Engaging Students in Reading

The month of April is not only National Poetry Month, but also contains Library Week, International Children’s Book Day, Young Writer’s Day, and Drop Everything and Read Day. Teachers are constantly trying to get their students to improve their reading levels and to develop a love for reading, but sometimes it can be more difficult than just choosing a book to read as a class or assigning a book for students to read over the weekend. Continue reading “Engaging Students in Reading”

May 30, 2018March 10, 2020

Employee Spotlight: Tony SanFilippo

Employee Spotlight: Tony SanFilippo

Here at Audio Enhancement, we are dedicated to making learning more effective. Our employees are individuals who are passionate about education, like Tony Sanfilippo. After a teaching career of 19 years, he continues to make a difference in the teaching community through his work at Audio Enhancement, Inc. Tony is the Regional Director of Professional Development and is constantly advocating for technology in the classroom, specifically classroom video, and how it is a vital tool for professional development.

Continue reading “Employee Spotlight: Tony SanFilippo”

May 30, 2018March 10, 2020

Bill Gates: Teachers Need Real Feedback

Just like other professionals, teachers need feedback. As teachers receive quality evaluation, it can help them to grow and improve. In a 2013 TED Talk for Education, Bill Gates explained the impact that real, quality feedback could have on our teachers and on America’s education system. The United States is currently not a world leader in academic performance, and the countries that are have found teacher feedback to be a key to success. Still to this day, one of Gates’ biggest priorities is to improve the education system in the U.S., as stated in his appearance on The Ellen Show in February 2018. Continue reading “Bill Gates: Teachers Need Real Feedback”

May 30, 2018March 10, 2020

The 4 Cs of 21st Century Learning: Part Two

Last week’s blog post introduced the idea that students today need four critical skills to excel in the workplace—The 4 Cs of 21st Century Learning. The first two, discussed previously, are Critical Thinking and Communication. Read on to learn the final two Cs and ways to incorporate them into today’s classrooms. Continue reading “The 4 Cs of 21st Century Learning: Part Two”

May 30, 2018March 10, 2020

The 4 Cs of 21st Century Learning: Part One

For over a decade, educators have been talking about and researching the “21^st Century Skills” needed in the workplace today. Associations such as Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (P21) and the National Education Association (NEA) agree that life today in the workplace and at home is significantly more complex than it was 50 years ago. Continue reading “The 4 Cs of 21st Century Learning: Part One”

May 30, 2018March 10, 2020

Curiosity: A Window to Great Instruction

Anyone who has ever spent time with a four-year-old will have experienced the insatiable curiosity and wonderment at the world all around them, as they ask, over and over again, “why?” They want to know the reason for anything and everything, and this curiosity is what makes them the most teachable, according to Ramsey Musallam, high school chemistry teacher of over 13 years. Continue reading “Curiosity: A Window to Great Instruction”

April 30, 2018March 10, 2020

Making Classroom Video More Efficient with Lecture Capture

At Audio Enhancement, Inc. we work hard to make learning more effective through innovative technology. With VIEWpath, educators can record, store, and share video and audio content through SAFARI Montage. Lecture Capture, the latest technology from SAFARI Montage, allows teachers to not only record their lesson, but to simultaneously record their desktop screen, where they could be showing presentations or content that go along with the lecture.

Lecture Capture revolutionizes classroom recordings, because educators can now record a lecture in its entirety and play back the desktop and classroom recordings simultaneously with varied views:

Picture in Picture: View both recordings simultaneously, with one view being displayed as a smaller picture inside the larger one

Side by Side: View both recordings simultaneously, side by side

Full Screen: Choose between the lecture or desktop recording to view in full screen

These different views allow the observer, whether it be a teacher, coach, student, or parent to choose exactly what they want to glean from the lecture.

Alone, just a recording of the teacher or just a presentation are pieces of the puzzle, but together, viewers can receive the whole classroom experience. Teachers and administrators can use Lecture Capture to provide a complete picture for mentor/peer coaching, professional development, self-evaluation, blended learning, and flipped classroom.

April 30, 2018March 10, 2020

Back to the Basics: A Beginner’s Mindset

Shunryu Suzuki, teacher of Zen Buddhism, stated, “in the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.” A beginner’s mindset is one that is teachable, open, eager, and free of preconceptions, even when achieving expert or advanced levels. Someone who maintains a beginner’s mindset is motivated to have new experiences and go beyond the norm.

Think back to your first day of teaching. What was it like? Were you intimidated? Excited? Nervous? Confident? That feeling that everything is new, the need to learn, know, and experience more, is what kept you on your feet and constantly improving. 2010 National Teacher of the Year, Sarah Wessling stated that as teachers go back to school and start a new year, it is helpful to remember that feeling and maintain a beginner’s mindset.

Wessling recognized similarities in four finalists for the 2014 National Teacher of the Year Award, and found that all of them had a beginner’s mind. She said, “ask any of these teachers how they ended up being a finalist for National Teacher of the Year, and their response will be a humble head shake, shrugging shoulders, and a quiet, ‘I don’t know.’ Perhaps this is the beauty and the paradox: you can only be great when you don’t think you are.”

Every beginner has an innate willingness to learn with every new experience. Being a beginner means acknowledging that there’s so much more to know, and it can be liberating to allow yourself to be open to new ideas, to be clumsy and full of questions. Kate Ebner, of Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching graduate program, explained that coaching students at Georgetown are required to take up something new for six months, like a new sport or instrument. Through this experience, students learn the “enormous value of being a beginner and experiencing the discomfort, awkwardness and self-consciousness of asking one’s body to do something new.”

So whether it’s your second year of teaching this year or your thirty-second, take a minute to remember what it was like on your first week. Take advantage of the beginner’s mind, with its questions and flexibility. It is a surefire way to stay on your feet, continually grow, and to not slip into routines or habits that can in the end hinder our progress. Ebner states, “as we ask ourselves to learn, we let go of resistance, we drop self-consciousness and devote attention to doing just the basics and then, slowly, reaching new levels of mastery.”

March 14, 2018March 10, 2020

Revolutionizing the Classroom Camera: EduCam360

Forty years ago, Audio Enhancement, Inc. was created by a mom who wanted her hearing-impaired children to have as many learning opportunities as other students. Since then, we have been creating quality solutions that continue to improve classroom practices, like sound amplification, school safety, and school-wide communication.

After adding cameras to the classroom for safety, educators realized the added potential classroom video could have. Classroom video can not only provide protection to schools, but teachers can record lessons for peer or self-reflection, or provide students with access to lessons for blended learning methods. The benefits of classroom video are well known and have been studied by many, such as Bill Gates and Harvard University.

Audio Enhancement’s Educam360 allows educators, administrators, and security personnel to see the entire classroom. This high-definition 360° camera gives educators a choice between four different views.

The Educam360 was designed with educators in mind. A concern for cameras in the classroom is the privacy of teachers. With a teacher-controlled rolling lens cover on the EduCam360, the teacher can visually see that the camera is closed so they don’t have to worry about “Big Brother” watching. It is also installed in the ceiling, so that teachers and students forget it’s there, providing a more natural classroom recording.

The Educam360 integrates with Audio Enhancement’s classroom solutions. Classroom Audio Systems provide crystal-clear audio for video recordings. The SAFE System begins a live video recording in the classroom after a teacher presses the panic button on her Teacher Microphone. With VIEWpath, educators use the Educam360 to record, store, and share recordings.

This innovative classroom camera, along with Audio Enhancement’s comprehensive lineup of products, is making classrooms more effective. How will the Educam360 change your classroom?