Welcome to the West Texas Social Studies Congress! For one day, you’re not just a student. You’re a future educator among colleagues. This opening session for high school students sets the stage for your West Texas Social Studies Congress experience. We’ll look at the purpose behind the Congress, why professional learning matters to effective teachers, and what professional conduct looks like in a space like this. Then it’s your turn: you’ll review the program, choose the sessions that spark your interest, and plan a day that helps you picture yourself at the front of a classroom.

Participants will explore UDL through a social studies lens and apply it specifically to support students, specifically in special populations. Rather than lowering expectations, educators will learn how to preserve the learning goal while expanding options for engagement, representation, action, and expression. This session introduces Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a practical planning framework for reducing those barriers while maintaining rigorous content and disciplinary thinking.

By the end of this session, teachers will be able to:

Explain how music can function as a social studies source

Identify ways music can reinforce concepts such as culture, geography, historical events, community, and identity.

Use simple musical activities without needing extensive musical training.

Adapt at least one music-integrated activity for their own grade-level curriculum.

Implement a short K-2 and 3-5 lesson using music as part of the social studies learning process

There is a one secret and magical instructional practice that amplifies a teacher’s use of other high-yield instructional practices. This same secret and magical instructional practice increases retention, facilitates content pacing, enhances rigor, and improves student performance. The practice? Consistent and appropriate Lesson Closure. The teacher who consistently Closes the Lesson has more student success than the teacher who does not Close. Learn how to implement this quick, powerful, and Fundamental instructional practice for elevating student performance. Great teachers Close the Lesson. Presentation is aligned with the book The Fundamental 5 Revisited: Exceptional Instruction in Every Setting, by Cain, Laird, Cotten, and Ellspermann.

Engage with free teacher-made materials and strategies to foster civil discourse and guide challenging conversations. Collaborate and implement pedagogical strategies with fellow educators to encourage student engagement with difficult topics and generate an environment of intellectual curiosity 

This module focuses on how individuals can turn their savings into lasting income once traditional pay checks stop. It explores how Social Security, pensions, and personal retirement accounts interact to create a steady “retirement paycheck,” emphasizing tax-efficient withdrawal strategies, required minimum distributions (RMDs), and investment management during retirement. By examining risks such as inflation, market volatility, and longevity, the module provides a framework for teaching how to balance growth, income, and security throughout retirement.