CORTNIE BELSER'S MSED PORTFOLIO
Guest Speaker Series
Middle school students are exposed to high school students, college students, counselors, and community practitioners through in-person and virtual learning opportunities in the classroom to take advantage of opportunities
Table of Contents
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Introduction to Guest Speaker Series
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High School Choice, College Access, and Career Pathways
Johns Hopkins Community Partnerships
Virtual Guest Speaker: Erricka Bridgeford, Baltimore Ceasefire
Introduction
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Access for students is not necessarily that they do not have the ability to take advantage of opportunities, but rather they are not receiving accessible entry points to people, places, and resources. They often feel stuck in their predicament, or do not see a life for themselves beyond the portrayal of their own communities. To meet the access needs of my students, guest speakers give the students a chance to see themselves as who they aspire to be in the future. I selected my guest speakers on the career choices of my students, as well as, choosing Baltimore natives to be alternative voices in and out of the classroom. When students are exposed to people, places, and resources that have helped others from their community excel and advance, they have an opportunity to see the outcome of their work. With this development of intrinsic motivation, there is also an increased engagement in the classroom when students express a teacher who continuously consider how to support their longterm goals in an authentic way. While guest speakers provide an access to the realities that my students have or have not imagined for themselves, I am also intentional about how guest speakers promote and reflect the sense of social consciousness and responsibility I hope to instill in my students.
HS Choice, College Access, and Career Pathways
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As the 8th grade ELA teacher, there are many different opportunities I can incorporate into the learning objectives of my discipline that offer students access to resources. Whether students are reading about the high school experience or developing claims on their own college and career goals, I am always eager to find overlaps in my students' interests and their motivation to excel in my class. Thus, as 8th graders prepare to go on to high school and think about beyond, I use guest speakers to be the middleman of experience to validate the people, place, and resource I know they could take advantage of. The necessity to bring access to guest speakers from high schools, colleges, and career fields into my classroom was supported through a student needs assessment, partnership with my school's new guidance counselor, and local community members I know that are in my students' career interest fields. During many of the guest speaker conversations, I did not require students to take extensive notes or reflections because I wanted my students to focus more on the knowledge and experience the guest speakers shared than attempting to fulfill a grade. As a part of a wider lens of access that I have offered my students, the guest speakers related to high school, college, and career were foundational to the vision and goals of my classroom.
The document to the left is a sample letter of how I often reached out to contact different college staff and community leaders to be guest speakers. The template email is very general so that I could easily add 1-2 sentences to individual emails. As evidence of my planning, the guest speakers invitation email served as an organizational tool so that whether it was an extensive program or an individual college counselor, I would be able to provide a uniform response.
The image above is a screenshot of a sample email between me and a Towson University Admissions Officer who came in as a guest speaker and decided to continue engaging in conversation and programming with my students.
Towson University Admissions Officer, Visit 1
Towson University Admissions Officer, Visit 2
Towson University Admissions Officer, Visit 2: Facilitates the routine restorative circle
Morgan State University Junior, Kayla Blake shares her reflections on social media to being a guest speaker
Two Morgan State University students who appeared in the viral video #ForTheDegree challenge came to speak with students about college access
MSU Junior, Kayla Blake reaches out to me to plan a follow-up visit. We had to postpone it due to school closing. This will occur May 18th.
Retired sheriff talks with students about understanding their rights in community spaces
High school juniors and seniors at Reach Partnerships HS speak with 7th and 8th graders about understanding realistic expectations between transitioning from middle to high school.
Western alumni and current teacher shares what the experience is like going to and teaching at an all-girls high school.
Click on each of the images above to explore more about my planning and the high school, college, and career access guest speakers students have experienced in my classroom.
The PowerPoint above is the optional guest speaker reflection I offer to students. Since I do not want access to guest speakers in my class to seem as additional work for students, I limit the number of formal reflections I ask them to complete.
The audio file above is a reflection from one of my immigrant students who has been in the US for two years. As she details, the guest speakers from various high schools and college offers her an additional layer of access that most of my students don't even experience. As a newcomer to Baltimore, the guest speakers allowed her to access people, places, and resources related to her next steps that she can take advantage of.
The document above represents two student sample responses based on guest speakers highlighted in the images above. I did not assign this reflection, but Student A felt compelled to write one of the high school seniors from Reach Partnerships high school that came to speak with my 7th and 8th graders. It is clear that through the guest speaker experience, Student A has a new interest and is considering this school as one of her high school options. Likewise, Student B responds directly to the question prompts in the PowerPoint. As he notes, students are aware that a part of access to guest speakers is to build the engagement and motivation for students to understand their various career options.
Johns Hopkins Community Partnerships
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​My school is placed at the center of Johns Hopkins Medical campus. However, there was not any sustained partnerships or collaborations instituted between my school and their community outreach programs. Since many of my students are interested in the health profession, I wanted to research and take advantage of any outside opportunities that could expose my students to people, programs, and resources. In collaboration with the guidance counselor, I emailed Hopkins' Maryland Scholars Speaker's Bureau to hold one of their interest presentations in my class. Additionally, a Registered Nurse, attends my guidance counselor's church, who also coordinates their community outreach to youth. With this two points of access available, I was able to offer two experiences related to the health care profession to students in my class.
The document to the left represents the email and text communication that I coordinated with school staff to ensure the logistics were notified to school administration on the guest speaker. Page 3 is a screenshot of texts between me and the guidance counselor who arranged for the Registered Nurses to speak to my students. On Pages 4 and 5, I have included the pre-sign up sheet for these guest speakers. Since the interests of these guest speakers were specific to the health field, I wanted to invite students who were directly interested in the topic. As evidence of access, the career roles that students include in the pre-sign up shows how speaking with actual practitioners in the health care field is an outside resource of knowledge and experience that my students would not have previously had access to.
 The guest speakers pose for a photo with an 8th grader who wants to be a pediatrician. This student struggles with behavior but was highly engaged in the presentation so I have individually put her and one of the speakers in contact for potential mentoring. |  One of the guest speakers attempts to communicate with one of my Arabic students. |
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 Students are raising their hand so that the guest speakers can get a count of how many would be interested in a tour of the Hopkins Medical facility. This has been scheduled for May 8th. |  Students respond to three different poster responses: When I hear "health care" I think about..., I will be a _____ after I graduate from college..., etc. |
 Me and students pose for a photo with our guest speakers |  As students continue their gallery walk, the guest speakers take that opportunity to speak and learn more about individual students |
 Guest speakers from the MD Scholars program engage students in a financial responsibility simulation to convey the importance of attending college. |  Students are introducing themselves to the guest speakers and responds to what majors they are interested in that Johns Hopkins and other programs offer. |
Click on each of the images above to explore more how students engaged with the MD Scholars Speaker's Bureau and the Registered Nurses guest speakers.
The two documents above are student reflections from the Maryland Scholars and RN guest speakers.
Virtual Guest Speaker: Erricka Bridgeford, Baltimore Ceasefire
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There were many guest speakers who I wanted to expose my students to but were unable to coordinate depending on my school's schedule and their workload. One of those potential guest speakers was Erricka Bridgeford, founder of Baltimore Ceasefire. Baltimore Ceasefire is a citywide peace challenge serving to call a demand to the high rates of homicides and respect for the sacred ground in community spaces where we have lost loved ones. With so many of my students affected by gun violence, I wanted to provide access to Erricka's story and campaign as a way to convey to my students that there is hope in their generation to greatly impact our city. As a virtual guest speaker, I used Erricka's 2017 TED Talk on Baltimore Ceasefire. Moreover, by using the TED Talk, I exposed my students to this platform of public speaking.
As my access planning, I utilized my weekly homework sheet to build student anticipation of the virtual guest speaker. While Baltimore Ceasefire is nationally and internationally known, there is still limited writing on Erricka Bridgeford. Thus, for Monday's quote I researched across internet and social media platforms from her personal and organization's website to Facebook and Instagram. I utilized a line she writes on an Instagram post as the introduction for my students. Additionally, I intentionally used a vocabulary word for the week that would describe Erricka. Lastly, Thursday's prompt asks students to imagine meeting Erricka as a way to analyze how they have internalized her TED Talk. To drive access, the homework sheet exposes students to a local leader they may not have previously heard of and facilitates an analysis and reflection so that they learn about her experiences even if they're absent the day of the virtual guest speaker.
The image above shows my students watching Erricka Bridgeford's TED Talk on Baltimore Ceasefire.
To view the TED Talk, click the image above.
The document above are 3 samples of student reflections on Erricka Brideford, her TED Talk, and Baltimore Ceasefire. As each student's reflections and my analysis shows, students were deeply engaged on a personal level with the message of the virtual guest speaker. This demonstrates how access to people creates a demand for students to feel ignited to take advantage of the positive resources in their community and be an agent of change.
The document above was written by a student who was inspired to portray Erricka Bridgeford for the school's Black History Month assembly (not my BHM LMP). Page 2 of the document shows the final speech we worked on that was also sent to Ms. Bridgeford. Thus, Erricka was so inspired and considerate of the engagement of this student that she stopped by the school to congratulate and thank her.
Teacher Reflections ​
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As my 8th graders learn in early January which high schools they will attend, the guest speakers I provided access to could not simply be through high school choice, but also college, career, and community interests. While many of the high school guests may have occurred in another teacher's classroom, I intentionally collaborated with the new guidance counselor early in the year to convey that this was an interest for me as well. Additionally, the community-based guest speakers such as the Baltimore-native RN and Erricka Bridgeford facilitates a guest experience in my classroom that seemed deeply transformative and impactful to my students. Many of the other guest speakers were well prepared and organized but lacked the innovative engagement that my students needed. I also felt that students benefited most when exposed to guest speakers that are directly related to their interests. For a few of the high school and college speakers, their schedule only permitted them availability in the morning. However, with having first period planning, I do not have students until about 10 AM, which sometimes prevented students from having their full experience. I was apprehensive to the impact that the virtual guest speaker experience would have for my students, but it is evident that Erricka's TED Talk may have been the most impactful guest speaker for many of my students. In the future, I am sure I will integrate more virtual guest speakers, possibly with a live conversation as well. By exposing students to guest speakers they have an opportunity to hear from other adults on the importance of their academic engagement today and how it shapes the access you'll have in the future.