Teaching History with Mrs. Byars

It is the week before Spring Break and my students and I are hitting that annual frenzy and exhaustion that usually hits hardest those last 5 days before we get one whole week off. In planning this week, I knew I needed to level up, I needed to bring something exciting and engaging while also ensuring my students were learning and reviewing content and skills. I knew I needed something fresh, high energy, and out of the box. So I turned to Twitter and saw so many amazing and inspiring things: Ready to change the game in your classroom? #QRBreakIN puts a high energy twist on old school centers. Shout out to @gimkit and @quizizz in this video as teams work together to crack the codes and level up their superhero teams! Feeling the #EDrenaline Rush with @FCPS1News pic.twitter.com/wRhMZDLm38 — John Meehan (@MeehanEDU) March 21, 2019 First, there is this guy, John Meehan does these AMAZING lessons called #QRBreakIN that take the board games students know and love and...

This summer I was excited to have as my next door neighbor our district History and Edtech TOSA, Luis Carillo. I had worked with Luis on history curriculum council, putting together a history-social science framework training, and had attended a number of his training sessions on EdTech. Our district has been going through a lot of upgrades and installing more infrastructure to give access to technology in all classrooms (not just those CTE or computer courses.) I have been extremely lucky to have had the chance to pilot devices before most which have led to fundamental shifts in the way I teach so I was extra excited to share those ideas with my neighbor. Maybe too excited... Arrived to this posted on my door...When the #nuggets keep coming! @erhs @CNUSD is better because of awesome educators like @mrsbyarshistory pic.twitter.com/ERRb3qYwTu — Luis Carrillo (@lcccarrillo) June 13, 2018 So I left him a bingo card and everything on it I had done at some point d...

I decided to do One Little Word this year because I like the idea of setting a direction or intention that is simple and easy to remember. When thinking of what I wanted the word to encompass, I wanted it to be something that applied not only to my classroom and my professional development but also to my personal life. It didn't take long to come up with the word: Engage .  For my classroom: I want my class to be meaningful and engaging for students. I want the rigor to be compelling, intense, and interesting. I want students to never look at the time. I want students to leave my classroom excited to come back next time. I want learning to be fun, engaging, and rigorous. If I can focus on engaging my students, I will get closer and closer to these goals every day. For my own professional growth: I don't want to be passive in my growth as a teacher. I want to seek opportunities and see them through. I want to meet others and build my PLN by stepping out of my comfo...