My school district's audiologist brought an FM system for me to try out in my classroom. Hearing my students read to me has been an ongoing challenge since I lost my hearing, and it hasn't improved much with the cochlear implant.
I'm trying to be patient and forgiving of myself. I have only been activated for 5 weeks, and I can tell that I am getting better. I'm still considered a baby borg, and my hearing with the implant isn't so great right now. But the work I do in my classroom has been very difficult since my hearing loss, and I find that I beat myself up countless times during the day because my hearing is lacking. I have really high expectations of myself, hearing loss or not. So I asked for help. And I found it. I'm the only classroom teacher in my district with a cochlear implant. I'm pioneering new frontiers.
With the FM system, I plug a receiver into my processor and sync it to a pocket-sized FM transmitter. A lapel mic is plugged into the transmitter and students can read into the mic. I am able to hear my students' voices directly in my CI. And because the transmitter and mic aren't directly attached to my processor like my personal lapel mic from Cochlear is, I don't have to worry that an excitable first grader may leap up from the table and yank my processor from my head! It's not perfect. But it certainly is better.
I decided to test it out in my afternoon reading group. I carefully clipped the mic to the collar of a student I needed to test on sight words. He smiled sheepishly as I did it. Then I asked him to talk so I could test if the mic was positioned well. He grinned at me and asked, "What do you want me to say?" I told him he could say whatever he wanted. "You can say, 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' if you want."
"You heard me?" he asked. (He was surprised! I must miss a lot of what goes on in my room!)
"I heard you," I said. "Now read those words for me!"
My heart was smiling.
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