Having to stand up in front of a class for the majority of the day means that confidence before an audience must be part of any competent teacher’s skillset. Stereotypically, teachers may love the sound of their own voice; let us not forget, we are the experienced professionals who should be demonstrating our expertise to the students we are in charge of. But how much talk is too much? And are we talking for the right reasons?

Recent Ofsted trends seem to be favouring more teacher-led activities, whereas five years ago we believed that the ideal teacher was actually standing outside the classroom “facilitating” students to lead all of their own learning. So how do we get the balance right? And how do we use our performance to enhance, rather than hinder, our teaching?

Here are five ways to check whether you are using your performance toolbox wisely in the classroom, or simply showing off.

Question the balance of teacher talk versus pupil talk regularly

You are performing effectively if you model excellent reading of a narrative poem, because the text will be enriched by your superior rendition. But if you get to the end of a lesson and realise that you have talked at your students for the best part of an hour because the topic you are currently covering was what you did your dissertation on, you might wish to question your motives.

Know your audience, and pitch correctly

You are using performance wisely if you use “teacher in role” to introduce a historical figure to a group of eager Year 7s at the beginning of a unit of work. But you are showing off if you insist on performing a complicated tongue-twister to your Year 11s the week before their exams, simply because you think it will amuse them, or you want to sound impressive.

Draw on your physicality as well as your voice

If you come from a performance background, you will be familiar with the power of proxemics. Choosing a particular spot in the classroom or a specific gesture that you use to get students’ attention is making effective use of the performance space and will make you a better classroom practitioner. On the other hand, not appreciating your own physicality in the classroom when you, for example, block the board consistently, can show a lack of self-awareness or, worse still, egotism. 

Involve your students in your performance

By inviting students to be part of your performance, you are increasing their chances of being able to retain information. For example, they might create freeze-frames of key words or phrases that they hear as you expressively read a Shakespeare soliloquy. However, an invasion of a student’s personal space or obsessive circling of the class can actually show that you are focusing too much on yourself. Let them breathe every once in a while.

And finally: don’t star yourself in the school play

Visions of Mr G in Summer Heights High may haunt us all, but this is a cautionary tale that we can all learn from. A cameo in the sixth-form panto to show that you don’t take yourself too seriously is one thing. Casting yourself as Jesus Christ Superstar and charging parents to watch their kids be your supporting cast is another. Resist the urge.

Katherine Burrows is an English teacher at Abingdon School in Oxfordshire