While teaching a class of at least 60 students, you risk losing your voice. Whether you’ve led a group of students on a school trip or had an itchy throat during the winter, you’ve experienced some breathlessness. Imagine pushing your voice to the point where you can’t immediately ask students to turn to page 34, that you can’t get their attention in a room full of people, and that it’s nearly impossible to explain any topic in detail.
Taking care of your voice is everything about being a teacher. Strain, fatigue, and injury are genuine possibilities for educators who do not maintain good vocal hygiene and will impact more than just teaching. However, you can do plenty of things to keep your voice healthy and avoid damage and loss. Your voice is your most important asset as a teacher. So here are some tips that you can follow to keep your voice healthy and loud while teaching.
Drink plenty of water
Staying hydrated is extremely important, especially during the summer. One of the most important things you can do to protect your voice is to stay hydrated. So, always keep a water bottle with you and try to drink it every 15 minutes. It will help you relax your vocal cords while keeping your body hydrated. Caffeine dehydrates you and can dry out your larynx and vocal folds, so limit your intake.
Do not scream and shout
The quickest way to spoil one’s voice is to scream and shout, so use whatever techniques to keep loud speech to a minimum. If your class is particularly loud and obnoxious, get a bell or other signal instead of screaming and yelling over them to quiet them down. Also, you should take the necessary administrative steps to arrange a mic when speaking at assemblies. A sore and strained voice can develop after just one afternoon of calling across a crowded cafeteria.
Breathe properly
It is highly recommended that you take several deep breaths between lectures as most of our voice tiredness is caused by our habit of taking short breaths between our conversations. Also, when you are delivering your courses, try to develop the practice of inhaling and exhaling an adequate amount of air.
Don’t change your pitch
We are less likely to strain our voice if we speak at the pitch level our agent is used to. Our best speaking pitch is in the middle of our natural range, neither at the top nor the bottom. Teachers frequently speak at a lower volume than usual to convey authority or at greater importance to express politeness. But both these modifications have the potential to overuse the voice. Instead, it would help if you aimed for the range of sounds that naturally come to your voice.
Slow down your speech
It would help if you always tried to stay calm and keep your lecture speed under control. You’ll be more tired if you deliver your lecture quickly. So, the slower you go, the more relaxed you will become. When you babble, your vocal cords become strained and tight, which can cause damage. You can keep your voice sharp by making an effort to speak at an average speed. Therefore, in your classroom, always slow your speaking pace.
Do vocal cord exercises
If you frequently have a shrill, strained, or lost voice, you should incorporate vocal exercises such as using a simple drinking straw, Lip Buzz, Solfege, and Mah-May-Me-Mo-Moo into your everyday routine. These simple exercises will take just a few minutes per day but will make a significant difference in retaining your voice.
In addition, these exercises will help you relax your vocal cords and maintain your pitch. So, it would help if you simply incorporated these exercises into your daily routine to see outcomes.
Do gargles with salt water
Gargling with salt water is one of the most effective ways to preserve your voice because salt has antiseptic properties to aid in healing your aches and pains. You should incorporate this tip into your daily routine if you teach regularly. It is highly recommended that you do it twice daily, the first is in the morning and the second is at night. By following this, all of your vocal tension will be gone in no time.
Teaching is a profession in which your voice plays the most crucial role. You could be called to speak at a school sporting event or attend a mass assembly with thousands of students. As a result, you need to keep your voice healthy and should only shout whenever you need to.
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