Building Thinking Classrooms 2025 Annual Conference: Full Schedule

9:45am PDT

Monday June 30, 2025 9:45am - 10:45am PDT

“Students are spending so much of their class time learning in groups that individual tests may be beginning to feel disingenuous” (Liljedahl, 2021 p.253). Join us for an in-depth exploration of team assessment strategies and what they mean for your teaching practice and your students. Gain a new outlook and walk away with strategies you can use in your classroom to make team assessments work for your students.

2025 Conference Presenters

Victoria Holt

CPM Classroom Teacher Specialist, Teays Valley LSD

Teays Valley’s rural setting serves about 4,420 students with 21% being students with disabilities and 38% economically disadvantaged. Its focus on supporting a diverse range of learners, provides a unique opportunity to implement equitable and inclusive practices like those emphasized... Read More →

Monday June 30, 2025 9:45am - 10:45am PDT
Bellevue I

Assessment Practices, Secondary

11:00am PDT

Beyond the Test: Assessment and Grading in the Thinking Classroom

Monday June 30, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT

Adams

A brief overview of why the BTC assessment model is important, how you can use it to differentiate for students with accommodations and extend it for advanced students. We will do a deep dive in creating the navigation instrument with our own curriculum, what to look for, and how to implement it at various grade levels. Ideas for frequent formative assessment will be provided.

2025 Conference Presenters

Wendy Moss-Doong

Teacher, South Summit School District

Monday June 30, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
Adams

Assessment Practices, Secondary

1:00pm PDT

Grading for Growth: How we Grade in a Thinking Classroom.

Monday June 30, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT

Grand Ballroom #8

Grades shape student's perception of their abilities & future prospects, yet outdated practices, proven inaccurate by decades of research, continue to distort students' self-identities and undermine their potential for success. In this session, participants will critically examine the reliability & effectiveness of traditional grading through research-backed discussions, reflective activities, & case studies. Building on insights from Building Thinking Classrooms, participants will explore practical, data-driven grading strategies, hear inspiring stories from educators who have successfully transformed their practices, & gain resources and support for shifting toward grading practices that foster student growth & accurate self-reflection.

2025 Conference Presenters

Amanda Ramey

Instructional Coach, Franklin Community Schools

Franklin Schools has been a pioneer in implementing Building Thinking Classrooms, hosting the first-ever BTC conference and embracing its practices across grade levels. Our district is dedicated to innovative, student-centered instruction that empowers learners to think critically... Read More →

Amanda Ray

5-6 Elementary Teacher,, Franklin Community Schools

Melisa McCain

K-12 Instructional Coach, Franklin Community Schools

I believe that presenting is the best way to confirm your own understanding and learn from others who are passionate about education. Driven by my motto, "Collaboration makes the world go round!", I am passionate about grading and redefining smart by moving away from compliance... Read More →

Monday June 30, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Grand Ballroom #8

Assessment Practices, General

1:00pm PDT

Shifting Assessment & Evaluation from “Who They Are” to “Where They Are”

Monday June 30, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT

Grand Ballroom #2

Join us as we participate in a task and then work on our own together to reflect on how to help students know where they are instead of who they are. We will think about assessment throughout the launch, body and focus on research-based improvements on assessment during the closing part of the lesson as well as navigating the paradigm shift of letting go of early not knowing when reporting out based on data (not points).

2025 Conference Presenters

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 →

Michelle McCarron

BTC Team Member, Canadian Consultant, Building Thinking Classrooms

Michelle McCarron (she/her) works as a Mathematics Consultant in Chignecto Central Regional Centre for Education (CCRCE) in Nova Scotia as well as a member of the Canadian Building Thinking Classroom (BTC) Team who centers her work around creating equitable and inclusive learning... Read More →

Monday June 30, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Grand Ballroom #2

Assessment Practices, General

2:15pm PDT

Measuring What Matters – Using Rubrics to Promote Cultural and Mathematical Competence

Monday June 30, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm PDT

Grand Ballroom #7

How do we assess the competencies and mathematical practices that matter in mathematics classrooms? Chapter 12 of Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, K-12 (BTC) challenges us to rethink assessment by focusing on what we value. This session explores how co-constructed rubrics, as described in BTC, help foster cultural competencies—such as empathy, perspective-taking, and collaboration—alongside key mathematical practices. These competencies, though difficult to quantify, are essential for making expectations and learning accessible to all students. Join us to share strategies, experiences, and discussion to enhance this practice.

2025 Conference Presenters

Aleda Klassen

BTC Team Member, Canadian Consultant, Building Thinking Classrooms

Aleda (she/her) is passionate about supporting educators in learning about and adapting instructional and assessment practices to better meet students’ learning needs. Since 2010, Aleda has worked in the Waterloo Region District School Board, holding a range of roles. As a reflective... Read More →

Chase Orton

BTC Team Member, US Consultant, Building Thinking Classrooms

Chase Orton (he/him) is an enthusiastic Building Thinking Classroom (BTC) facilitator whose work nourishes his passion for creating classrooms that are productive, engaging, and humanizing for both students and teachers. For the last eight years, Chase has deliberately implemented... Read More →

Monday June 30, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm PDT
Grand Ballroom #7

Assessment Practices, K - 12

3:30pm PDT

Grading and Norming work at the Boards

Monday June 30, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm PDT

Grand Ballroom #8

In this session you will learn some strategies for “evaluating what we value.” You will learn how to take established norms for board work and create a daily grade.

2025 Conference Presenters

Nick Stevener

8th Grade Mathematics Instructor, Middleton School District, Middleton, ID

Middleton is a Title 1 rural school district in Idaho.

Monday June 30, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm PDT
Grand Ballroom #8

Assessment Practices, General

8:00am PDT

From Principles to Practice: Grading for Equity in Thinking Classrooms

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

Lake Washington Ballroom I

How do the ideas in Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman overlap and complement those of BTC Chapter 14, “How We Grade in a Thinking Classroom”? Learn how accurate, bias-resistant, and motivational grading practices shift us from a normative, point-gathering paradigm to a data-gathering paradigm and establish a stronger connection between learning and grades. Examine a 7th-grade teacher’s implementation journey, even while using required curricular resources. End with a reflection and concrete plan for how Feldman’s ideas can deepen the impact of Liljedahl’s guidance for grading in your own thinking classroom. This session is for those interested in new grading practices as well as those seeking steps to get started.

2025 Conference Presenters

Erin Wahler-Cleveland

Math Education Consultant, Roots and Wings Math

After starting her teaching career teaching 5th grade on the Zuni reservation, Erin relocated to join the founding staff of Atlas Preparatory School, an independent charter school serving Southeast Colorado Springs. In her many years as a middle school math teacher there she transformed... Read More →

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

Assessment Practices, Systems Leadership

9:15am PDT

BTC and Standards Based Grading: Our Journey towards Clarity

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

Bellevue II

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.

2025 Conference Presenters

Abigail Bates

Math Teacher, Bear Creek High School

Twitter/X: @abbybates24; mrsbatesmath.bsky.social; Instagram: @mrsbatesmath

Eric Vallecillo

Teacher, Department Chair,, Bear Creek High School Lodi USD

Bear Creek High School is located in Stockton, California, which last year was named the most diverse city in America. We are a public high school with almost 2,000 students. Our diversity is our strength and we celebrate it each year at our International Rally where over 30 clubs... Read More →

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

Assessment Practices, Systems Leadership

9:15am PDT

Three Years and 12 Practices: How I Found Success with Navigation Tools

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

Baker

Three years into implementing BTC in my classroom and honing the first 12 practices finally led to successful integration of navigation tools. Come hear one teacher's story on how we got students engaging early, often, and ongoing with tools that are designed to help students track their learning progress, identify areas for practice, and understand expectations clearly. We’ll discuss the challenges of creating meaningful navigation tools, integrating them effectively into high school math courses, and why I waited until my third year implementing BTC to try them.

2025 Conference Presenters

Madison Butts

Department Chair/Teacher Leader/Mentor, St Helena USD

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

Assessment Practices, General

11:00am PDT

The Nonsense of Numbers

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

Bellevue I

As teachers, so much of what drives our assessment practices revolves around numbers. But do these numbers really tell us what we think they do? In this session, we will unpack our grading and reporting practices, interrogate their purpose and validity, and explore whether they truly serve all of our students. Together, we’ll challenge some of the assumptions we hold about numbers in our grade books and consider what might lie beyond them.

2025 Conference Presenters

Kyle Webb

BTC Team Member, Canadian Consultant, Building Thinking Classrooms

Kyle Webb (he/him) is a dedicated Mathematics Learning Consultant based in Regina, Saskatchewan with a passion for transforming mathematics education. Never satisfied with the status quo, he continuously seeks to improve educational practices, explore innovation, and connect with... Read More →

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

Assessment Practices, General

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

1:00pm PDT

Strengthening Collaboration and Perseverance with SEL Practices and Collaborative Rubrics

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

Seattle

This session explores how integrating Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) can transform classrooms into inclusive, collaborative communities. By redesigning rubrics to foster accountability in group learning and utilizing strategies like community circles to build trust and openness, educators can create spaces where self-awareness and empathy drive both academic achievement and personal growth. Together, we’ll explore practical approaches to building trust and connection while addressing challenges such as disengagement, behavioral issues, and resistance to collaboration. Participants will leave with effective strategies for designing rubrics that support accountability and SEL, creating thriving, inclusive learning environments.

2025 Conference Presenters

Margie Scherer

Teacher, RLS Middle School, St Helena Unified

St. Helena Unified School District (SHUSD) is proud to serve a diverse student population comprising 53% Latino, 43% Caucasian, and 4% from other backgrounds. Approximately 40% of our students come from low-income households, and 21% are English Language Learners, enriching our classrooms... Read More →

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

Assessment Practices, Secondary

2:15pm PDT

Terrace Talks - The Neverending Story: My Continual Journey Through Assessment

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

Bellevue I

Join Maegan Giroux, as she walks through how she and her grade 6/7 students' assessed a full unit, from start to finish. Maegan will share student work and comments on the assessment approach including the various ways the class chose to embed conversations, observations, and technology into the assessment. This session will include time for Q&A and open discussion around the unit was planned and assessed.

2025 Conference Presenters

Maegan Giroux

BTC Team Member, Consultant, K-5 Author, Building Thinking Classrooms

Maegan Giroux (she/her) is an passionate instructional coach, dedicated to empowering educators across all levels to excel in their teaching practice. With a specialized focus on literacy and numeracy, she walks alongside teachers as they implement dynamic initiatives to enhance student... Read More →

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

Assessment Practices, General