HW8.3 Sound Reflection

By observing the sounds around me, I have realized that sound is a constant stimuli and the brain has learned to ignore all but the most important noises.  As I type this blog post, my fingers are making tapping sounds on the keys of my computer and I can hear my desk shaking slightly with each sudden move.  These sounds are so common in my mind, that I have stopped noticing them except for the rare cases that I open my mind to them.

When I think of sound in the classroom, I am immediately reminded of the many tricks I have seen teachers use to quiet down a bustling group of students.  Teachers will begin to stage whisper, hoping their students will quiet in an effort to understand them or use the "If you can hear me clap once" tactic.  I have recently had a professor in a Teachers College class use a gong to call the attention of the class after a series of group discussions.  The gong was strange sound to hear in a classroom setting and it caught the attention of everyone in the room.  Teachers often use incongruous sounds to attract student attention, but there are so many sounds in the classroom that few of them can be seen as incongruous.  It is commonplace to hear air conditioners, heaters, footsteps in the hall, fire trucks and ambulances in the streets below, and construction workers on the sidewalks outside.  With so many sounds in the ears of a student, it is a miracle that any of them hear the teacher's lesson and remain attentive.