Baylor School of Education (SOE), in collaboration with the Heart of Texas Council for the Social Studies (HOTCSS), will host the Social Studies Academy (SSA) Summer Summit on June 18-20. Launched in 2017, the three-day seminar is one of three annual events SSA hosts to bring together Central Texas social studies teachers and Baylor teacher-education faculty members. Together they share engaging curriculum from their own classrooms while developing professionalism and community involvement.

All afternoon sessions will be held in the theater of the Mayborn Museum from 12:30-3:30, while during the morning sessions, from 8:30-11:30, educators will meet at various locations to explore local history. Tuesday’s morning session will be at Vanguard College Preparatory School library to view the Branch Davidian doomsday clock and discuss how to teach controversial aspects of the First and Second Amendment. Wednesday morning’s session will be at Proctor Springs to hear from local historian Mark Firmin about Cameron Park’s reflection of Waco’s experience with race and rural urban migration. The summit’s final morning session will be a tour of the Texas Ranger Museum tour to provide educators with a potential learning opportunity for their students in the future.

Nearly 20 speakers will be giving presentations, including Robinson Junior High School teachers Chad Adkins and Brittany Lessman, who will be speaking as members of HOTCSS. In accordance with HOTCSS’s mission to connect classroom teachers with community partners, representatives from several local organizations will speak as well.

Topics are chosen based on feedback from previous HOTCSS events and membership input. Teachers are also exploring new ways to teach historical topics while addressing recent changes in state curriculum requirements for social studies.

Chris Lemley, SOE doctoral student and organizer for the academy, said, “The Summer Summit is a great opportunity to connect experienced and new classroom teachers through shared knowledge of what is working in their classes.”

By Cameron Bocanegra

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For more than 100 years Baylor educators have carried the mission and practices of the School of Education to classrooms and beyond as teachers, superintendents, psychologists, health education professionals, academics/scholars and more. With more than 50 full-time faculty members, the school’s growing research portfolio complements its long-standing commitment to excellence in teaching and student mentoring. Baylor’s undergraduate program in teacher education has earned national distinction for innovative partnerships with local schools that provide future teachers deep clinical preparation, while graduate programs culminating in both the Ed.D. and Ph.D. prepare outstanding leaders, teachers and clinicians through an intentional blend of theory and practice.

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Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 16,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.