Can Quiet and Fun Co-Exist?

I've noticed something about myself here lately over this fall semester.  The loud noises really get to me.  Since I've been married, my husband has told me that I'm an old lady when it comes to sounds.  I don't like the radio very loud, don't enjoy noisy restaurants, jump at sudden sounds, etc.

At our school December staff meeting, we played this fun game of pictionary where teams had to draw to help others guess the name of the Christmas carol.  Very fun, but competitive, and when another staff member walked up behind me and shouted, "Go team!", I about came out of my skin and moved away.

Another example of this was made clear to me when my Mom visited for Christmas and was telling me about an extended family member who has PTSD.  And knowing that this family member was only 12 years old, I asked my Mom how this was possible, since it's usually associated with military members.  She explained that the Mom of this child is half deaf and deals in shouting only.  This child has learned to cope with this by ignoring the Mom until it's full blown shouting and anger for him not listening, which then makes him jumpy and he acts out.

I have some family members myself who are just naturally loud, as am I from time to time.  In fact before the break, I had to apologize to a student because they thought I was picking on them.  And we discovered it's just because I'm loud.  Mind you, to me, it's my normal speaking voice, but to this child, it was loud enough to stress them out and scare them.  So all this got me thinking, are there other students we interact with who have noise issues too, maybe not as severe or noticeable, but could we speak softly and still get our point across?  Volume does not equal compliance.  In some cases, ok, many, volume equals stress, anxiety, discouragement, anger, chaos, etc, even if the message is a positive one.

Now, I can hear the thoughts now, but quiet places are boring places.  But do they have to be?  Is it possible to have a quiet (not silent), fun, engaging classroom for all our student's to thrive in?  I say yes!  Now, I can't answer that how for anyone, only myself.  It's all about finding what works and running with that.  So, just some things I've noticed lately that I know will carry into this new semester with me as we run the race of teaching.