Barbara Campbell has been teaching school for 39 years. She is a Primary Grade Technology teacher in Frankfort, Illinois. She became involved in using and teaching computers in the classroom when the Apple IIe was introduced. Each week she has an average of 780 K, 1 & 2 students that come into her lab setting area to learn how to use computers for instruction and to gain tech skills. The lab setting is spacious and open and the students face the wall so she can observe their progress on the computers. That creates a unique challenge in that it is difficult to get and keep her students attention. She has to make her voice heard, and that means talking loudly.
Barbara is also an accomplished singer. Suffice it to say that her voice gets a real workout. Several years ago she began having problems with her voice and learned she was developing nodules on her vocal cords. Having surgery for nodule issues is not always a great option because they often come back. Instead she was sent to the University of Chicago which has a renowned laryngology department and she underwent voice therapy. The strategy that Barbara employed was to protect her voice, her instrument, buy drinking lots of water and using voice amplification. She uses the VoiceBooster by TK Products because it has good sound quality and it is affordably priced. She has been using it for a number of years and has recommended it to a number of co-teachers including coaches and teachers who are outdoors with students a lot.
The first personal voice amplifier she used was like an over the shoulder purse that used a hand held microphone and it was about $450. The VoiceBooster has a much lower price, ranging from $59 to $79, and she finds it much more convenient to use in size, quality and with an over the ear microphone. Barbara uses her VoiceBooster daily. When she feels her voice starting to strain, or if she needs help in holding her students attention, she puts on her VoiceBooster. She says there are times when without the VoiceBooster she wouldn’t be able to go on. The VoiceBooster really commands the kids attention and they sort of think of her as a “Rock Star” when she is using it. “There are times that the students need to know that someone is in charge… and that it is not them.” She says that the VoiceBooster is a great tool that really lets her be heard.