Teacher Mannerisms

Hello everyone,

When I was in the 10th grade, I had an English teacher who was incredibly boring. He was a nice enough man, but he would stand in front of the class and drone on with no variation in his voice, and when we (invariably) acted up, he would say, "People please," in the same monotone. I got so I could do a pretty good impersonation of him (I still can), and I could even get other teachers to laugh by standing with my belly poking out and droning, "People please."

It turns out that the teacher in question had once suffered a head injury, and it was impossible to correct his mannerisms. But if he had been in possession of his full faculties, a good friend should have told him that he spoke with mannerisms that the students were mocking.

After an entire semester of English with him, the only thing that I remember is that mannerism and some really good pranks we played on him. I don't remember any English lessons. I do remember the day he put the entire class to sleep, including himself. I woke up to find myself the only conscious person in the room. On the other hand, I had many other engaging teachers, and I can remember exactly what I learned from them more than 30 years later. From the engaging teachers, I learned content; from the boring teachers, I learned mannerisms.

A point to take, if you're willing, is that you need to be vocally interesting, and try to avoid distracting mannerisms.

Here are the distracting things I hear occasionally:
Uh. Um. Okay? 'K? All right?

If you keep repeating things (if you say "all right" more than twice an hour, or "um" more than once a day, you have a problem), your students will forget what you're trying to teach, and often start counting how many times you say "uh" in an hour.

As long as I'm on the subject of language, let me counsel you to avoid trying to sound cool by adopting teenage slang. It's always a great way to get yourself mocked. It sound decisively un-cool coming from a teacher, especially one who's trying to endear him or herself to the students.

Profanity is even worse.

In honor of a friend of mine, I have to say that some people are bothered by otherwise innocuous expressions like "you guys" used indiscriminately.

Now, this advice will probably make you completely self-conscious about your language for a week or two. Good. You'll get over the self-consciousness soon enough. Just drop the mannerisms, 'k?

Jeff Combe