Great opportunity for school teachers
Avalon and Red Oak Independent School District will send one teacher each to attend the esteemed professional development institutes in Fort Worth and Huston. Humanities Texas joined hands with Texas Christian University, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History along with Rice University have sponsored the event.
Valasta Smith of Avalon ISD, a teacher of US history, world history and English language arts participated in the event called “The NEW American Republic: from Washington to Madison” at Texas Christian University from 10th-13th June.
The topics that were explored included the tenure of seral former American presidents, American Economy, Foreign Policy, National Defense, American Women in the early 19th century, the Marshall Court, Native Americans in the expanding nation, Slavery in the Early Republic and War of 1812.
Spotlight on the work of Shakespear
Red Oaks teacher, Ashlie Pape who teaches English language arts joined the event “Teaching Shakespeare” which took place from June 17th-20th at the Rice campus.
The event discussed the work of Shakespeare and the style of his writing, the techniques to teach, tragedies, comedies, and sonnets; comparing the work of Latinx drama and Shakespeare. The institute also showed a presentation on developing engaging writing assignments from the study of Shakespeare’s work.
The participants were taught by using the method of performance-based teaching strategies by the director of Education at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Peggy O’Brien. She worked with the performers from the Huston Shakespeare Festival to showcase the possibilities of Shakespeare through acting.
At the Rice university event, many esteemed scholars from different universities participated. J. Dennis Huston gave the university keynote lecture, who is the Gladys Louise Fox Professor Emeritus of English at Rice University.
Humanities Texas is affiliated to National Endowment for the Humanities. The purpose of the organization is to encourage education through the programs which enhance its quality of classroom teaching, support libraries, and museums and create an environment for longtime learning for the people of Texas.
