Guest Speaker Series, P III

Now that the decision has been made and plans in place with the speaker ahead of his or her visit, the next thing to do is proplery prepare students so they will get as much out of it as possible. Students can be prepared in the following ways:

• To have the students get the most out of the presentation they have to be held accountable to it so they will pay close attention. You might decide to put key points on the next quiz so they will take notes (which speakers like to see). I have students write a reflection paper in response to five key questions relating to the presentation that is graded.
• I tell my students that if it turns out that the speaker is the most boring person they ever heard in their life they are to sit up straight in their chairs and make it seem as though it the person is the best speaker ever to respect them taking the time to visit the class.
• I have quite a few speakers speak in my HR class. At the beginning of the semester I have the kids brainstorm questions that could be asked of the speaker. I type them up on a sheet of paper and then we do a voting process to come up with the six to eight questions to ask of each speaker. We then rotate who asks the questions from speaker to speaker to get them all involved. We then compare the answers from speaker to speaker to see how similar or different on issues such as advancement potential, training, etc. Besides, it is usually the case that when the speaker leaves time for questions it is often the case that students do not have any for fear of “asking a dumb question in front of their peers.”
• Remind the students to give a great round of applause when the speaker is done to show their appreciation for the speaker and the time they took to spend with students.
  A small token of your appreciation is a great way to thank the speaker because everyone loves a gift now and then no matter how big or small!