Building Thinking Classrooms 2025 Annual Conference

“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.

This workshop explores practical strategies for cultivating equity in thinking classrooms, focusing on creating inclusive environments that cater to a diverse student population, including emergent multilingual students, students with disabilities, and those from various socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. The session will address approaches to modify classroom setups, teaching methodologies, and curriculum designs to ensure all students feel valued and are equipped to thrive academically.

We watch classrooms, co-teach, develop and deliver Professional Development (PD) , try to incorporate BTC into classrooms, and still change is elusive. Hear about our real and raw journey to transform practices in math  classrooms so everyone embraces BTC. Come discover how a new mathematics education coach and outside consultant developed research-based protocols to collaboratively implement PD while implementing resources and providing support through continuous improvement. Leave with complete rubrics, checklists, and resources to affect meaningful change in your coaching and PD as you create more buy-in, strategically introducing BTC.

Immerse yourself in the experience of emergent multilingual learners with an interactive social studies vocabulary lesson conducted partially in French. This session demonstrates how BTC practices create an ideal environment for language acquisition and equitable access. Participants will engage in activities such as organizing vocabulary along a semantic gradient, creating Frayer models, and playing vocabulary games. Through small-group collaboration, visual supports, and NPVSs, you'll discover strategies that reduce cognitive load and performance risk for language learners. Come see how these approaches can be applied to support diverse students in your classroom, enhancing equity in the humanities and all subjects.

If you love Building Thinking Classrooms strategies but want to explore how they can transform other content areas, this session is for you! Participants will engage in a hands-on BTC experience focused on social studies, starting with collaborative analysis of a map and connecting it to a written passage. You'll see how BTC practices can drive inquiry, foster collaboration, and engage students with challenging content. Leave with actionable strategies to implement BTC principles in your own social studies classroom.

Learn how to inspire teacher engagement in professional learning through BTC strategies and engaging book clubs. This session offers practical tools to build buy-in, encourage collaboration, and create sustainable, teacher-driven growth. Perfect for school leaders, instructional coaches, and teacher leaders ready to transform PD into something meaningful and manageable.

Trying to incorporate Building Thinking Classroom strategies into your classroom using lessons from a textbook? Be sure to join us as we experience a lesson from an Algebra 1 book. You will work with colleagues at a VNPS through curricular tasks and experience consolidation for the lesson. Finally we will look at the original presentation of the lesson in the book and debrief the strategies.

Ever wondered how mathematics would work if we had three fingers on each hand? Step into your students' shoes as we explore mathematics through a Martian lens! Experience a complete Thinking Classroom lesson where familiar mathematical concepts become delightfully unfamiliar. Through this unique perspective, participants will engage with core BTC practices - from vertical non-permanent surfaces to visibly random groupings - while discovering how mathematical meaning-making feels for our students. Leave with practical insights about creating accessible, engaging mathematics learning experiences for diverse learners, including emergent multi-linguals and neuro-divergent students. Join us for an out-of-this-world mathematical adventure!

This session will show how to adapt current Social Studies lessons into BTC
lessons without a ton of prep or resources. Strip away note taking and slide
decks. Let go of the idea that students are listening when you're talking and
trust the power of a non-permanent vertical surface, also known as a white
board. We will look at two to three lessons that I have modified into BTC
lessons using current curriculum. I will also share about my classroom set
up and behavior modification strategies that have made this year a success,
with a few humorous failures. Come check it out.

We are two experienced and successful teachers who are constantly striving to improve. Nothing has improved our practice like BTC. BTC allows us to engage more students, better assess their understanding, and push them to higher-order thinking. Within days, we could see (and hear) how much of a difference BTC was making with our students. Within weeks, we saw the potential for BTC to be an equity driver while upholding high expectations for curricular mastery. Within months, we saw gains on our standards and room for further professional growth. This presentation shares some of our successes and failures, as well as our strengths and areas for improvement. Attendees will leave with strategies and ideas to try in their own practices.