Breakout #4

Forrest Harding

Teachers dedicate valuable time and effort to teaching new concepts and skills. However, students often struggle to remember what they learned a few days earlier. The solution is spiraling, which involves a simple, structured, and strategic review. We will demonstrate how to implement a straightforward spiraling structure in the classroom. 

Erika Lowery

Mario Lucero

Vikki DeLoach

Michele Garcia

Participants will learn and practice an annotating strategy where readers interact with informational text by highlighting, underlining, circling, and writing notes.  

Dr. Kim Baxter

Law Related Education (LRE) materials are highly engaging and tightly aligned to Texas standards…and they’re free! Participants will learn how to use LRE materials within 30-minute spiraled review lessons that are clear enough to be taught by both history and non-history teachers. The lessons focus on the “heavy hitter” topics that are typically tested every year. They’re perfect for advisory periods in middle school, or for after school and Saturday camps where students rotate between different teachers. Participants will receive some pre-written lessons and will learn the strategy to write more of their own.

Obed Hernandez

Julietta Rojas

This session brings together two dynamic educators: Obed, an Instructional Technology Coordinator and self-proclaimed Ed Tech aficionado, and Julietta, a Social Studies guru who now integrates technology seamlessly into her dual credit classes. Together, they will showcase 10 powerful educational technology tools—including Canva, FigJam, Adobe Express, and an AI toolkit—to demonstrate how Social Studies teachers can transform everyday instruction. Participants will explore classroom-ready strategies that make history, geography, government, and economics come alive, while promoting inquiry, collaboration, and critical thinking. Attendees will leave with a curated digital resource guide, activity templates, and practical strategies they can implement the next day.

Holly Cobb

David Desrosiers

Attendees will be introduced to three lessons offered through the Tom Lea Institute. The Mexican Revolution curricula focuses on the art of Tom Lea and Jose Cisneros presenting the role of El Paso in the Mexican Revolution. The New Deal curricula presents the New Deal WPA program through the murals of Tom Lea. The World War II curricula presents the Pacific theater and Tom Lea's work as a war art correspondent.