By Colton Fippin

While I was sitting in class the other day tapping my pencil and counting down the minutes until sweet freedom, I began to wonder about the weird white box in the corner of the room that was giving me the time. It kind of looks like a mix between a speaker and a rumba, but the only thing it has done this year is act like a fancy clock. I knew there had to be more to this story. So, I did an interview to get to the bottom of what this mystery machine is capable of. 

I found out from our beloved teachers that this wall toaster was really an intercom, which is fancy tech language for a speaker that the front office can talk through. I came up with a list of questions to ask students and staff to see if we could start putting this high tech walkie talkie to good use. I decided to talk to Mr.L, Mrs. Lynch, and to get a student perspective, Liam Mollerus. 

The first question I asked was  “What is the intercom, and what does it Do?”. Mr. L gave a direct answer saying, “The intercom is a communication tool that allows the office to be in touch with each and every classroom.” This was a great place to start because it gave me some ideas about how this device could be used as a tool for communication. Mrs. Lynch added “It’s supposed to give the office opportunities to announce events, and schedules for the student council to do morning prayers, and in emergencies to inform everyone at the same time.” Again, I can see how this device can be an important part of our communication and safety features. Liam’s response showed a disconnect between students and staff on the purpose of the intercom by simply stating, “I know what it is, it’s the speaker thing.” We clearly could be doing a better job of using the intercom to communicate with the students.

Next, I asked “ how has the intercom been used in the past?”  Mr. L said ,“I have only heard it used to announce an emergency situation.” Mrs.Lynch says it has been used,  “For everything I have said, in addition to calling kids back for anything.” and Liam said “Yes it has been used for the bells and to announce  if  a student is going home.” I feel like There is room to expand the role that the intercom plays in our daily routine.

This led me to my next question, “How do you think we could use the intercom more productively in the Future?” Mr.L started off by saying, “We could use it to make our daily announcements in the homeroom and to start the day with morning prayer.” Mrs. Lynch expanded with, “Once it works we can just use it consistently to all be on the same page.” Liam looked back to better times with his statement of,  “The same way we did it in the past (roughly 5 years ago).” It sounded like there was room for us to discuss the intercom as a school. 

I asked a follow up question, “How can we integrate the intercom into our Daily Prayer?” Mr. L Said,”We could start each morning with our religious affairs representative with the saint of the day, give a little history about the saint, and then do daily prayers.”Mrs. Lynch had a similar response, “ Each morning do a brief prayer schoolwide and possibly for recess, lunch to do a prayer before we eat and an end of day prayer schoolwide” Liam overwhelmed by the question, simply said “I don’t know.”
Finally, to end on a good note, pun intended, I asked, ”At other schools they play songs during passing periods over the intercom. This may not work for our school’s schedule, but if you were to play songs over the intercom, what song would you play?” Mr.L being the scholar that he is, said “ I would say classical music to calm everyone down and prepare for the next class.” Our resident “hype man,” Mrs. Lynch, went a diffrent direction, saying, “ I would do, eye of the tiger, to keep things pumped up.” Liam, a well of musical knowledge, concluded with, “Chill music to keep things, well chill.” Clearly, there are many exciting things in store for the Bears intercom system.