Coffee, Tea, or Earbuds?
Half the job of an editor is working with sound. If you have students editing in a computer lab, you are probably having them use headphones when they are at their computer. Years before COVID-19, we decided to eliminate the over-the-ear cans that students were sharing (yuck) and opted for earbuds. The original goal was to have them bring their own set, but kids are kids, so every day we were dealing with at least one student who would forget to bring them.
I started looking around Amazon and found several options for bulk purchasing of earbuds. Granted, these are the same cheap ones the airlines give out, but it provides a backup opportunity for students who come to class without their own pair.
At first, we would hand them out to a student in need, but quickly realized they might come back a day or two later asking for another pair. So, we purchased an organizer with pull out trays, assigned each student a number, and filled the trays with earbuds. For just $1.30 per pair, this has been a great solution. The cost comes from student fees, and students can take them home at the end of the year. We chose the variety color pack just to make this a bit more fun.
For some students, the thought of using cheap earbuds is an excellent motivator to make sure they bring their personal pair to class. Other students could care less, so they use their assigned classroom set every day. Some students even swapped out the generic pair and have started using the organizer tray to keep their own personal earbuds. Either way, we never have to deal with the loss of an editing day due to earbuds left at home.
Sometimes, it’s a simple workflow practice such as this that saves us so much time when it comes to classroom management. The few extra minutes it takes at the beginning of the year to place a set of earbuds in a numbered organizer can make all the difference in reducing time wasted on a daily basis during the year.
Hopefully, this series provides you with some workflow strategies that make life easier. Maybe this will spark a new idea that you implement in your teaching environment. I would love to hear what workflows you have created, so shoot me an email at tom.wilson@northcantonschools.org, or post it on Stream Semester’s Facebook Group Broadcast Education Professionals. We're all in this together, folks.
Meet the Author, Tom Wilson
Tom Wilson is the coordinator of district media and video-journalism at Hoover High School in North Canton Ohio. You can follow the work of his students on social media @nctvmedia and his unique production vehicle, the Mobile Storyteller Project.