Checklist for Student Speakers

Here are Some Suggestions to Help You Prepare for Your Presentation

1. Be sure you have signed and turned in the waiver before you go.
2. Always notify Kellogg Outreach when you are going to speak at a school. 
3. Double check what time the teacher wants you in the school, not what time the class starts.  You will have to check in at an office first.
4. The teacher should always be in the classroom when you are there. 
5. Have specific directions to the school and find out where the entrance/front office is.
6. Be sure the teacher knows what AV equipment you’ll want to have.
7. Not all schools have the most recent version of PowerPoint, etc.  Save your presentation in the new and older versions.
8. Don’t forget to take your flash drive!

Your Presentation Outline

• Introduce yourself to the class.
  • Name
  • Year/major (middle school and up)
  • Where you’re from
• Introduce your experience
  • Country(ies)- a map of the world would be helpful
  • Brief description of your main work or experience
• What do you/the teacher want the students to learn?
  • What did the teacher request?
  • What kind of class/course are you speaking to?
  • Find out from the teacher how much background they will have regarding your topic/country.
  • From everything you say, most students will remember only a few things- try to have a few main themes that you go over more than once rather than trying to cover everything that you experienced.
• Attention spans are short; keep it moving.
  • Have a good variety of slides and change them often.
  • Take some props if you have them- clothing, toys, books, music, to break up the talking.  This is more important with grade schools than high school.
  • Have some questions in mind to ask the students, again, just to mix it up.
  • Jokes and/or funny stories are always a good idea.
  • Walking around the room, changing the inflection of your voice, pointing, snapping your fingers for emphasis- any kind of variety will help keep the students more engaged.
• Is your presentation age appropriate?
  • Be aware of your vocabulary if you are working with younger students.
  • The younger the students, the shorter the attention spans.
  • Teaching a song would work well with grades K-4; it would bomb with older students.
• Stay within the time allotted; leave time at the end for questions if possible.  If they don’t ask any, have some ideas of questions you could ask them.