Closed Captions
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I want to welcome our audience to this
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learned podcast it is in these podcasts
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that learn wants you to meet experts
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that can help you and your work as
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school leaders or perhaps Partners in
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the education landscape the topic for
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this podcast is learning environments
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with a special focus on hearing and our
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guest is Kevin Mitchell vice president
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of audio enhancement
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on the learn website you will find on
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the research page under the Coe
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sustainability and the element of
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learning environments research in this
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area being discussed along with
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potential resources to access Kevin I
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want to welcome you to the learn podcast
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it's good to have you here to speak with
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us about this important topic now I know
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that you have an extensive research and
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work background in the area of learning
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environments with a special focus on the
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significance of hearing in the learning
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environment would you please share with
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the audience some of that background and
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experience
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sure thanks David and I appreciate you
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guys having me and and I'm really a huge
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advocate for what learn is doing in the
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educational space
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um I joined the company about 15 years
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ago and since then I've gotten a deep
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understanding for how how impactful
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learning is in the learning environment
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um 80 of all education is actually
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auditory not a lot of people realize
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that doesn't matter if you're a visual
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learner Hands-On learner 80 of what
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you're going to retain is through
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auditory
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um reception and what's been cool to us
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is the company was started 45 years ago
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by a mom with two deaf children who who
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quickly found out the importance of
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hearing and what it meant for
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development and speech to a student's
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learning so
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um we've been able to to take that that
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effort by a mother's love and her
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ability to to want a child to succeed
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and been able to implement that and
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replicate that in over a third of all
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the classrooms in the U.S
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wow that's pretty impactful and a
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powerful story as well Kevin and and you
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know I know that you just cite a little
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bit of research and I know there's
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extensive research out there about this
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work would you kind of cover some of
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that research especially the key piece
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of information you think our audience
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would really uh want to know
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yeah I I think it's an interesting thing
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to hear because a lot of people when
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they hear about our company especially
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the foundation of it and the story
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behind audio enhancement assume that
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hearing is only important for children
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with difficulties in hearing um and I
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think people oversee or have an
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oversight of the impact it has on the
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everyday student
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um one of the studies that we've we've
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been so grateful to be a part of was the
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fact that a third of all students in the
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classroom on any given day have some
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sort of hearing impairment and the
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problem is that that third is
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unrecognizable because it could be a
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child with a common cold or the flu or a
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sinus infection for that given day so
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that the third of the population rotates
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throughout the building but for us it's
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not just about the ability to hear the
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teacher it's the clarity that's involved
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when a teacher is able to talk at their
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normal tone of voice right so not just
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necessarily shouting or projecting their
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voice or using their teacher voice but
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the idea that when you take a norm
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normal speech pattern and you distribute
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it evenly through every student in the
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classroom the impact that has on
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learning the impact that has on teachers
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teacher vocal strain the impact that has
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on word recognition for students
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especially with ell students being able
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to understand the consonants like sh and
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right that CS CH and Sh sound is very
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hard to distinguish when you're
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projecting it very loud and and our our
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company's goal is to to provide an
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equitable hearing and learning
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opportunity for every student in the
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classroom
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wow and and so you've designed systems
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to help with that enhancement right and
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how long have you guys been working on
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those systems as a company yeah so 45
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years ago Claudia literally went to
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Radio Shack and created the first
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classroom audio enhancement system and
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since then we've we've used um industry
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knowledge and customer feedback to
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improve the product and and make it what
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it is today and like I said David we uh
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we're in over a third of every single
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classroom in the US at this point wow
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that that is really amazing now with
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that amount of experience obviously if a
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district want to engage in this work
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you'd be able to tell them those
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predictable positive outcomes that
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they'd want to communicate to their
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internal and external communities could
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you convey a few of those right now that
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if a District's going to do this you
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could tell them right out of the gate
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where the positive outcomes are going to
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be really quickly yeah I I think the you
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know I'll give you the simple the most
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simplified answers to that ever but a
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teachers are going to report back to you
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that they they have more energy at the
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end of the day right their voice doesn't
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hurt they're not constantly on stage
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they're able to talk to their normal
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tone of voice and their system and audio
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is able to evenly distribute their voice
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out to the students and I think that's
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one of the the biggest quickest
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feedbacks you're going to get but if you
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went and talked to students who I
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personally think is the most important
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piece of the puzzle they're going to say
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one simple fact they're going to say I
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can hear my teacher better
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right and a lot of people undermine what
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that actually means but the truth is
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kids are coming to school to learn if
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they're saying that the biggest
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investment in the classroom the teacher
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they can hear that person better and
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understand what they're being you know
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what's being said better
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um they're obviously going to improve
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academically over time of of that
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you know it's interesting Kevin you're
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talking about that I'm reflecting on my
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13 years as a teacher and I'll never
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forget my first couple years I ran into
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this every year and it was a student who
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couldn't see
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and you could pick up on it right away
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and and just getting them glasses made
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all the difference in their behavior and
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their learning out of the gate it hadn't
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occurred to me until listening to you
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just now with the exception of obviously
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the hearing impaired that that same kind
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of impact can take place for students in
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the general population who just have a
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difficult time hearing that have not
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occurred to me honestly yeah and
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honestly it's it's further than that it
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could just be the you know the the
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location you've been set at in in the
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room right you are going to be at a
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disadvantage I got told an amazing Story
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by a close close friend of mine Dr
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Curtis Jones who was superintendent of
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the year for double Esa and
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um that you know really really believed
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in this work he said when he was a child
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his mother
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um you know sent him to school obviously
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he got put in the classroom the teacher
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sat him right underneath the HVAC unit
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in the room and he said when he sat
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under that HVAC unit he really struggled
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to hear the teacher and he went home and
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told his mother that he wasn't able to
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participate in class and learn because
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he was sitting under this HVAC unit and
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his mother obviously went and talked to
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the principal principal talked to the
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teacher and the next day they moved Dr
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Jones to the front of the classroom well
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the kid that was in the front they took
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him and moved him to Dr Jones seat and
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Dr Jones went home that night and he
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said Mom you know I just couldn't
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believe what I just did to Timmy right
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Timmy's a good friend of mine and the
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you know by me complaining I actually
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hurt the other students so sometimes
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it's more than just the hearing
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impairment it's just the ability to hear
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that teacher at a normal tone of voice
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um one of the strongest research studies
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that has ever been done on audio is the
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idea that when you're projecting your
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voice you can project the sound of a
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consonant but if you project your voice
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you cannot I'm sorry the sound of a
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vowel but if you project your voice you
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cannot project the sound of a consonant
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so if you did this the CH or sh or the
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sound of the letter T which is
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right there is no way to project that
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and the problem is is the more you
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emphasize your vowels the less
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intelligible you make your speech
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because it's harder to understand the
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consonants so that's why English
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language Learners struggle so much with
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three and three because when you're
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projecting that sound it's very hard to
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pick up on that and that's
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um one of the biggest impacts we've seen
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interesting now like anything else
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obviously these are very positive
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impacts but like anything else there are
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always going to be those kind of
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implementation barriers and if districts
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were looking to do this kind of work
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what would be the thing you'd kind of
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tell them out front that this would be a
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barrier you want to be prepared to
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overcome what would that be yeah I think
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just the simple physical installation um
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we've been in lots of schools that have
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asbestos in the ceiling we've been in
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schools that don't have drop tile
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ceilings and they need wall speakers so
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it's always best to do a site assessment
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and understand your needs of the
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district before embarking on the journey
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but um but overall like I said we've
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spent many years trying to make it so
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flexible that it could be installed in
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any K-12 classroom in the US if you
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start to get to a point where you're
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looking at auditoriums or gyms this
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might not be the best sound system but
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for your standard K-12 classroom we've
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made a pretty cookie cutter solution
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that could check the box for all of
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those nice now could you share with our
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audience you've shared a couple stories
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but is there any story specifically in
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your experience at audio enhancement
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where this work has had a significant
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impact on on students or schools
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specifically
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yeah I I you know I've literally had a
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ell student cry to me that she was never
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never able to understand or hear the
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teacher until they put the audio system
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in we've had a teacher this this will be
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a funny one you guys will relate to but
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I went into a teacher's classroom my
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third week on the job and and part of
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training for this you know this industry
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back then was you go do the install
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right you physically install it you
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physically uninstall it well we had put
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in a pilot classroom for a teacher to
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test and at the end of the year the
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principal wasn't getting back to us and
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didn't let us know if they wanted it or
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not so we went to the school to
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uninstall the pilot and take it back and
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when we walked in the room the teacher
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asked what we were doing and we told
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them what we were doing and they said
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please don't do anything and we said you
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know I'm sitting here third week of the
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job they said go get this system and
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don't come back without it well she said
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don't touch the system and then soon
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after there was a linebacker-sized
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gentleman coming in the room and told me
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to get off the ladder and it turned out
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to be her husband and her husband came
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to me and said how much does the system
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cost so I had to you know again third
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week on the job didn't know the answer
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had to call find out and when I told him
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the price he took out a checkbook and
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literally wrote the check for the system
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and I said well that's so gracious that
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you would do that for kids and he said
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I'm not doing it for kids I'm doing it
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because my wife talks to me at night she
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comes home and has more energy and she
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now is willing to you know conversate
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and and go through the motions and
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that's been anyways that one's always
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stuck with me because it mattered so
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much to that that professional in the
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classroom and I've had a couple
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superintendents tell me that the biggest
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compliment they can give to their
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teachers is telling them that they're a
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professional and that your voice matters
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so when they've gone to a new District
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that didn't have audio enhancement and
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put in the audio enhancement system they
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basically sent the message to all the
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teachers that your voice matters to
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these kids and what you say matters and
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that's been that's another story that's
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really stuck with me over the years yeah
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it's a powerful one now if there was a
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district that you would like to
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highlight as doing remarkable work in
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this area what would that be especially
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for our audience who might want to go
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investigate
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you know it really varies I mean if you
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go state to state everyone has a
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different practice
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um Orange County Florida has done this
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now for 25 years they've refreshed three
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different times the audio system all
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with our our audio enhancement product
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and it's not because we're good sales
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people it's because it made such a big
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difference and when they've ever talked
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about not refreshing teachers have
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revolted so they're doing great work
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Bibb County Georgia Dr Curtis Jones who
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I I just mentioned um he's now retired
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but he's doing amazing work with the
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audio systems and cameras and intercoms
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and his schools we've really evolved
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over the years and we're providing much
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broader Suite of solutions that includes
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the bells paging intercom and cameras in
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the classroom and I'll tell you that's
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something I see as being the future of
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education is the idea that you can
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record high quality lessons and share
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those with students and staff to improve
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your practice and to provide
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um an extra bit of content to students
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that might be struggling or just need
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the reiteration so we have a lot of
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districts across the U.S starting to
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embark on that trail and and that's been
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impressive and then I can't not mention
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one of my good friends but in d214 in
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Illinois Dr David Schuler
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um he's been instrumental in in
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providing us feedback to improve our
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product and improve our company but what
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they're doing up there in Northern
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Chicago has been really really
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astonishing wonderful now if a district
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or a partner we're interested in
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exploring more deeply into this work how
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would they go about contacting you and
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arranging for those conversations
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so this might be interesting but I give
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everybody my cell phone number I'm sure
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my wife doesn't love that but my cell
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phone is five six one
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three zero six three three two seven
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people you know people can feel free to
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call or text anytime and then my email
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address is kevin.mitchell at audio
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enhancement.com okay well wonderful well
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thank you Kevin for being a part of this
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important work of supporting our
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students in schools and thank you for
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your participation in a learn podcast
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pleasure we're excited
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