Is your classroom too noisy?

After reading a report in this week's TES, I think that mine might be...

The din of modern classrooms is making primary school children miss as many as one in six words spoken by their teachers.

Chattering children (hopefully not), heating and air conditioning systems (I'm lucky enough to have one of these), humming lights (I have got a light that needs fixing), fish tanks (got two in my classroom!) and computers (I've got a few of these as well) created a 60 decibel background. Oops!

Normal speech is around 50 decibels. Researchers in Canada found that to make 95% or more of their speech intelligible to children, teachers needed to speak at least 15 decibels louder than the background noise.

Some schools are introducing surround sound systems in classrooms to make sure the teachers are heard.

The report includes a link to a website with tips for having a quiet classroom.