Well, for us, thankfully, we were preparing for a pandemic without knowing that there was a pandemic. Coming. The entire system that we put together in every classroom and every school, we already had that technology going in preparation for for the pandemic. I came over to central office called the cabinet, the team, and I said, What can we do to improve the sound in every classroom? That's how we got in contact with front row and as they say the rest is history, but that's how it all begun. Desert Hills Elementary School is a full in Horizon city. We currently serve students from pre k to fifth grade. Definitely every day is an adventure here. When we received the news that everything was going to be virtual. For us, it was a little bit terrifying to say because we really didn't know what to expect. Adjusting to teaching online in the pandemic was very hard because you're teaching to a camera. You're not teaching to kids, so it's hard to make that connection. I was very emotional not having that connection with kids. So I really struggled with that. They had told us that we're gonna be installing a brand new system into our classrooms, and it was about maybe the third or fourth week of school, I wanna say, that installed it and it was ready to go. And then about two weeks later, they showed us how to use it, and that's when we first started using it in When the teachers implement front row correctly, it is crystal clear sound. That the teacher delivering the instruction, the kids at home can hear everything perfectly clear. And also the kids in the classroom can hear everything. So it's a win win for both sets of students at home, but also the kids here at school. Great. So yellow colors are a The teacher microphone, I love using it. I'm actually a teacher that I have a very loud voice, and this microphone actually helps me bring the voice back to like a normal room setting. They're sitting in the back of the classroom. They'll hear me the same way, the kids, the front of the room are filming. Online, the kids are also hearing me loud and clearly. The teacher microphone I think really enhances what we're saying, especially when we're doing letter sounds and letter names, we do have some students with hearing impairments, and it really does help them to here more clearly and to stay more focused. The front row system has a safety feature that is very important, especially when we're working with kids with disabilities. Sometimes we have emergencies and we're alone with students. The fact that we have the button that we could just push if I'm having to work with a student and I'm able to push the button on myself and get the help that I need. We have that extra layer of security that we can get help as fast as possible. One of the settings on the wall is actually a Bluetooth connectivity to connect to your phone. I'll play music for the kids. The kids love it because they come in and get some ready to go for their day. So that's by far one of my favorite settings that I use on there, but you can also use the wall panel to control the volume, and it saves time from having to go into the computer, open the app, raise the volume from there, where I could just go to the wall panel and adjust it from right there. The teaching from last year to this year is night and day. And I am so proud of the work because it really mirrors what instruction looked like before the pandemic, but now everything's in a virtual setting. So for when we do return a hundred percent it would be a disservice to our students, and we were just to return and just do everything the way we used to do. I am very proud of the staff and the work that they've done, but I the front row system really enhances their instruction, and it really helps the teacher be able to deliver their best in to our students. Horizon middle school, we have grades six through eight. We service a lot of different types of kids from our regular education to our gifted and talented special education and our English language learners. So we do have a wide variety of different students here on our campus. At the very beginning, when we first found out that we weren't coming back, it was very difficult because in the past, I would use technology very sparingly because it was uncomfortable. I wasn't sure what to do and how to add technology and make that the students were interacting with me, so it was very difficult. The front row software system is play all around the classroom. It has really great quality. So when I do play music for the students as they're coming in, I mean, it's like live, videos as well that I play for the students, you could hear that really good quality throughout the classroom. Front row has helped and these students had a great experience with this because If they were absent and I had any lesson, I could record it and I would send it to them. So they never missed out on any of the lessons. They had it their their accessibility. Once they made the technology available for us, they gave us our training on how to use the system. It was like night and day. Well, the quality is crisp and clear. I hear it when I'm talking. It sounds as if I'm just being amplified my voice, but it doesn't eccoy. And the sound that we have, it it doesn't compare to anything else. I have a very soft voice. So this has helped me a lot project when I wanted to teach my students. The students in the back of a class room can definitely hear what they're saying in the front row. I mean, it just the name you guys chose speaks clear because the kids in the back are like they're in the because I can hear everything. I absolutely love the PA intercom because it's just one click of a button to get into that teacher's classroom and they're able to speak to you. Hammers are also a great added security for us. So if there is an incident that happens in the classroom, we can definitely go back and see what really happened. What I see in the future with online learning with the system, I see that it's gonna still day. I believe online learning has been a big plus for teachers, especially for students who are not in the classroom or who may be sick, they'll never miss a lesson. And again, it's great for students who have like that hearing disability it's it's been a great big help for them. With all the struggles that we face through regular class and now with pandemic, This has actually been very beneficial to us as teachers and to the students because it makes the things a little bit easier. So I really appreciate that. In the next five to ten years, I I don't know that classrooms will ever be as what we once thought as a traditional classroom. I think that we have to embrace that technology and really bring a classroom of the twenty first century to to light. This last year learning to teach in an online only environment was challenging, but I was very grateful because for the last five years, I've been really trying to incorporate more and more technology into my classroom. Now, when it came to teaching during a pandemic, that is a different story. That's not just online teaching. So I was challenged to learn how to support my students when they were experiencing this trauma and the heartache that we've all been through in this last year. We are doing our very best to make it through this crazy time right now and trying to do both face to face instruction as well as online learning. We have a growth mindset, and our responsibility was to give the highest level of education to our students no matter what was going on. Next year started, and we had a plan. We had a plan of how to how to tackle this this online learning. And front row was one of the types of technology we're gonna use for this plan to get the class was back to synchronous. The teacher microphone has been one of my favorite tools in the roast system. During my live teaching and my virtual teaching to those students at home, I was able to use this microphone as the audio for those students, I can move around the room and really be a dynamic teacher because it goes with me. The wall panel control near our door is a really nice feature with the front row assist It allows me to adjust volume to start a recording. So this is a great way for me to privately make those adjustments, start those recordings, without distracting from the learning process. You know, in in a high school where students do a lot of different things, you know, they do their sports, they do their clubs, you know, they're they got they got doctors appointments, So now with front row technology where you can film your your lesson, they're not so behind the day they came back. It becomes very simple. We just upload the video of the lesson. And now they can go home and do the lesson on their own. The front row camera system is a great asset to the the classroom. Both for instructional purposes, as well as security purposes. With the front row camera, they can see the teacher teaching, moving around, speaking, so they actually can see you one to one, and we can see them one to one. So it makes things more similar to the classroom environment that they're used to learning in. The quality and the product, the way that it makes teaching easier during this pandemic, every little win like that matters so much I'm really proud and grateful that I get to work in the Clint ISD. As with most teachers, it struggled quite a bit and before even being able to get comfortable and familiar with new technology, I was most discouraged at the fact that we would not have in person instruction, and so I was really, really concerned about what that would do, which made students engagement, and just overall classroom culture. To adjust to online learning has been a learning experience, I've been able to adapt and be flexible I had to make sure that I continue with a routine so my students can still feel like they are at the school, but it's been a learning experience that we've all been adjusting to. Once I finally got comfortable with this technology, then I started seeing the benefits of it in my virtual classroom. We're able to move at an effective pace because we don't have those issues with lager or sound quality. It's kind of like my stage. I have my TV set up. I have my remote control. I have my surround sound. I have my microphone. And so it gives me more presence. I feel more like an actual leader. I feel more like their teacher. Front row bring my first experience with any company like I'm glad it was my first experience because I can't I don't see myself ever wanting to go to anything else because it just enhanced my my instruction already. I have the front row microphone, and I use it when I'm trying to record my lessons, especially for those students that sometimes they're not able to attend class or if they're having any Internet connection issues, they're not able to be their life during our life class. I'm able to clearly for them. So once they watch the video after the class, they're able to listen to me clearly and go through the lesson that was recorded on the screen. Once we have the student microphones, that's going to help the students, maybe the shy students to participate more or even them making them eager that they have a microphone that's one being able to express himself more in class. I definitely see that with these new capabilities with the system with just this the overall safety features and recording capabilities. The lessons that I design are gonna be very different. Just because we have all those capabilities. So I'm definitely going to design lessons that are more multimodal in that we're doing speaking, we're writing, we're doing visual presentations, we're doing audio, and just I definitely can see me working more technology into my room as a result of that. There's nothing like it in El Paso. Nothing like it in our area. And for right here, it's probably nothing like it around the state. I actually did get a call from the commissioner of education of Texas to find out, you know, our cost, what have we done. And for them to call Clint IS D, and for him to think about Clint IS D of the over a thousand five hundred districts in the state. That was a testament to the great things that we've done in terms of this this system in our schools.
