Interview delight

Today was a success in the classroom! My partner and I planned to have a guest speaker come into our sixth grade social studies classroom to be interviewed by our students. The interviewee was a professor from our college who teaches courses only on ancient and modern day Greece. He has been a professor for fifty years, and is well versed with all the ins and outs of Greek culture. We prepared our students for today by telling them they were special because they were the only block to have the opportunity to speak to an expert on Greek culture. We told each of them to think of at lest 5 good questions to ask the professor.
The students came into class excited. They all shared their ideas with my partner and I before our guest came in. We went over some basic rules for an interview such as, a formal greeting (good morning, and welcome), no calling out or speaking over the guest, and a formal good bye/thank you. The students were instructed to take notes during the interview process, because any information they gathered may be used in their final project. I could tell that they were excited, but I was personally a bit nervous. In fact my partner and I were both nervous because the professor had not responded to our last three emails, and we were not sure if he changed his mind about coming.
However, he arrived at the school for the scheduled time, and our students greeted him with hardy hellos, and big smiles. At first I think the students were a bit intimidated. He had the appearance of a typical professor: tweed jacket and thick glasses; he used long detailed explanations to answer their questions, and a few times threw in words that were above their vocabulary level. However, he got the students laughing, sparked their imaginations about Greek mythology, and answered all of their questions with enthusiasm. Some students got into the interview process more than others, but almost every group (there were five) asked the professor questions.
Their questions ranged from topics such as: what advances did Pericles make before the Peloponnesian War, what achievements were made during Athen’s golden age, and what is the difference between a professor and a teacher? I was impressed with my students today; their questions and listening skills were excellent. I feel as though each student gained knowledge and information this morning, and I believe the professor was impressed with how much they already knew about ancient Greece. Hopefully this interview process not only inspired my students to want to learn more about the ancient Greek culture, but also showed the professor that young students are equally as inquisitive and bright as college students.