Past Institutes

Teaching the Transformation of Texas, 1930–1945 (Spring 2022 Online Series)

In the spring of 2022, Humanities Texas held a series of webinars for Texas history teachers on how the profound changes of the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II remade the state during the 1930s and 1940s.

Curriculum

The webinar series aligned with TEKS standards for the state's seventh-grade Texas history curriculum, offering teachers insight into the profound changes that remade Texas during the 1930s–1940s as the Great Depression, New Deal, and World War II collectively transformed it from a region of rural farmers into a modern, urbanized state. Team taught by a historian and two master teachers, the sessions provided a collection of curriculum materials geared toward bringing innovative perspectives into the classroom.

Like all Humanities Texas teacher programs, the webinar series was content-based and teacher-centered, with an emphasis on teaching with primary sources and developing effective pedagogical strategies. Teachers attending this webinar series gained an expanded understanding of Texas during the 1930s-1940s and curated primary source lessons that are classroom-ready.

Faculty

The program faculty included Andrew Torget (University of North Texas), Jay Ferguson (Round Rock ISD), and Michelle Phillips (College Station ISD).

Schedule

The institute schedule can be viewed here.

Sponsors

The institute was made possible with major funding from the State of Texas, with ongoing support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.