Teaching History with Mrs. Byars

Right now on Twitter, you can follow my student-led classroom account @TweetsfromB210 to see students using Social Media in positive ways. It is important to me to meet students where they are at while also teaching them and modeling for them positive digital footprints. Hey guys it’s me Migs taking over! We’re doing something super exciting today. Stay tuned! #ERHSTweets #ByarsMeetsWorld pic.twitter.com/HAD8X9Ctjh — 🌍👨‍🎓👩‍🎓B210 Tweets👩‍🎓👨‍🎓🌎 (@tweetsfromB210) October 16, 2018 I pick one student each class to host the account by sending them this link via Remind. It's an easy way to teach digital citizenship, give students voice, engage with an authentic audience, and build your class culture. All week I am going to share some of my favorite ways to bring social media into the classroom to help create Social Media Leaders and change the conversation around digital citizenship from a list of "don't" to a list of "do." - Mrs. Kathry...

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...

There are a lot of arguments to be made about pedagogy and edtech. We could have a long discussion about the SAMR model. We could talk about the many reasons why technology could never replace teachers. We could talk about how much time students already spend in front of screens. But today, I just want to talk about why it is so important to find ways to incorporate technology in our classrooms because if we really want students to be college and career ready we have to embrace the fact that their experience is one we cannot truly predict. My own experience with technology:  Yes, it is true that I barely remember life pre-personal computer in my home. In middle school,  I was able to recreate the sound of our dial-up internet perfectly. By high school, I thought I was the queen of the AIM Away Message. In college, I had a LiveJournal and my college actively campaigned to be added to this new social networking thing called "Facebook." But in school, I only took two cla...

Recently I wrote about some of my favorite tech tools you can use in class to get students sharing what they've learned . By far my favorite for ease of use is Adobe Spark Video . While it does not have the most features and it is not the most complex video creator out there, it works incredibly well for creating videos in the classroom. Adobe Spark is fairly user friendly, below I have created a step by step tutorial for those who have never used it before. Scroll down even further and you can watch a completed adobe spark video. And here is what an Adobe Slide Video looks like in action using the same content as you see above! Adobe Spark is easy to use and even has an App for iPad and iPhone. I especially love that you don't have to download the video, students can turn in the shareable link making the process of grading and sharing the videos much easier overall.  Have you used Adobe Spark Video in class? What do your students use it for? Share in t...

There are so many amazing new ways students can share what they've learned and create incredible projects, videos, websites, and presentations to show what they've learned. This is a quick list of 5 I've used this year that my students and I really liked. I won't go into too much detail about each product, this more of a whirlwind tour then an in-depth tutorial. Enjoy!  If you live anywhere on social media, even if you spent like 5 seconds on twitter this year, you probably already know about this one. It's not my favorite (and to be honest, my students don't LOVE it) but it has a ton of potential and has some really amazing features.  How It Works:  Students record up to 5 minute long videos reacting to a prompt. Students can comment and react to each other (but those features can be turned off) feels like instagram of videos but is self contained (you control who has access to the grid and can post.). What I like about it: It feels like s...

In my last blog post I made the following statement regarding tech in the classroom " Just because something is better for me as a teacher doesn't mean it is best for my students and this just might be an example of that." After writing those words and hitting "publish" I kept thinking about them and felt the need to address the real issue that led me to write those words.  In my last post, I talked about challenges I was facing with reflective grading. A major challenge this school year has been consistent and equitable access to technology for my students. That week, I had to pull the plug on using technology to submit their reflections because I could not promise my students would have consistent and equal access to the technology required to do that. In that moment, technology was making my life easier but it was making things inequitable for my students. It was clear that I needed to make a change.  But I have a huge problem with this. There are tw...