The Teacher Voice…
Posted by schoolspirit on 20 February, 2008
The kids weren’t required at school today. We had another professional development day. In fact, we had the first of a four part series of professional development sessions, the last three of which will take place over the next three Wednesday afternoons after school. It was about recognising language learning difficulties and the current ‘best practice’ way to teach around them. Bits and pieces of it were worthwhile, but that’s not really the purpose of this post. Instead, I’m focusing on the teacher’s voice.
The voice the teacher uses when actually teaching and interacting with the kids.
One of the presenters today spoke to us all the way through with her teacher voice. It was vibrant, it was active, it varied in pitch, it over dramatised expression to promote interest.
In short, it got annoying really fast.
Honestly, it was like being back at home in the early 80s watching Romper Room on telly. I really felt as though I was being condescended to by this (granted, very well-meaning) teacher presenting parts of this session by the way she was speaking to us all through the day. It put me in mind of the way my mum used to read books to me when I was two or three, lots of exaggerated expression and over-the-top voices. Which was fine when I was two or three listening to mum read ‘The Pokey Little Puppy’ Golden Book.
It started me thinking about the way I talk to the kids in my grade each day. I’ve got the same level as this presenter, except that she’d come from teaching prep kids the years before. I know it wouldn’t work. I couldn’t stand or sit there in front of them all and rabbit on in this forced teacher voice all day and expect the kids to take me seriously! I know it wouldn’t work because there are times when, for a bit of a laugh, I’ve put on this particular style of teacher voice for certain lessons just to see the effect.
The kids generally just nod their heads lower, look up at me from beneath crooked eyebrows with wry little smiles and say things along the lines of ‘you’ve gotta be kidding us, Mr V’.
Yup. Kids don’t like being condescended to.
Which has left me wondering about it, because apparently all the kids at her own school adore her BECAUSE OF THE WAY SHE SPEAKS TO THEM!
I suppose there’s just different ways of doing things, eh? I guess the kids I work with (who’ve known me for several years already just coming up through the school) expect just the face I’ve always shown and not anything I’m not. This particular person presents to the kids in this way, with this voice and approach, and the kids recognise it as her way of teaching. I rock up and talk to the kids like I’d talk to just about anybody (which usually means pulling their leg several times during the day, granted), and they appreciate me for sticking with who I am.
While such a voice seems to work for others, I just can’t see myself changing my style of delivery. I reckon tomorrow I’ll just keep doing as I have, give them a high-five as they walk inside in the morning and a ‘g’day, Ugly’ by way of greeting and get on with it.
Kids aren’t dumb. They recognise quickly when you’re not shooting straight.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I know the voice you mean. Through the years I’ve been taught by and then taught with people who used this – shall I kindly call it a “technique”?
I’ve taught for many years, and I’ve taught at different age levels. I’ve always found it better to use the approach you seem to employ. I’ve always talked to my students as if they were people I liked. And that’s probably why they stop by to see me, or come over to me in restaurants to introduce me to their spouses and kids (now that they’re grown).
~Cindy
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Well, it seems to work for some, so there must be some value in it, I suppose. I just felt it rather condescending that she thought it reasonable to use the same voice on the rest of us. My own little beef, I guess.
I suppose it goes both ways too. There are kids I interact with who speak to me in completely different voices than they would other teachers, and to be fair, other teachers would probably think they were being cheeky. Guess it’s just the persona you choose to project.