I'm not a teacher but I do have to use my voice a lot in my job and have had a lot of explaining to do about my SD over the years.

This would be a wonderful opportunity to explain to a "captive audience" exactly what SD is. Don't pull any punches. Tell them exactly what you have and what it is. I would simplify it, without going into too much technical or medical details, depending on the age of your class. But what a wonderful opportunity. With each class you teach, you presumably have at least 30 or so people to educate about SD. Think of the numbers of kids growing up, having a knowledge of SD and meeting face to face with someone going through the struggles of living with a debilitating voice disorder.

Good luck and keep us posted as to how you get on.

My school has invested in a very nice, sensitive, sound system and I have to put very little effort into talking and kids can hear even my whisper.

My suggestion is for you to get a michrophone when you have a permenant position, so you damage your voice anymore. They have some inexpensive models like chattervox that gym teahcers and aerobic teacher seem to like. It is self contained.

The first few days, I just say that I have a soft voice and sometimes it gets caught, and strainded, and I need their help, so we can have a productive and fun time together( easy for me to say since I teach art).

There are lots of schedule changes and adds and drops that first week or two, so I don't go into any details. Then when I have my permenant class I tell them in more detail about my condition and it's mysterious origin.............. and don't bring attention to it anymore after that.

I bleieve the more I focus on it the worse my voice gets, Once I relax with the students, and use my michrophone, I usually can get by ok.

Students in general are very kind and understanding, given a chance to help you.

Only once in the past five years one student started to imitate me and made frog noises( which was very painful for me ) but the other kids came to my rescue and told him he was bing rude, and peer pressure was all that he needed.

I also took the time to explain what it is like to have a disability, and asked them , if they would make fun of a person who was blind, or who was walking with a limp, and so on..........? That seemed to help them visualize it better and it never happened again.

On parent night, I also tell parents that I have a voice disorder and for those who think I may be nervous and that's why my voice is cracking up, If I say it is neurological, kind of like parkinson's, they seem to feel satisfied. Hope this helps.

By the way I am having a great year, the students love me and are very cooperative. They like my "Medonna Mike" . I let students with soft voice to use it when they want to speak to the class.