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Overhear an ordinary conversation between two people, in a bar or on a bus, and then imagine it on the stage. You know you wouldn't be able to hear it past row A of the stalls unless it was performed by competent actors.
Although teaching is not precisely the same as acting, there are similar issues involved. To pursue both professions it is necessary to be heard, to engage attention and to transmit a message.
We listen to and learn from a voice that sounds confident and has energy. We switch off from a voice that is strained, flat or plain boring. It is therefore vital to consider how the voice is managed and cared for if used professionally politicians, priests, barristers and senior management, please note!
New teachers discover very quickly that they need vocal skills for crowd control and class management, since their route to qualification is experiential. In the `good old days' they would first sit in school as observers, then spend increasing amounts of time assisting, and eventually take over. This was a sensible plan. Now a graduate earning a PGCE spends 80 per cent of their time in school, so in a single year makes a leap from student to NQT - a much harder task.
The voice is a physical instrument, responsive to our feelings and intentions, and we usually take for granted that it will serve as expected. Unfortunately, it doesn't always do so when faced with new and daunting situations. It may sound nervous, lack flexibility and projection, or emerge dull and expressionless. Worse, when we sense our voice failing us, we may compound the difficulty because we don't know what to do, possibly even causing ourselves long-term damage. Actors and singers spend years honing the instrument that they know to be the prime tool of their trade, learning how to use and take care of it.
How is voice produced?
Your voice is produced when your brain is stimulated. The cry at birth uses your voice for the first time. You listen to your parent’s voices as you grow up. You copy and repeat what you hear gradually learning words and developing your way of speaking with the rhythms, intonation and pronunciation that you hear.
For your voice
Voice at work
As a teacher you'll be speaking for long periods, in large spaces and to big groups. The effort may put pressure on your voice and cause strain. If the strain is too great voice problems may develop and make the voice less effective, which will have less impact on the listeners. If the speaker is aware of this they can feel less in control and less confident.
Practical steps to keeping your voice healthy
A short voice warm-up (If you have any injury disability or chronic illness, consult your doctor before attempting the exercises.)
A few minutes a day spent warming-up your voice will keep it fit and flexible. The greater art of oral communication may take a lifetime to perfect …
Yawn and stretch
Shake your legs
Shake and swing arms gently, to free them up
Ease shoulders – gently rolling up, round and back
Release your head gently forwards with chin on chest – slowly keeping the neck long
Then slowly let the head uncurl bringing head level with eyes horizontal.
Release your breath easily and slowly out – when you feel ready, let breath in filling lower lungs and your centre, repeat three times.
Hum gently, as if you were pleased, feel the vibration around your lips and jaw. Repeat three times.
Move them up and down,
Blow them to relax and flutter.
Drop jaw and raise it easily a few times
A selection of the physical exercises, followed by relaxation and slow, easy breathing, can also be a useful "cool down" after work.
If you have a cold and you lose your voice – avoid whispering, reduce talking where possible, use steam (with care) delegate to others, take medication and rest your voice.
If you have no infection but your voice becomes hoarse, you lose your voice, it seems weak or tired, or you have a tickly cough that will not go away and, it continues for three weeks, it is advisable to check this with you GP. If it continues for six weeks, the suggestion of speech and language therapists is that you seek specialist advice.
The Voice Care Network
Information and advice on vocal management and care should be available to all who enter the teaching profession, and it was a deep concern about the lack of this provision that led to the formation of the Voice Care Network in the 1990s. This organisation, comprising both voice teachers and speech and language therapists, seeks to address a situation that is now becoming more widely recognised.
The network promotes healthy voices that communicate effectively and it is poised to launch a new initiative: the Year of the Teacher's Voice. They offer nationwide workshops and courses on offer from their tutors, where good vocal practice and proper care will be taught.
This article was taken from Report magazine September 2005. Written by Caroline Cornish is a member of the Voice Care Network UK and author of Can You Hear Me at the Back?: A Handbook on Voice for All Who Teach, published by BiVocal Press, ISBN 0 9526458 07. The VCN booklet More Care for Your Voice gives concise information and more about using your voice and how to keep it healthy.
Further information
“Fitness to Teach” DCSF and DoH 2001 acknowledges
Help and support
For further advice on this issue, ATL members can speak to their school rep, their branch secretary or their regional official. They can also call the London (020 7930 6441), Cardiff (029 2046 5000), Belfast (028 9078 2020) or Edinburgh (0131 272 2748) offices or email info@atl.org.uk
For out of hours enquiries, call the out of office hours helpline on 020 7782 1612 (Monday-Friday, 5-8pm during term time).
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