Wow. My day did not go as I had planned. How about you? I am teaching classes via Zoom and I am borrowing an amazing microphone from my husband’s office, it is great. It picks up sound incredibly well. But as the days continue to be so hot, I cannot function without a fan blowing directly on me. That is one of the things I miss (aside from my students!) when teaching from home – AIR CONDITIONING! Whew! It is hot. There is no way I can teach without a fan. I think the way Zoom is and the way the microphone is, it picks up the fan noise, but not so much the motor noise from the fan, but the air. I think they both work to keep that noise from transmitting and so it cuts out. So while I am instructing, my voice cuts out. When we are dancing the music cuts outs. It makes it difficult for students to follow. So, I broke down and bought a wireless headset mic.
I was taking a class from a friend and she was using a wireless headset mic and she told me what it was so I did some research. I researched for a few days and then with free returns available, I decided to get it and try it. It arrived Friday evening and I played with it all weekend.
I did tests, of all types, on Zoom – tests with music, without music, with speakers, with iTunes, with CDs, with fans, without fans . . . just all types of tests. It worked great. I was fully prepared and so excited to teach Nia today.
My students “arrived” and we said hello and then I pressed play and my sound kept cutting out. Now, to me it is very important for my students to have good sound, that is why I am doing all this – and they did, but if I don’t have sound, I have nothing to teach too . . . . or worse, my sound was out of sync – to them . . . so I was instructing “off music”. It is very difficult to dance with instruction that is “off”. Sigh.
It was so bad, we restarted and I ditched my new toy for the old way.
I have not given up yet, but I was pretty deflated today. I had been so excited, I had done so many tests, I had spent so much time, I was ready to wow my students and make it great and so (insert sound of air being pushed out of a balloon). But, my students are very kind and understanding, they always have been. So their kindness made me feel a lot better.
As I said, I have not given up. I think I may have found a way to keep my sound from cutting out, but we will see.
I just thought I would share a portion of my day with you because I know that sometimes I can write it out and it helps. I typed this out, then “sat on it” debating about posting it . . . people like positive and people certainly don’t want to hear that a class they are being asked to pay for has sound problems. But, I also feel it is ok to be “real” and share struggles. And . . . I can get “over” it with the combination of sharing and my students being so understanding. Also, this is not to say everything is bad, this is just me sharing a bump in my journey in this odd new reality.
How was your day? What did you do? Care to share, whatever it was?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 