Voice tone
By raising and lowing your voice this will keep the students from sleeping and keep them interested. Also moving around the class helps. Don't use a mono tone voice, this will disintest students quickly and put them to sleep.
I have found that depending on what time of day it is voice tone is important. In the morning sessions I like t be lively and bubbly in my tone of voice. This helps the students become actively engaged early on. When I do an afternoon class My voice inflection varies to a more subtle tone. everyone is awake and generally to settle them down and get on with learning I like a more subtle approach to the students.
I always mix up my deliveries and my tone of voice. I will sometimes imitate other people, famous or not, and I find I always have a good reaction to those times. Sometimes the students really don't know what my real voice sounds like and it helps to keep their attention through out the phase. This was something that took a while to develop and it still is a work in progress... so to speak!
I'm always getting comments on my monotone voice. Good and bad.
Hi Sara,
Good idea using role playing. This not only gets the students involved in the learning process it lets them see application of the information that they are learning. It helps to make the course content relevant. Thanks for sharing.
Gary
I also like to use role playing a lot. Putting the students in the stories and scenarios keeps them involved in class as active teachers and participants, as well as preparing them for the field. Alleviates fear of being in certain situations in the future.
I have found that good voice tone and even talking in different voices help the students to stay awake and interested.
I teach nursing, and I also use stories of my experiences in the field to teach. I think that stories are very powerful.
I have enjoyed instructors who have presented illustrations using stories to convey ideas.
Hi Marty,
Thanks for sharing this example of a fellow professional from whom you can learn in order to make your own teaching better. We need to be always looking for ways and methods of improving our delivery and sharing with each other is a great of doing it.
Gary
We have an instructor here at my school who is a master at keeping students awake. He has many voice characterizations, a voice that projects, and many anecdotes. We have even coined a phrase for this, "Edu-tain" where the instructor has to educate as well as entertian the students. I have tried to emulate his stlye of teaching with my own flare with a good deal of success.
Marty
Kerry,
That is a great point. I always walk around the class when presenting to the students and one thing I do consistently is that just before I get to a point I want to emphasize, I will begin to lower my voice slightly and punch home the point (e.g. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that will KILL YOU DEAD!). This ingrains the subject material and may even keep a few students awake.
John
