Chapter 3 - Identifying and Preparing "Guest Teachers"

As a busy teacher, you may be wondering, how do I go about recruiting guest speakers from the community? For starters, it is amazing how valuable your personal participation in various civic activities with your students can be in terms of building up your network of "guest teachers".

We actually met General Price at the 10th Anniversary of the Dedication of the NC Vietnam Veterans Memorial at the State Capitol in Raleigh (Memorial Day, 1997). He reacted very positively when I told him about our Community-in-the-Classroom Program, and he expressed his interest in becoming a part of it. I also find that by being involved in various teacher professional development programs, one does increase the odds of running into "new recruits". I have recently returned from the Watson Institute of International Studies "Choices" Teaching Fellows program at Brown University (summer 1999), and one of our visitors was Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island (Figure 3.1), who asked, "What can we legislators do to help our schools and teachers be more successful?" I responded to Senator Reed by saying:

"Local, state and national legislators should visit our schools, spend a day with students, teachers and administrators, and serve as "guest teachers" in several classes. You will leave with a better understanding of the issues and problems we face in public education, and, hopefully, you will be more likely to act on that knowledge".

Figure 3.1 Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island (center).

I am not sure that Senator Reed will be able to take advantage of my offer, but you will never know unless you ask! It has been my experience that you will often be pleasantly surprised. Let’s face it, improving public education is one of the top "issues" of the day. Politicians are often very eager to form direct classroom links that provide them a real opportunity to interact directly with students and teachers, and become more understanding of the problems that we as educators face. They see the crowded classrooms, and become more concerned about the real effects of limited school funds on the overall quality of the educational programs we offer.

In the final analysis, getting good speakers to come to your classroom is not the issue. The main problem is that we (teachers and administrators) have not told them (the community and parents) about how they can become more involved, and have greater ownership in the delivery of a quality educational programs. To reinforce this very point, Tom Oxholm, representing Business and Education Leaders in our Community (BELC), said after my Community-in-the-Classroom presentation at the Wake County Goal 2003: Business and Education Unite program, January 15, 1999, "We are just waiting for the teachers to tell us what to do!" (Figure 3.2).

Figure 3.2 Tom Oxholm, a community business/education leader (BELC), discusses the value of a Community-in-the-Classroom  program with Lindy Poling prior to the start of school, Millbrook High School, August 15, 1999.

Finding the Right Speaker

Start with your students.At the beginning of each semester review the upcoming units of study with your students and ask them to assist you in making contacts through:

¤Parents
¤Grandparents
¤ Family and Friends
¤ City, County, State and National Officials
¤ Veterans Chapters
¤ Red Cross
¤ Kids Voting
¤ Church and Civic Groups
¤ PTA
¤ Community Volunteers
¤ Your speakers! That’s right - take advantage of your speaker network for their contacts