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L:/Praxis/Scientist & Engineer in the Classroom/Questions to ask Teachers who request Guest Speakers.docx

Questions to ask Teachers who request Guest Speakers (teacher’s name) I am happy to report that I was successful in locating a potential guest speaker for your class. (presenter’s name and vocation if appropriate) and will be the person you contact to see if a mutually agreeable date/time can be worked out regarding your request for a speaker on “dinosaurs”. Please note that you must fit your date/time to the guest speaker’s schedule as they have work or personal commitments to attend to and after all their service to you is free. We do have some questions prior to the presentation that require your answers. Please send the answers to these question to the guest speaker via email with a cc to us at Praxis (the stats collected are needed for funding purposes the other questions help the speaker prepare). Please cc all communications with your guest speaker to us so we can monitor the progress and perhaps help out it if there are difficulties. I hope the two of you will be able to come to an agreeable date/time. You may have to adjust your class schedule to meet the speaker’s available time. A small price to pay considering we take the time and effort to locate a speaker for you and the volunteers donate their time (preparing their presentation and sometimes having to book off from work or travel some distance) and specialized knowledge at no cost to you or the school. • Estimated number of students involved: ______ students. If there is more than one class or group involved, then how many in each? If more than one then other teacher(s) name(s) please? Can the groups/classes be combined to make better use of the speaker's time? • Where is the event being held (address/directions), where is the building entrance and where to park? • Once the quest speaker enters the building where and to whom should they report? (Please have someone there to greet them and escort them to your location.) • Where are the adult washrooms/lounge (adult guests in elementary schools should use the staff facilities and not the students' washrooms)? • What are the start/stop times of the presentation (it is recommend you keep it similar or a little shorter in length as a regular class period (for elementary that is about 40 minutes, middle school 40-60 minutes and for high school 60 - 75 minutes)? • What is the class or groups understanding of this topic (beginning, middle or end of study)? • What has been covered thus far by the class or group (if middle or end)? • What will the students learn/do in the next week or two in this topic? • Any special activities in the topic that you and the students have done or will do? Most of our subject area specialist volunteers do not have Criminal Record Check’s or the Child Welfare Intervention Check’s on file with Praxis so in order to accommodate School Divisions’/District’s policies we require all teachers remain in the classroom during the presentation (whenever the speaker is with the students). Also to qualify guest speakers for insurance liability coverage, all subject area specialists are reminded that they must be booked through Praxis, so please let us locate and book speakers on your behalf. We ask the teacher to appropriately thank the guest speaker for their time. A school pin, pen etc. is appropriate but from experience the best expression of gratitude would be a Thank You card or letter signed by the students or by a student on behalf of the class. Please provide us with a photocopy, fax or scan of this thank you card/letter for our files. If at all possible, could you please take some pictures and

L:/Praxis/Scientist & Engineer in the Classroom/Questions to ask Teachers who request Guest Speakers.docx

forward them to us after all a picture is worth a thousand words. We sometimes see pictures that we'd really like to post on our website. Before we do this we will ask for the parent contact information so that we may ask them for permission and have them fill out our FOIP form. As a not-for-profit agency, these types of anecdotal records are import documents in our quest for support and funding so that the Praxis Society may continue to provide our services to you and the school at no cost. Also attached is a speaker evaluation form that we require you to complete after the speaker has given the presentation. This helps us zero in on the appropriate placement of speakers with regards to topic and grade level. Providing feedback also helps ensure you receive future guest speakers, provides us with a measure of our success in finding you the appropriate placement of the speaker and is useful in future requests from other teachers. You should be aware that we also ask speakers to provide us with feedback for similar reasons. Looking forward to Praxis providing you with on-going support in your future Science endevours. When the opportunity arises to share your positive Praxis experiences with your science teaching colleagues in other schools, would you please do so? An increase in the numbers of teachers who use our services can translate into dollars which allows us to continue and perhaps even increase our support to all science teachers in South East Alberta. Conversely, if the experience is negative please let us know. No one likes to say or hear unpleasant news but all feedback is valuable. We must strive to communicate. As a service oriented organization we know that effective communication is necessary in order for us to grow and improve. Thanks and take care, Lorne


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