Building Thinking Classrooms 2025 Annual Conference

I’ve got ADHD and love BTC. Why does BTC work so well for “kids like me?” Maybe it’s because practices for thinking classrooms include common ADHD accommodations found on IEPs/504s! Come explore these connections and learn what more we can do! This session delves into how to blend BTC and ADHD strategies, enhancing math learning and access. You will leave with an updated understanding of neurodiversity and how BTC continues to evolve to be more supportive of students with ADHD, plus definitive action steps that will improve students’ lives immediately. And probably some other interesting things that pop into my mind mid-session. Join us to discover how BTC can foster a more inclusive, supportive, effective environment for kids like me!

Are you feeling overwhelmed with all the possibilities for assessments after reading the Assessment Practices in BTC? Are you looking for inspiration or a place to start with your assessment practices in your classroom or as a department? Come hear from two teachers on how their department created essential standards to help focus instruction, how we are assessing student work, and creating a more equitable grading system to give better access to higher math classes for all students. A merging of BTC assessment with Standards Based Grading.

We began building our Thinking Classrooms in mathematics. But it doesn’t take long to see that the BTC framework is an engaging way for students to create meaning in subjects across the curriculum. Participants in this session will experience a Social Studies/ELA lesson and explore ways to take the content they are already teaching and transform it so that students are actively questioning and discussing as they learn.

Bring your lunch and join us in Bellevue II 

Multiplication and division of fractions can be daunting for students and teachers alike. Because many of us were inundated with procedures to memorize, we’ve struggled to make sense of these operations. This interactive session will use “thin slicing” as a way to navigate the teaching and learning of fraction computation. We’ll discuss fractions, make sense of them as numbers, explore what we know about whole number computation, and leverage all of these strengths to make sense of strategies for multiplying and dividing fractions. Participants will leave the session with slides and activities to use in their classrooms as well as connections to a network of educators working toward understanding these complex topics in meaningful ways.

In this session, we will reflect on our transformative journey of incorporating “street data” into coaching cycles with teachers implementing Building Thinking Classrooms.  We will share a coach’s story about leveraging student and teacher qualitative data, along with formative quantitative data to foster curiosity and disrupt preconceived notions about students. This process strengthened our commitment to elevate student voice as a critical first step for deeper learning and greater traction when exploring and implementing the BTC practices, regardless of where our teachers were in their journey.