Building Thinking Classrooms 2025 Annual Conference: Full Schedule

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8:00am PDT

How We Use Manipulatives in a K-8 Thinking Classroom

Tuesday July 1, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT

Managing manipulatives in a thinking classroom takes a bit of pre-work, and it's totally worth it! During this session, we'll explore use-it-tomorrow ways you can help students think about, think with, and represent thinking using manipulatives during thinking tasks. An emphasis will be placed on how the Building Thinking Classrooms practices naturally lead to important conversations regarding the connection between physical, visual, symbolic, verbal, and contextual representations.

2025 Conference Presenters

Kim Rimbey

BTC Team Member, US Consultant, Building Thinking Classrooms

Dr. Kimberly Rimbey (she/her), is a lifelong teacher, leader, and learner, whose heart’s work centers on equipping teachers and fostering a continuous love for teaching and learning. As an active member of the Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) professional development team, Kim’s... Read More →

Tuesday July 1, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT
Lake Washington Ballroom II

Collective Knowledge (VNPS) Practices, K - 12

9:15am PDT

Intro to BTC: A Beginner's Guide to Toolkit #1 and Beyond

Tuesday July 1, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT

Lake Washington Ballroom II

In this session, participants will be introduced to several practices in the Building Thinking Classroom Framework through engaging experiences and interactive tasks. After a discussion about these experiences, participants will leave with a clear plan for starting their BTC journey.

2025 Conference Presenters

Jared Sliger

BTC Team Member, US Consultant, Building Thinking Classrooms

Jared Sliger (he/him) is a 32-year veteran educator with an emphasis in middle school mathematics. Jared has been an official Building Thinking Classrooms team member and facilitator since 2022, leading training for teachers and leaders across the K-12 spectrum, both in districts... Read More →

Jerrold Wiebe

BTC Team Member, Canadian Consultant, Building Thinking Classrooms

Jerrold Wiebe (he/him) is dedicated to making mathematics, mathematical thinking, and problem-solving accessible to all. With four decades of teaching and consulting experience across early, middle, and senior years mathematics in Canada and internationally, as well as experience... Read More →

Tuesday July 1, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT
Lake Washington Ballroom II

BTC - Launch Practices, General

11:00am PDT

Balancing the Effective and the Efficient. Maximizing the Benefits and Use of Manipulatives in The Middle Years and Beyond

Tuesday July 1, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT

Lake Washington Ballroom II

Manipulatives by themselves are inert, hold no magic, meaning, or insight. However, when used thoughtfully, they can become powerful catalysts for thinking and learning.
Join us as we explore the use of manipulatives in the Middle Years and Beyond through the lens of the Thinking Classroom framework. Discover how to maximize their impact by guiding students to:
* Think about the manipulatives
* Think with the manipulatives
* Represent their thinking using manipulatives
Unlock deeper engagement, reasoning, and understanding—one hands-on experience at a time.

2025 Conference Presenters

Jerrold Wiebe

BTC Team Member, Canadian Consultant, Building Thinking Classrooms

Kirk Keating

BTC Team Member, Canadian Consultant, Building Thinking Classrooms

Kirk Keating (he/him) is a middle school mathematics teacher in Truro, Nova Scotia who is implementing practices from the Building Thinking Classroom framework and seeing the positive impact these practices have on student learning and well being on a daily basis. Kirk had the opportunity... Read More →

Tuesday July 1, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
Lake Washington Ballroom II

Collective Knowledge (VNPS) Practices, Secondary

1:00pm PDT

How to Use BTC Grading Practices to Support Student Learning and Interventions

Tuesday July 1, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT

Lake Washington Ballroom II

Have you every struggled with how to provide intervention support within your math classroom that both supports the unfinished learning from our students AND teacher efficiency? In this session, I will focus on my journey in using the BTC grading navigation tool to help support student learning and my own organization in providing Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention within a multi-language learner level, 8th grade math classroom.

2025 Conference Presenters

Anna Colaric

Math Teacher, Lake Braddock Secondary School

Tuesday July 1, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Lake Washington Ballroom II

Assessment Practices, General

2:15pm PDT

Building Thinking Lessons from Textbook-y Tasks

Tuesday July 1, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm PDT

Lake Washington Ballroom II

Are you craving the need to dig into textbook-y tasks to find ways to thin-slice and modify them into more thinking lessons? This session will focus on identifying characteristics of good thinking lessons and enhancing tasks to get students engaged in deep thinking of mathematics. Participants will also work collaboratively in groups based on grade bands to build thinking lessons from textbook resources provided in the session. All grade levels are welcome!

2025 Conference Presenters

April Strom

BTC Team Member, US Consultant, Building Thinking Classrooms

Dr. April Strom (she/her) is a mathematics professor at Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Arizona, where she has taught for over 25 years. April’s passion for engaging students in active learning in mathematics, developing their conceptual understanding and sense-making abilities... Read More →

Jared Sliger

BTC Team Member, US Consultant, Building Thinking Classrooms

Tuesday July 1, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm PDT
Lake Washington Ballroom II

BTC Using Specific Textbooks, K - 12