Teachers love to read stories and novels to their students. But do you remember how some of your teachers used to read in a droning monotone that never changed, never rose or fell, never changed in volume? Your teachers didn't have a clue about acting techniques or what makes lessons dramatic, powerful, and theatrical while reading or teaching. Their voices never changed, their eyes never widened, their arms never moved, except to turn the pages of a book or write something on the board.

Use some simple acting techniques to enliven your lessons. You know that whether your lessons are exciting or boring your students must pay attention and learn the material, and you can even tell your kids that, if necessary. But why be boring when you can be colorful? Why drone when you can speak up? Why lull your audience to sleep when you can challenge their comfortable assumptions?

And yet, be careful to marshal your energy — it's got to last the entire instructional day and you don't have unlimited amounts of it. As William Shakespeare wrote in his immortal masterpiece Hamlet,“[F]or in the very whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.” In other words, passion is good, but so are judgment, perspective, and balance. Don't bore your kids with somnolent mumbling, but don't scare them to death with unbridled screaming, either. Keep them interested and excited with well-chosen words and actions. This will make you a rare breed — an actor-teacher, something only master teachers can aspire to become.

One of the most important questions you need to ask yourself as an actor-teacher is, “Who is my character?” That is, who are you playing? Ideally, most of the time your answer should be, “Myself.” Play yourself; don't try to be someone you're not. If you're naturally soft spoken, don't try to shout to the rafters; but by the same token, surely you can speak up a bit and strengthen your voice so your kids can hear you in the last row. If you're naturally boisterous, revel in your power; yet also learn to temper your passion a bit so that a kid in your front row doesn't whisper, “Please, you're scaring me to death.”

When you're reading to your kids you must assume the traits of the characters whose parts you're acting out. When you're reading the words of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carolby Charles Dickens, remember that your heart was torn in two when you were a boy because your father never loved you and abandoned you to a miserable boarding school, year after year, Christmas after Christmas. If you're reading the part of young Jonas in The Giverby Lois Lowry, remember that you've been blatantly lied to since birth by a futuristic community that cares absolutely nothing about love or truth. If you're reading the words of Bottom the weaver in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream,remember that even though you're poor and uneducated, you've got enough raw courage to try and win the acting competition sponsored by Duke Theseus of Athens — where, if you win, you'll gain not only money, but real respect.

If you want to become a master teacher, then don't be afraid to at least try to use some acting techniques in your lessons. As Professor Cathy Sargent Mester notes in her book Acting Lessons for Teachers,“It is the skilled use of one's tools that separates the master from the apprentice. … [A]ctors and teachers share many of the same tools. …” These tools are voice, gestures, and the love of your material. In your quest to become a master teacher, try to use the tools of an actor-teacher.