This week I caught a cold which resulted in the complete loss of my voice. This of course followed the stomach flu that I and about 10 other relatives acquired from a baby at Thanksgiving last weekend. My immune system feels like a defensive football team that just stays on the field most of the game – I imagine it’s getting pretty tired. I was glad at least that I lost my voice on a Friday, only one day of work to get through, although it quickly faded and by my last period was down to a whisper. What impressed me was how well the students adapted to understand my hand gestures and even looked for more opportunities to volunteer to read from their notes or answer each other’s questions. Thank goodness for a well-prepared powerpoint, too!
The experience sort of pushed to forefront a thought I’ve been having – how useful is all my speech? No doubt, teachers maintain their classroom environment and communicate most directly through speech, but much of what I’ve been learning and attempting to implement over the last few years is an environment in which students generate much of the input in class. I was catching up on a colleague’s blog (Steve Dembo, an educational techology pro) and read a post about busywork and read several cross-posts on the subject of schools considering dropping homework altogether. I started wondering how much of what we say in the classroom is busytalk? I guess being voiceless for one day made me realize how important my students’ voices are and how easy it can be at times to neglect them.
Brett
