However, all my worries were for naught. An unfamiliar car drove in as I watched the older kiddos at recess. It was our speakers! I had one of the 7th grade girls intercept them and direct them to our room so they could get set up. The 5th and 6th graders stuck inside finishing late work were super confused... "Who are those people? Why are they messing with Miss H's computer? And does she know they're doing that?!" they whispered to each other. Thankfully, they asked the 7th grader those questions and not our guests.
Both girls are students at MLC, one from Canada and one from St. Lucia (a small island in the Caribbean... it only takes an hour and fifteen minutes to get from north to south!). They were great speakers! And even better, my rambunctious 7th and 8th graders were a fantastic audience. They asked a few questions, listened respectfully, and completed their post-it note of three interesting things. Most got waaaaay more than three for each speaker.
Our Canadian guest showed pictures of recipes invented in Canada. One of them was poutine, french fries covered in gravy with cheese curds! I had it at the Clay County Fair a few weeks ago and it's surprisingly delicious! Although, can you really go wrong with cheese curds? She also showed us pictures of places she's been in Canada (famous places). She was born in Calgary, and talked about the Calgary Stampede. In high school, my school's marching band took a trip to the Calgary Stampede and marched in the parade there. I had told that to my students, so when our speaker mentioned it, they all looked at me like, "Hey! You told us about that!" I love it when that happens! It shows they were listening! There were a few more instances of that in our Canadian speaker's presentation.
St. Lucia, on the other hand, had much fewer connections. They speak English and French Creole on St. Lucia, so our speaker had a tiny accent, but not much of one. This is her second career; her first was a flight attendant in France for five years and in St. Lucia for three. Her family is Lutheran and went to the Lutheran church on the island and her pastor recommended she become a WELS teacher. She wasn't too sure about that, and yet, here she is! Only two more years until she graduates. They have a national dish called green fig and salt fish, basically sliced green bananas on the bottom with salted cod mixed with vegetables on the top. She talked a lot about the geography of the island (waterfalls, dormant volcanoes) and bananas (their main economy). She has 12 siblings, the oldest is 42, so she showed pictures of her nieces and nephews in their school uniforms when she told us about their schooling. It sounds like school is much stricter down there than it is in the US. Their leader said if teachers have to dress up for school, the kids should too (hence the uniforms).
The 5th and 6th graders were a little jealous they didn't get to hear the speakers, so I asked the two girls if they'd be interested in giving a shorter version to the 5th and 6th graders after the 7th and 8th graders left. Sure, they said! So my class got to hear them after all. Mine asked way more questions than the 7th and 8th graders. And none of my kids had trouble finding three interesting things, even with the abbreviated version. Afterwards, they said, "Miss H, I could listen to them all day! How come we can't just have guest speakers all the time? Can't we do social studies like that for the rest of the year???" I think from now on, I'll see if the speakers would like to do a mini-presentation after the fact for my class. Some might need to get back to MLC for class, but hopefully a few will be willing to stay and talk some more!
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