The break is over.. well almost.
This year instead of heading down to UCLA for some CTA training, I am doing roundup at Buhach Colony High School tomorrow. Roundup is the only time that speech and language people have a chance at earning some comp time credits. Tomorrow we will start at 8 and finish at 10. Which really translates into 7:30 to set up and catch some early hearing folks and then 10:30 to catch the stragglers coming in. Its a mad scene and pretty intense in some high school venues. At other times the students just don't come in and we wait and wait.
The four main schools have over 2000 students each attending. All 10th graders are required to be screened for hearing. So at best we have 5 audiometers humming as we quickly seat students, drop on earphones, test through 3 frequencies at screening level and get appropriate responses. A form is checked off and earphones are removed and the next student is ready to sit down and the procedure continues one after another. A good prodution audiometrist can see 30- 40 in an hour. So with five going.. that means 200 students can get their hearing screened in an hour.
For students it is often a social time. The herds of girls come in together and have to be admonished not to talk during the testing. Guys come in a try to blow off the event. We catch the ones that have been trap shooting and not using ear protection.
The tough ones are the mohawlk hair styles and the huge hoops. We spend time cleaning the hair goop off our earphones and try to keep the lines moving. We pray for cool days and rooms that are cool without air con (sound distrations).
So there is no doubt that it is work. But it is interesting work none the less and our bodies and their bodies are not used to doing chairs and production and crowd control.
So think of me Tues morning and the job that starts the year.
: ) Pat
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2 comments:
Fascinating! Do the students watch each other during testing, or are they isolated????? Sorry you had to start back so soon.
Yes, they come in as a group and they watch each other since they are in a regular classroom. Most of the time they are happy because there is air conditioning in the room. They still want to chatter with their friends. I tell each of them as they sit down that they are to push the button in the middle when they hear the sound. They sit facing away from me and I come up from behind and put eacphones on. Then, when they are finished, I lift the earphone off of them and look for them to hand me the push button as they get up.
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