Said It Here

Why do I keep losing my voice from teaching?

Extended talking and projecting to large groups causes progressive weekly voice strain that can return at the start of every school year. This recurring loss of voice creates anxiety about potential permanent damage to vocal cords from continuous strain.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Drinking water
  2. 2
    Using menthol cough drops
  3. 3
    Gargling salt water
  4. 4
    Drinking warm tea with honey
  5. 5
    Sipping water constantly from a desk bottle
  6. 6
    Speaking from the diaphragm to project the voice
  7. 7
    Preheating the throat and doing singing exercises
  8. 8
    Sucking on Hall's throat lozenges
  9. 9
    Using a personal voice amplifier with a clip-on microphone and speaker

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.

right now after every week my throat feels very irritated >_< right now i'm making myself some thyme-honey-cinamon milk but I was wondering if there's anything more effectivesource ↗

osmium999 · r/Teachers · 4 upvotes

This is the second week in a row where I’ve lost my voice, not completely, but decently near the end.source ↗

I’m worried I might be doing permanent damage though, if this keeps happening.source ↗

LonelyCombination327 · r/Teachers · 2 upvotes

I lose my voice at the beginning of every school year.source ↗

DefiantRadish1492 · r/Teachers · 1 upvotes

You’re probably straining your vocal cords without realizing it.source ↗

Warm tea with honey between classes helped me more than i expected, and keeping a water bottle on the desk so i’m sipping constantly instead of chugging between periods.source ↗

costly_distribution · r/Teachers · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised