Texas Independence Day

One of my favorite days of the year is the birthday of Texas, March 2nd. First of all, who doesn’t love a party? Secondly, it is a yearly reminder to me that our sweet little students are lovely little people.

We begin getting ready for our celebration by participating in our county art and essay contest. The students get to choose any event or person from Texas history (local or statewide) to write an essay about. They also attach an art submission on the same topic. This serves as a great review of what we have learned so far and also serves as decoration for our party. I hang all submissions (essays and artwork) in the hallway and around the room.

A day or so before the celebration, I talk to the students about what it means to give a toast. Often the students have seen people give toasts, but they actually associate the toast directly with alcohol and drinking. I make sure the students know that the purpose of making a toast isn’t to drink alcohol, it is to celebrate and honor others.

We then talk about the tradition in Texas of making a toast to Texas on Texas Independence Day. Many cities and clubs, especially the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, host a celebration and give a toast on that day. Although I personally am a Red Raider fan, the University of Texas has an Independence Day tradition/story that I love. I shorten and paraphrase the story linked here and tell it to my students. I explain that it is my hope that wherever they are as they grow up, they will celebrate this day and remember our time together learning about Texas.

After this conversation, I model making a toast. I do this by actually making toasts to the students in the classroom. For example, ¨To Areli, your smile and willingness to help others makes our classroom a better place.¨ Then, I teach the students to respond with, ¨To Areli!¨ I really like to prepare this beforehand and have one for each student. The kids just GLOW. This was not my idea however, the idea for making a toast to your students and having them toast each other comes from Dave Stuart Jr. Read his blog about this here. I just modified his idea for our Texas Independence Celebration.

I then show the students how I wrote the toasts on paper the day before so I could make them more thoughtful. It is really hard for most people to come up with a really good toast without giving it some thought. I tell them I practiced them that morning before school and kept the notes near me in case I got nervous or forgot.

Next, the students begin writing their own toasts. I tell them they can make a toast to one of their fellow students or teachers, but they MUST toast someone or something from Texas history first. We will only make toasts to each other after we have toasted Texas on its birthday. The students usually choose to toast someone from the Texas Revolution, but I do not require this. I let the students write their toasts while I monitor and assist. If we have time, we practice giving the toasts with a partner or small group.

On the day of our celebration, I have parents bring in snacks, decorate minimally with Texas things I already have in my room, and give everyone a water bottle. We take turns giving our toasts to Texas and each other, taking small sips in between each toast. You would think they would lose interest after awhile, but they could literally do this for an hour or more. They LOVE it.

I end with my standard toast, ¨To the class of (insert graduating year), your love for Texas and each other fills my heart with pride and love. I am excited about the future of Texas because of children like you.¨ Then I cry a little. Every. Single. Time.

Wherever you are this Texas Independence Day, dear reader, I am proud of you as well. To the history teachers! May the seeds you sow today have a healthy harvest that blesses the future of Texas.