Making your Connected North session work takes time and planning. It's a process, and it
doesn't always work well the first time. Some teacher tips, from one teacher to another,
are as follows:
At the start of the year, make a list of your units. Take a look at which
Connected North sessions might work well with what you want students to
learn. Use the sessions.connectednorth.org website, particularly using the
curriculum matches to help you see what sessions you might want to do.
But then reach out to your Connected North School Lead. This is the key step.
Your lead is the best place to go to know what to book. They'll tell you straight
whether a session will work or not, what challenges you might face, or what
session you didn't even consider that will work perfectly. They spend a good
part of their day watching these sessions play out in classrooms and know who
can make World War II come alive, or about that museum you haven't heard of,
who offers an amazing session on human anatomy. Use your School Lead –
they love hearing from you and will book time to go over what you want to
achieve.
It can be tempting to feel like you can
"hand over" the session to the Connected
North speaker. However, it's best not to
think of these sessions like putting on a
video. These sessions work best when
you're there, supporting the session
every step of the way.
Take time to introduce the speaker. Ask
questions yourself. If a student quietly
whispers an answer, help them get that
information out there.
Be there to support discussion when the
speaker has students consider an idea.
This works best when the students see
you engaged.
C o n n e c t e d N o r t h i n O u r C l a s s r o o m
Katarina Gram - Connected North in Our Classroom
75
