Walzem Elementary

San Antonio, Texas

This year, the Listen to Your Buds campaign was chosen as the focus for BHSM. A bulletin board was created which displayed colorful Ear Bud characters to tell the student the three things they could do to prevent noise induced hearing loss when listening to music.

The students in speech therapy had discussion about safe ways to listen to music. They colored the Buds coloring pages and displayed them in the hall way. Soon, there were several classrooms that also chose to have their students color the pages and displayed them in the hallway as well.

Each morning for the first two weeks in May, the morning announcements advertised the campaign. The challenge was given for every student and teacher in a classroom to log on to the Listen to Your Buds Web site to listen to the "Turn Down the Volume" song. This provided the opportunity for the classroom teacher to help the speech pathologists raise awareness among students regarding the impact of noise on hearing particularly as it related to their use of iPods and mp3 players. The teacher then submitted a statement to the SLP saying that everyone in the class participated. Many played the video games on the Web site and some students reported that they had also used the kids Web site at home.

At the end of the month, all of the classes who participated received a popcorn party donated by the PTA. A total of 28 classes met the challenge! The popcorn was delivered by students to the classrooms with the Listen to Your Buds bookmarks attached to the students bags.

Feedback from teachers was positive. Everyone agreed that this was something students need to be aware of and this was a fun way to introduce them to the simple concepts of hearing conservation.

Submitted by:
Kim Lewallen, MEd, CCC-SLP