Why I love the sound of my own voice...
This has not been a good week. Suffice it to say that having written about things I say in the classroom last week, it's ironic that I lost my voice. Not being able to talk above a whisper might have given my husband a break, but it was really frustrating for me!
It got me to thinking though, about the importance of voices in the classroom and what teachers use them for.
1. To gain and hold the attention of a class.
I had an RE teacher in Secondary school who went by the name of (and I'm not making this up) Mr Ghandi. He was a lovely man - kind and gentle - and he was probably very knowledgeable. I liked him very much as a person, but his voice was totally unsuited to the classroom. He droned. Nasally. It was like being taught by a monotone crumhorn. The result was that I remembered very little of what he tried to impart and would drift off into daydreams. His classes were quiet because we were comatose. A teacher's voice needs to have variety of pitch, tone and volume. If we want to be listened to, then we need to at least sound interesting - otherwise we are just making noises like the teacher in the Peanuts cartoons.
2. To create a calm learning environment.
Many years ago I had a trainee under my wing who could not understand why her classes were so hyper. She had observed that they were calm with other teachers, but with her they bounced off the ceiling. She had a hard time believing that it was her voice that was the problem. Her lessons were engaging and fun and so was she; the trouble was that her rapid, slightly breathless delivery put the kids on edge. When we got to the bottom of it, we discovered that she was actually nervous and her anxiety translated into a rather frentic style. She took a breath, slowed down and lo and behold, her classes did too. And of course, when her classes were calmer her anxiety lessened. Problem solved.
Mind you, you can go too far the other way. I did once have a student who would fall asleep in my lessons regularly. I was concerned that he was ill or had an undiagnosed condition. "No, Miss. I'm sorry - it's just your voice. It sends me to sleep.... in a good way!" Bless him. Calm is good - soporific not so much!
3. To signal a change in mood.
Children, like puppies, respond to the tone of your voice as well as the content of what you are saying. You do not need to shout to let a child know you are not happy with them, but you do need to change the quality of your voice. Mine gets sharper, crisper. Consonants are clipped. My displeased voice is very different from my normal one. What is interesting is that a class will stop talking immediately when they hear that tone - even if they can't hear what I'm saying.
4. To deliver content.
I am not afraid of the sound of my voice in the classroom. If I am talking, it is because I know stuff - a lot of stuff. I know stuff about my subject, stuff about how to pass the exams and stuff about life the universe and everything. I get paid to know stuff and to stuff it into the heads of the kids I teach. I do this by talking. There has been a rather disturbing campaign to stop teachers from talking so much - and I agree that students sometimes benefit from discovering things for themselves, but honestly a lot of the time they just appreciate being taught the old fashioned way. So there.
5. To invite dialogue.
There are teachers who talk TO their classes, and there are those who talk AT them. I had a teacher who talked AT his class. He never made eye contact, instead he would fix his gaze on the back wall of the classroom about three feet above our heads. Looking back, I can now see that this gentleman was probably somewhere on the spectrum. He was brilliant, but not a brilliant teacher. His voice made no room for ours - I don't remember ever asking him a question - I don't think any of us did.
So what do I do differently? I stop talking sometimes and open the floor! My voice is important, but it is not the only important voice in the room.
In conclusion, there are classrooms you walk past in a school and think, I would like to be in that room learning. There are others that make you want to run a mile. Usually, it's the teacher's voice that makes the difference.
It got me to thinking though, about the importance of voices in the classroom and what teachers use them for.
1. To gain and hold the attention of a class.
I had an RE teacher in Secondary school who went by the name of (and I'm not making this up) Mr Ghandi. He was a lovely man - kind and gentle - and he was probably very knowledgeable. I liked him very much as a person, but his voice was totally unsuited to the classroom. He droned. Nasally. It was like being taught by a monotone crumhorn. The result was that I remembered very little of what he tried to impart and would drift off into daydreams. His classes were quiet because we were comatose. A teacher's voice needs to have variety of pitch, tone and volume. If we want to be listened to, then we need to at least sound interesting - otherwise we are just making noises like the teacher in the Peanuts cartoons.
2. To create a calm learning environment.
Many years ago I had a trainee under my wing who could not understand why her classes were so hyper. She had observed that they were calm with other teachers, but with her they bounced off the ceiling. She had a hard time believing that it was her voice that was the problem. Her lessons were engaging and fun and so was she; the trouble was that her rapid, slightly breathless delivery put the kids on edge. When we got to the bottom of it, we discovered that she was actually nervous and her anxiety translated into a rather frentic style. She took a breath, slowed down and lo and behold, her classes did too. And of course, when her classes were calmer her anxiety lessened. Problem solved.
Mind you, you can go too far the other way. I did once have a student who would fall asleep in my lessons regularly. I was concerned that he was ill or had an undiagnosed condition. "No, Miss. I'm sorry - it's just your voice. It sends me to sleep.... in a good way!" Bless him. Calm is good - soporific not so much!
3. To signal a change in mood.
Children, like puppies, respond to the tone of your voice as well as the content of what you are saying. You do not need to shout to let a child know you are not happy with them, but you do need to change the quality of your voice. Mine gets sharper, crisper. Consonants are clipped. My displeased voice is very different from my normal one. What is interesting is that a class will stop talking immediately when they hear that tone - even if they can't hear what I'm saying.
4. To deliver content.
I am not afraid of the sound of my voice in the classroom. If I am talking, it is because I know stuff - a lot of stuff. I know stuff about my subject, stuff about how to pass the exams and stuff about life the universe and everything. I get paid to know stuff and to stuff it into the heads of the kids I teach. I do this by talking. There has been a rather disturbing campaign to stop teachers from talking so much - and I agree that students sometimes benefit from discovering things for themselves, but honestly a lot of the time they just appreciate being taught the old fashioned way. So there.
There are teachers who talk TO their classes, and there are those who talk AT them. I had a teacher who talked AT his class. He never made eye contact, instead he would fix his gaze on the back wall of the classroom about three feet above our heads. Looking back, I can now see that this gentleman was probably somewhere on the spectrum. He was brilliant, but not a brilliant teacher. His voice made no room for ours - I don't remember ever asking him a question - I don't think any of us did.
So what do I do differently? I stop talking sometimes and open the floor! My voice is important, but it is not the only important voice in the room.
In conclusion, there are classrooms you walk past in a school and think, I would like to be in that room learning. There are others that make you want to run a mile. Usually, it's the teacher's voice that makes the difference.
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