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Protecting your voice in the classroom

For four years, Jo Smith has been running voice workshops for the students on the Initial Teacher Training Course at Portsmouth University. She guides us through some of the techniques you could use during your own CPD sessions – and why we need to protect our voices.
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Aims

  • Develop an effective classroom voice
  • Looking after your voice
  • How to warm up your voice and use it effectively
  • Using body language and non-verbal communication to control your class and save your voice

Why we need to care for our voices as teachers

Teachers are eight times more likely to suffer from voice related health conditions than other professions, the National Education Union recently reported. Teaching involves professional voice use for up to 10 hours a day, often competing with background noise. This places strong demands and pressure on the voice. We want our voices to have stamina and durability.

A breathing warm-up

Warm-ups help to gently stretch the muscles we use to create voice.

Start with diaphragmatic breathing and focus on good breath support when speaking. Breathe deeply and feel your rib cage expand as you breathe in. This will help you to project your voice more effectively. Shouting can damage your voice, so instead articulate clearly and speak slowly.

Activity: Get your teachers to lie on the floor (or sitting with neck, shoulders and head relaxed) in semi supine position and focus on breathing. They should notice where the breath is coming from, placing one hand on the chest and one on the stomach (just below your rib cage). Take some time to focus on breathing. Breathe in through the nose and feel the breath go in deeply down to the stomach, feeling the stomach rise. When you are ready to move on, tell your participants to slowly move to standing by either rolling on their side and then coming to a sitting position. This should not be rushed. Continue to focus on this breathing exercise whilst standing. Ask them what they noticed and how it felt.

Top tips for looking after your voice

  • Don’t ‘throat clear’ as this can be damaging. Instead, sip water or swallow firmly.

  • Drink water to keep your voice lubricated.

  • Rest your voice often during the day and vary the type of teaching activities you use.

  • Relaxation is important, as stress and tension in your muscles can contribute to voice problems.

  • Warm your voice up in the morning or on the way to work.

  • More advice can be found at neu.org.uk/advice/voice-care-teachers

A vocal warm-up

Guide teachers through a 10-minute warm-up which focuses on stretching, elongating the breath by increasing the count on each breath out. They must support from the diaphragm, working on projection, articulation and the different resonators created through humming.

If you didn’t want to develop your own version, you could use examples from this ‘Actor’s Warm-Up’, produced by the National Theatre: bit.ly/3FFyliL

Exercises to try with a partner

  • Tongue twisters: Print off examples of tongue twisters and place them around the room. Teachers should attempt to say each one, starting slowly before gradually building up speed, while still focusing on clarity and diction. Turn this into a competition – who can say it the fastest?

  • This two-minute vocal warm-up by Susan Berkley is designed to work most of the vowel and consonant sounds: ljlseminars.com/vocal_warm_up.html

  • Pace: With a partner play around with fast and slow pace. Choose a phrase from a text your student is working on.

  • Pitch: Choose a phrase and play around with pitch and sliding between pitches.

Application of vocal technique to delivery of lesson

I give teachers a printed copy of a PowerPoint slide to the start of a lesson. This is preferably something they are familiar with and comfortable delivering to a class, in a subject they feel passionate about teaching. They spend some time walking around the space practising their delivery and incorporating the different breathing and vocal techniques we have workshopped. They then take turns in standing up and delivering their lesson. I then give feedback on their articulation and pace. Do they sound passionate or interesting? What can they work on physically as well as vocally?

Top tips for non-verbal communication

Firstly, discuss everyone’s ideas for effective classroom management. Then you can take them through the following pointers:

  • Establish your space or territory. Where do you stand in the classroom? Do you have presence throughout the space, or do you stand in one area all the time?
  • Physicality – be aware of your posture and body language. Do you use eye contact? Do you use gesture? Is this effective or distracting? Are you using facial expression? Do you have a ‘teacher stare’ or ‘signal’ that could stop a student from swinging on their chair without having to disrupt the flow of the lesson?
  • Could you use countdowns or timers to help students know when tasks are finished?

Ideas for a quick warm-up if you’re short on time

  • Yawn and stretch, centre and ground feet and think about posture
  • Massage jaw, shake the jaw, stick your tongue out, chewing gum
  • Breathe in for four and out for eight, repeat and hum on the out breath, repeat
  • Siren, tongue twister

If you have persistent hoarseness, weakness or any kind of throat or voice problem, please see your doctor.