Behind every great student is a great teacher. These teachers make spelling and vocabulary fun. They serve as spelling coaches, moderators and judges, but more often than not, they are simply motivators who encourage the students to be the best they can be. In the "Teacher Feature," we celebrate the men and women who educate the youth of our country.
Josh Bryars is a self-proclaimed "word nerd." In the spelling bee world, that's not all that unusual since many of the spellers who advance to Washington, D.C. proudly give themselves this distinction. What's a little bit unusual about Josh is that he's not a student at all—he's a teacher.
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Mr. Josh Bryars is in his fourth year at New Covenant Schools in Lynchburg, Virginia and has taught history, geography, mathematics and astronomy. You may have noticed that English and spelling weren't listed among his courses, so where does this love of words come from?
"When Mr. Bryars came to our school and found out that I had won the previous two years, he was instantly interested in hearing about the process and my experience at school and regional bees," said Jensen Schram, who competed in Washington, D.C. in 2013 and 2014. "He would print interesting articles about random things, like a history of hats and all the names for hats around the world. If it had unusual words, he shared it."
Mr. Bryars told Jensen about an improvised Scrabble game he used to play with his dad, challenging Jensen to do the same. Even still, he was less of an instructor or coach, and more of a cheerleader and sharer of interesting tools for studying.
"He's the kind of teacher who teaches everything with energy and enthusiasm, using unconventional methods to make it fun and interesting," Jensen said. "But the single biggest thing he did was make me feel like what I was doing was so cool and so awesome. I really embraced the 'word nerd' title after learning that he was one, too."
As fellow word nerds, the Scripps National Spelling Bee thanks Mr. Bryars for his passion for words and supporting his students.
If you'd like to nominate a teacher for an upcoming teacher feature, let us know. Fill out your contact information at the link, then nominate the teacher on the following page.