Skype in the Classroom’s guest speakers can help bring learning to life for your school’s students. Imagine this scenario, a couple of your classrooms are studying Ancient Greece and to enrich the experience a guest speaker, located in Ancient Corinth, Greece, speaks to the students, via Skype, about current excavations and describes how Greece looked in antiquity compared to the present day. And this is just one example. There are hundreds of volunteer guest speakers from around the world that are available to speak to your classrooms via Skype. These guest speakers are experts in every subject area you can imagine as they are authors, scientists, engineers, zookeepers, etc. Getting them in front of students is a snap as well.

Follow these five steps to bring a guest speaker into your school’s classrooms.

1. Sign Up On The Microsoft Educator Community. This is the portal for all things Microsoft Education. You can apply to become a Microsoft Innovative Educator, earn badges, points and certificates and check out courses and resources available to educators. The sign-in is at the top of the page. If you’re not a member, there’s also an option here to join the Microsoft Educator Community.
2. Get a Skype Account And Add Your ID To Your Profile. Skype is available on desktop, mobile, tablet, Xbox and wearables. It offers free voice and video calls, plus there’s a paid version.
3. Complete the Skype in the Classroom section on your Microsoft Educator Community profile. This is located under your Required Information (name, email, time zone, country, etc.) on your profile. Travel back to the Skype in the Classroom page for more information on: the lessons, collaborations, virtual field trips, and mystery Skype.
4. Go to the Find Guest Speakers page on Microsoft Educator Community. Type in the type of speaker of you’re looking for or scroll through the speakers listed on the page. You can also filter the speakers by student age group, subject, skype availability, country or language.
5. Choose one of the Guest Speakers and request a session. After you decide on a guest speaker, simply click on their name and you’ll be directed to their detailed profile. Once there, you’ll find a “Request A Guest Speaking Session” button. Check out their field of expertise and achievements they’ve earned.

Skype in the Classroom is a fun way to make learning relevant to your school’s students. It connects them with the rest of the world with the push of a button. Have a success story about Skype in the Classroom? So do we.