Teaching History with Mrs. Byars

Did you watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year? If you did, you watched history. For the first time in the history of the parade, there was a same-sex kiss. It happened at the end of the performance from the cast of The Prom and it left me wanting to shout with joy from the rooftops . I went straight to instagram to share my thoughts but realized I have a lot more to say about this moment and this show. When you work with young people every day, you work to make sure each of them feels loved, valued, and supported. But often times it is not you that they feel the lack of love from, it is our society as a whole. When young people don't see themselves in the culture around them they feel like they don't belong, so that simple kiss at the end of a Broadway musical number on the family-friendly nationally-televised Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade meant something. It was like a giant taffeta and glitter covered billboard saying "YOU BELONG." A...

I've spent the past few years reading everything I could about grading practices. I have been so lucky to be supported by my admin team as I have tried new things in my classroom and now that I have a few years under my belt I have even had the chance to start helping others find the best practices for them.  When I help teachers who are considering new practices, I always start with a list of favorite books but the reality is most of us don't have the time or energy to dive into a book unless we know it is really going to help us. With grading practices that means knowing enough about grade reform practices to know if it is the right time for you to make a change and little of what those changes might look like.  Because of this, I decided to put together a list of some of my favorite articles that might help you determine if it's time to dig deeper and learn more. Articles on why teachers have changed their practices and how to determine if you are read...

I recently got an e-mail from a history teacher who felt very overwhelmed after attending a local edtech conference. She had seen everything from hyperdocs to Google Classroom and had no idea where to start. She was going from using little to no tech in the classroom to seeing the potential of individualized education that edtech allows teachers to create through choice, self-paced learning, and the various ways technology can impact teacher efficiency in grading or giving feedback. My response was a list of 5 tools that I find essential and easy to start with if you've never done this before. Just like our students, it is a little crazy to assume that when trying something new a teacher can go all in the first time around. The sort of pedagogical shifts that technology can create takes time and if the expectation is that you either make those shifts or never use tech, then we 1. Edpuzzle   I often put my class in a station rotation model for students to cons...

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...

Last year, a colleague of mine convinced me to take students on a tour with EF Tours . I had the travel bug but didn't know how or where to make it happen and she suggested starting with guided tours with students. I loved the idea of seeing the world with students of history, watching them make real connections between what they had learned and the world around them but I was completely unprepared for what the experience actually was. While I may be one for hyperbole when talking about my love for edtech, in this case when I say it was life changing for me and my students, I mean every word. Students Will Step Out Of Their Comfort Zone and Gain Confidence EF had told me this one but it is hard to believe until you see it. I had students traveling with me who had never been on an airplane, they were terrified they would be homesick or anxious and both they and their parents were in constant contact with me before the trip. They were concerned that maybe signing up ...

I've talked about creating  learning objectives from the standard . I've talked about starting with what  evidence of learning you'll accept for each objectiv e. I've talked about  aligning your lessons.  And I have talked about  formative assessment  and why it should not go in the grade book. Today I am going to explain how I don't grade anything. Kind of.  Grading for compliance hurts our most in need students and creates a game of points instead of a focus on learning. To be completely candid and honest:  if you make this shift in isolation (as I have) you will still be fighting the culture of points with many students  until the very end of the semester. But I cannot stress enough how much the benefits of a standards-based classroom outweigh the challenges. When we assign points to every single worksheet, activity, bathroom pass, kleenex boxes, etc, we make the culture about how many points you can earn, not how much you have le...

It's time to talk about formative assessment. I might write some things that you totally disagree with and that is okay, I am not 100% sold that grading practices are one size fits all. In fact, this next year my AP World History course and my course for English Learners are following two slightly different grading formats based on the pacing, content, skills, and needs of the students. Sometimes it makes sense for me to assess the two classes in slightly different ways. That being said, I am going to make one of my most controversial statements yet. So far, everything has been pretty straightforward, but now it's time to really question the way we've always done it.  What no longer makes any sense to me is putting formative assessments in the grade book.   When I give quizzes students find out their score immediately, they find out what they got right and what they got wrong and what the correct answer is but that score never goes in the grade book. I usually as...