By the time I started speaking professionally, I already had more than twenty thousand hours of teaching experience under my belt. Yet for as much as my experience teaching has made me a better speaker, being a speaker has made me a better teacher too.
In many ways, my time in the classroom was great preparation for my speaking career. I became comfortable standing in front of a group of strangers. Talking over noisy teenagers for hours every day strengthened my voice. Creating lesson plans has taught me how to structure information for clarity and recall. So I was already ahead of the game in many ways.
But speaking is also very different from teaching. When I teach, I am focused on the information. I move about the room, interacting with my students as I gauge whether they have absorbed the point I am trying to get across and are ready to move on, or if they need me to go back and review the material, or even come at it from a completely different angle.
I never used to think about how I used my voice or gestures, or my specific word choices. I just said and did what came naturally.
As I’ve progressed as a speaker, though, I’ve come to see that there is a place for speaking techniques in the classroom, too. There are times when I need to make sure my students hear, understand and remember one specific idea.
So I structure the idea in a short, pithy sound bite that will stick in their brains. I pause, letting the silence hang until they are leaning forward in anticipation. I stand stock still and lock eyes with one student. I change my delivery, raising or lowering the pitch or volume of my voice, becoming the voice of doom or gentle reason.
I use every technique I know to focus their attention on that one idea, planting it deep into their minds.
Some would call it brainwashing or mind control, but that’s what teaching is. It is more than just presenting information. Teaching is shaping the thought processes of your students in a way that gives them the skills and mental habits they need to solve problems on their own.
That’s what learning to speak effectively has done for me, and can do for you too.
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