如果您失去了老师的声音，请举手？在体育狂欢节之后，活动彩排，游乐场的职责甚至是课堂上的正常一天？你不是一个人！研究表明，老师经历语音问题的可能性是普通人群的三到五倍，每年多达20％的教师受到急性影响(Pemberton, 2008)。尽管如此，我们中的许多人都没有学到太多关于我们的声音的知识，更不用说语音照顾老师的重要性了。
Maybe you’ve never really thought about your voice making anatomy. As babies, most of us can learn how to make sounds without explicit teaching so understanding how the human voice works is often left to singers and medical professionals!
However, as teachers, it’s important for us to understand a few key things about our voice so that we can照顾这个关键工具在我们的教学和交流工具包中。
If you’d prefer to listen to a podcast,listen to our helpful podcast with voice coach Sally Prosser。
10 Ways to Take Care of Your Voice
您需要了解的声音
- Your voice is created by thevibration of your vocal folds(a.k.a. vocal chords).
- These are two bands of smooth muscle tissue that are附着在muscles in your larynx(a.k.a. voice box) which is located at the base of your tongue.
- Your vocal folds, your tongue and the surrounding muscles in your neck and face are like any other muscles in your body and需要使用前热身,避免引起damage or pain.
考虑到所有这些 - 今年可以做的10件事可以采取10件事。
(1) Stay Hydrated
Keep a bottle of水定期在你的办公桌和sip。里美t your caffeine intake as it dehydrates and can make your larynx and vocal folds dry too.
(2) Plan Rest Breaks for Your Voice
This is something you need to do every day! Not just when your voice is tired or hoarse.
When planning your lessons for the day, consider which activities will require significant vocal effort and which one won’t. Try to alternate them, if possible, so that you canrest your voice throughout the day。
(3) Avoid Vocal Extremes
That’s大喊和whispering呢虽然喊叫并不是我们的声音那么好，但这两种极端的声音都会给您的声带带来压力。
窃窃私语和安静地说话实际上是有区别的。最好通过确定耳语含有更多呼吸来解释。这种额外的呼吸比仅以低音量以普通的声音说话时，以更尖锐的方式给您的声带折叠带来了压力。
(4) Use a Personal Amplification Device
As awareness of the impact of vocal strain builds amongst the teaching community,personal amplification productsdesigned specifically for teachers are becoming more common in classrooms.
You may have already seen these portable voice amplifiers from@thincproductsstarting to appear on social media. This kind of device is a fantastic way to ensure you aren’t going to strain your voice day after day!
(5) Learn How to Project Your Voice
While you can definitely use a microphone in your classroom, as someone who speaks to groups on a daily basis, learning how tosafely project your voiceis crucial.
Projecting your voice is very different to shouting. While the volume of sound we make when shouting often comes from a closed and strained throat, the volume we can create whenprojectingour voice comes from an open throat, thus reducing the stress placed on our vocal folds.
The most simple way to begin learning how to project your voice is toimagineyour voice coming out of your mouth and physically travelling across to the other side of the room. This little mind trick helps us to practice “forward resonance” which is the fancy term for increasing the volume of our voice by making it resonate in the hollow parts of our face. Speaking ‘from the centre of your face’ helps to reduce the strain on your throat and your vocal chords while maximising how far your voice can be carried across a space.
更多tips for commanding an audienceor your class, listen to ourteaching podcastwith vocal coach Sally Prosser as she takes us through some confidence-boosting self-talk routines.
(6) Use Conscious Breath
Learning how to呼吸支持您的声音is so important! Singers learn to “sing from their belly” in order to create sound in the most physically ‘safe’ way. By supporting their voice with breath, the effort it takes to create the vocal sounds and volume singers need come from the muscles in their abdomen rather than the more delicate muscles in their throat.
Of course, you can go and take singing lessons if you’d like to – they will help you become a great custodian of your breath and your voice! However, if you’d prefer to take a slightly more introverted approach,practising mindful breathing, meditation or yoga is a great way to learn how to utilise the power of your breath.
另外，重要的是要热身声音。要易于跟随您的声音，请与Sally Prosser一起听我们的播客，她带您经过简单的3步，1分钟voice warm-up for teachers。
(7) Avoid Throat Clearing
Throat clearing is essentially banging your vocal chords together with great force.
Thephysical impact of throat clearingis similar to that of having a bad cough. Rather than forcing a loud or ‘sharp’ throat clearing, try instead to sip water and swallow hard or clear your throat very gently if you really need to.
(8) Use Non-Vocal Attention Grabbers
Find ways to limit speaking over noise in loud places by usingnon-vocal attention getters。Some ideas include:
- 鼓掌节奏
- 手信号
- playing music
- using a whistle or a bell.
You might like to check out our postFun Attention-Grabbing Tips for Your Classroom有关更多想法。
（9）考虑您的整个健康
As much as we’d sometimes prefer not to acknowledge, our overall health has an impact on every aspect of our physical and mental wellbeing. Our body’s ability to make voice is no different.
- Fatigue, in particular, can have a significant impact on our voice.
- Eating a balanced diet helps to keep the mucous membranes in our throats healthy.
- 定期运动会增加耐力和肌肉张力，从而改善我们的姿势，进而改善我们对声音的使用。
(10) Take. Your. Sick. Days.
When you’re sick with a hoarse or husky voice你需要休假。就像肌肉紧张的跑步者一样，您无法回到赛道上，并假装“柔和”的跑步不会造成进一步的伤害并延长恢复时间。
While it’s true that taking a day off can mean more work than just turning up, it’s so important to listen to your body and give your voice time to heal before heading back into the vocally demanding realm of the classroom teacher!
很棒的提示！我特别喜欢语音放大器的想法。有时，我在上课时突然失去了声音，嗓子很刮擦，我知道那我一定会使我的绳索过多！
We're glad you found this helpful, Zoha! Thanks for taking the time to give us your feedback!
您好，我是一名新老师，到了第一周结束时，我的声音已经淡出了！现在，我有一个雷德猫，并且正在使用手符号更多，而且我在白天（例如《沉默》阅读中，我都会放在“声音中断”。感谢您的一篇好文章，将其作为一个需要讨论的话题。
Hi Rebecca. Thank you for your comment. I'm happy to hear that you have been able to put some strategies in place to help save your voice. It's so important and a great idea to get into these good habits early in your teaching career.
Take your sick days! Best and hardest advice to follow! You feel so guilty. It took losing my voice weekly to seek help and finally put myself first!
Absolutely! Taking days off work can be such a hard mental battle to fight (with ourselves!). But a day here and there to ensure we are healthy and well makes the rest of our time at school much more productive and beneficial for everyone, doesn't it!
I have lost my voice for days at a time in the past because I did not stay away when my throat got sore. I would add to your comments about shouting. All that does is make the class noisier. Using a moderate or “normal” speaking voice forces the class to keep quieter to hear. Control of noise is easier to establish along with non-verbal signals. A rhythmic sh sh shshsh and a finger on the lips helps. Never try to shout above the noise! Some teachers have naturally loud and dare I say it shrill voices. I have not so have developed other techniques.
Hi Augusta, Absolutely! It can certainly take a lot of self-awareness not to shout about a noisy class. Thank you for taking the time to share what is working well for you! Kind regards, Cassie