Luckily, earlier that year Kloiber Foundation had chosen Lansdowne Elementary to receive a substantial grant. There was still discussion about how it would best be put to use, and Emily brought her idea to the administration: how could the students at Lansdowne benefit from RF receivers that translators could utilize? Each person could tune their receiver to the proper channel for their language, and instead of having clusters of people around each translator, families could instead mingle with each other and sit wherever they liked. This would not only help with the chaos of having up to 7 people talking at once during a presentation, but also would hopefully bring more of a sense of community and togetherness to the school. The administration decided it was a worthy goal, and a plan was put into motion.
“How could the students at Lansdowne benefit from RF receivers that translators could utilize? ”
In the 2 years since obtaining the headsets, Lansdowne has dramatically changed the way it can communicate with its students and families. Family Nights have gotten much more manageable, and people have begun to intermingle with different cultures instead of staying within their language groups. Lansdowne staff has also begun a program where parents can come every Tuesday and learn English, often times employing the same curriculum as their students are learning. Another benefit to the headsets is that students who have gotten district approval for tests to be read to them aloud can stay in the classroom with their friends during testing, instead of going to an alternate location. The RF headsets have been such a success at Lansdowne Elementary that the district has purchased a set that can be moved to any school who needs it.
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