Session Description

It's never too early for young learners to explore history, culture, and geography using vetted digital materials. Join us for an overview of TexQuest resources designed to boost student inquiry, support diverse learning needs, and seamlessly integrate into the K-5 social studies curriculum. Bring your laptop and get ready to explore TEKS-aligned articles, videos, images, and eBooks from Gale, Britannica, and National Geographic. We will specifically highlight Britannica’s interactive geography features, such as the World Atlas and the side-by-side Compare Countries tools, to help young students build spatial awareness and global connections. Discover how built-in accessibility features like text to speech, on the spot translations, Lexile adjustments, and Google/Microsoft integration can elevate your social studies lessons immediately!

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

If it is important, write it down! Noteworthy Note Making shares a step-by-step plan for implementing meaningful Note Making in any classroom. Noteworthy Note Making is a teacher’s sneaky smart way to improve academic performance for all students. Noteworthy Note Making enhances student depth of thinking (rigor), accelerates student understanding, and increases student retention. When implemented correctly,  Noteworthy Note Making immerses students in a learning environment of high-yield instructional strategies. If you must cover a lot of content (see: Core Content teachers) and students need to remember it (see: Core Content classrooms) then more and better Note Making is Fundamental for success. Presentation is aligned with the books, Noteworthy Note Making: A Practical Critical Writing Solution for Every Classroom, by Sean Cain, and The Fundamental 5 Revisited: Exceptional Instruction in Every Setting, by Cain, Laird, Cotten, and  Ellspermann.

Join Law-Related Education for a hands-on session focused on practical strategies for helping students read, analyze, and write about primary sources. Participants will explore engaging approaches to primary source instruction, including reading strategies, visual analysis, sentence stems, short answer responses, and graphic organizers that strengthen historical thinking and civic literacy.

Come ready to explore practical, classroom-ready strategies that make primary sources more accessible, meaningful, and engaging for every learner.

Join us for this informative session where we will explore the power of critical thinking in the secondary classroom. Walk away with strategies ready to use in your classroom tomorrow. This session will engage participants with TSHA's Texas History Day competition and how to explore the theme of Innovation and Critical Thinking. Returning for a second round of information after this summer's success; we are so excited to support your learners!