Building Thinking Classrooms 2025 Annual Conference

In this out-of-this-world, engaging, and interactive session we will explore the phases of the moon through the lens of a thinking classroom! This workshop is designed to foster curiosity, collaboration, and critical thinking as we investigate the moon’s motion and presentations. This workshop is perfect for educators across grade levels who are interested in making science more engaging, interactive, and thought-provoking rather than simply a body of knowledge. Whether you teach elementary, middle, or high school, you’ll walk away with fresh ideas and renewed excitement for teaching science. Don’t miss this chance to launch your teaching practices to new heights — you’ll be over the moon with ideas!

In today’s data-rich landscape, the ability to interpret and apply data is essential for students. This interactive session will explore data science standard connections while using the BTC practices. Participants will engage with real-world examples of how students can work with data and discuss strategies for supporting teachers in making data-informed decisions that lead to better outcomes for all learners. Learning outcomes include:

1. Understand how to integrate data science principles within the Building Thinking Classroom (BTC) framework.
2. Reflect on instructional strategies that support deeper student inquiry into data.
3. Develop interest in ongoing collaboration and professional learning around data science in BTC classrooms.

Cultivating students’ capacity to analyze, interpret, and communicate data insights is critical to developing mathematically literate citizens. This session examines the integration of data science concepts within the Building Thinking Classroom (BTC) framework, emphasizing pedagogical strategies that promote deep student engagement with data. Through interactive tasks using real-world visualizations, participants will explore a tiered “mild, medium, spicy” structure designed to scaffold cognitive demand and stimulate rich mathematical discourse. The session will also examine how these practices can empower educators to make data-informed instructional decisions and promote equity. Opportunities for ongoing professional learning and collaboration in data science and BTC will be shared.

How do you build capacity for a district wide shift towards a thinking classroom? Hear from two mathematics department leaders who successfully embarked on this journey in a diverse central high school district. Hear about the glows and grows of the process, and walk away with not only an aspiration for a thinking classrooms philosophy in your building/district, but more importantly the inspiration and plan for how to make it happen.

Building Thinking Classrooms: A Collaborative Conversation Across Content Areas 
Session Description:
Join us for an open conversation centered on the Building Thinking Classroom framework, where BTC team members will explore ideas, share experiences, and address questions in a collaborative setting.  This session will offer a flexible space for organic discussion around cross content topics.

I encountered BTC during a foray into college mathematics teaching in 2023. The ’24 BTC Summer Conference in Phoenix sealed the deal for me. I am back to teaching physics exclusively this year, and I have attempted to implement all 14 principles during the fall semester. As I am now posting grades before planning my spring courses, I am hyper-focused on #14. How We Grade. This presentation will be in three movements: 1) BTC at a large community college, 2) BTC in physics (with a little math tossed in), and 3) Meaningful Assessment vs. Assessing the Meaningful (spicy!). Hear how this year-long physics experiment turned out.

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.

Do you have students who shut down at the sight of a word problem? This session introduces research-based practices that worked with the lowest-performing students in both a Title 1 elementary school and high school. We will explore several instructional practices that span grade K-10 needs: exact-length bar templates, introducing structured expressions, expression/quantity matching, quantity onions, and finally algebraic expressions. BTC-style concept maps provided. Session immediately begins with participants working as students on VNPSs and on a webapp for 45-50 minutes followed by time for questions. Links to videos will be provided for the development, theory, & pilot data, instead of using valuable session time.

Participants will explore a BTC task through a complex instruction lens, focusing on actionable norms to enhance classroom equity. They will gain practical tools for implementing inclusive practices and providing targeted feedback to support equitable participation. This session will equip educators with strategies to foster effective collaboration and ensure all students engage meaningfully in BTC tasks.

Session Description:
Join us for a collaborative conversation focused on how the Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) framework intersects with various assessment practices. This session will provide an open space for educators to explore how thinking tasks, student voice, and non-traditional structures can inform both formative and summative assessment across content areas.