Guest Speakers in the Classroom

By: Isla Murphy, Classkick Community Team

When things get busy in the classroom, it can be tempting for teachers to close their door and limit distractions. Teachers have an enormous number of responsibilities in a school year and never enough time to execute them all. Having community guests in your classroom can be one more thing on a “nice to have” list that gets pushed to the bottom in favor of other initiatives.

Despite what you may think, having the right guest in the classroom can actually save teachers time in that it can get students engaged in the material and demonstrate authentic learning opportunities. It is a great way to integrate with the community, build partnerships with families and other stakeholders, and share knowledge outside of your own realm.

Looking for ideas for unique and interesting community guest speakers for your classroom? Try these:

Community Helpers:

Especially if you teach younger grades, this one is a guaranteed hit. Having a firefighter, police officer, doctor, nurse, or other community helper typically fits somewhere in the expectations for early grades, and the kids just love these visits. Arrange for a tour of the fire truck, or a showcase of their gear, and enjoy all of the hilarious questions students will have for them.

Curriculum Connections

There is a chance that you will get lucky and one of your students will mention that their parent just so happens to work in the field you are currently studying in class. You also may regularly send updates to parents about what topics you are covering in class. If you stay open to the possibility of having a family member of your student come as a guest speaker, and communicate this to parents throughout the school year, you may end up with some great content-related speaker options! It’s also easy to find paid, curriculum-connected, in-class experiences but funding might be slightly harder to come by depending on the district. Using the resources of your community to supplement content is a great way to ensure that students get real-world examples of applications of what they are learning in class.

International Awareness

Living and teaching in a diverse community is a great opportunity to share ideas and cultures that may be unfamiliar to some students. Hosting a multicultural fair with food, music, traditions, and languages from the families of your students is one way to help students feel their unique backgrounds are valued in their school community. Also, if you are studying a particular part of the world that a student comes from, having a parent or relative come to talk about and answer questions is one way to deepen the learning for students. Here is a great resource with example interview questions for international visitors.

Empathy Building

As important as it is to build a strong sense of community within your classroom, extending that to the wider community that your school is part of can impact students’ sense of community long after they leave your class. Connecting with seniors, volunteer organizations, and daycare centers can give students an opportunity to share their skills with others. Students can do a reading buddy program, share musical talents, or even something more informal that would be beneficial to both parties. You also may bring a yoga or mindfulness instructor into the classroom to teach skills such as breathwork and calming strategies that students can use both on the playground and long into adulthood.

Food Supply Chain

It’s shocking that many students do not know where their food comes from. Yes, they may know how to use a food delivery system already, but may not be able to identify how their food is grown or what the raw ingredients look like. If you teach in an urban setting, students may not even have ever seen a farm. Having a guest speaker with farming experience could be an eye-opening experience for students. Another option is to have a representative from the grocery store or a restaurant come and talk about food preparation and purchasing healthy options.

Video Chat

If you haven’t tried it yet, using a video chat service like Google Hangouts or Skype in your classroom can be a great way to travel the world and have guest speakers, all without paying or leaving your classroom. There are many opportunities to have a guest speaker enter your classroom via online chat. Anyone from a museum curator, STEM scientist, author, or even another classroom of students can provide insights and learning relevant to your students. Some places to look are Skype in the Classroom, The Global Read Aloud, and Google Hangouts.

I hope you find the bandwidth to include a community guest speaker in your classroom this school year, and that it is both educational for your students and enriching for you as well. Here are some tips for preparing for a classroom visitor. If you do end up having a great guest in your classroom — share about it on our Classkick Community Facebook group! We love to hear what you are doing in your classroom!