Another topic of great interest today was laryngitis. I lost my voice this weekend (no, not from yelling at the children; I have a cold) and I could talk no louder than a whisper. Thankfully yesterday was a teacher workshop day so I didn't have to talk to anyone. But today, all the 4th graders wanted to know what "larry-in-jy-tis" was. Mrs. J didn't explain it fully to them, so they kept asking me all day if I could talk or if my throat hurt or when I'd be able to talk again. I ended up telling them we'd talk more about this next week when we learn about the respiratory system in science. That satisfied them for now.
In the midst of this discussion, an announcement came over the loudspeaker telling us that someone had left the lights on in their car... that immediately got the 4th graders wondering if it was my or Mrs. J's car. We both shook our heads no, and they asked what kind of cars we drove. I of course, couldn't answer, and Mrs. J's answer was lost as a group of girls started talking about the kind of car they'd like to drive someday. One particularly loud girl commented, "I'd like to drive an FM50."
To prepare for my science lesson in the afternoon, Mrs. J and I tried to get the microphone ready for my whispering. The microphone is ancient; it's called an "audio enhancer" and can be wrapped around the speaker's neck so she looks like someone working the McDonald's drive-through. I had to run up to the office to get some tape to hold the battery in, but I could only whisper. The secretary must've had trouble hearing me because I asked her three times for some duct tape to hold the button down. The first time she said, "Oh do you need new batteries?" No, I need some duct tape. "Oh! You need some tape." Yeah, some duct tape. "You'll probably need something stronger than regular tape." Then she got out the packing tape. Sigh. I never realized what a blessing a working voice is. If I were permanently mute, I would definitely go crazy.
One entertaining thing from all this is that people automatically lower their voice to a whisper when I whisper. This was especially true during my science lesson. The microphone ended up giving off too much feedback/fuzzy sound, so I gathered my bright little scientists in a semi-circle around the SMARTboard and they listened to my soft whisper for about 45 minutes. It actually went a lot better than I was expecting, partly because of their natural inclination to whisper back to me. I told them they could talk in their normal voice, but they all wanted to talk in whispers. I had the lights off so they could see the board better, which made the classroom feel very cozy; it felt like we were sitting around a campfire.
Oh man, I wish I would've had my whole voice today! To start off our exploration of the digestive system, I had students chew a saltine cracker and hold it in their mouths until it started tasting different. That got their attention! After a while it starts to taste sweet because the enzymes in our saliva break down the starch into simple sugars the body can absorb, therefore showing us that digestion starts in the mouth! After the mouth comes teeth and taste. I showed them my wisdom teeth I'd had pulled in December and showed them a sweet x-ray of my teeth and this lovely picture...
No comments:
Post a Comment