TED+Talk+3

media type="custom" key="16097516" align="center" In this video, Julian Treasure is offering his expertise on sound and what it can do to us. He applies his information mostly to retail situations, but many of his recommendations can be applied to the classroom as well. For example, he talks about the productivity of workers in an open plan office dropping by 66%. Classrooms are basically open plan offices - each student does not have their own office to go into in order to get their work done. They are forced to work in the open, surrounded by students who most often are not being silent and being told to concentrate. How hard that must be for someone just learning to concentrate at all - let alone in a busy noisy room. How can we as teachers work with students to help lessen this distraction? Julian Treasure recommends head-phones with bird songs - and it might be effective. He tells us that bird songs are known to lower our stress levels and blocking out the outside noise helps productivity. It seems like a win-win solution that could help any of my students who are having a hard time focusing.