Building Thinking Classrooms 2025 Annual Conference

This session explores strategies for co-teaching a geometry class for emergent multilingual students, focusing on fostering critical thinking and equitable access to content and language. Participants will learn how to design engaging, thought-provoking tasks that promote deep thinking, transitioning from non-curricular to curriculum-based tasks. The session emphasizes the power of collaborative learning through random grouping, ensuring active participation and breaking down social barriers. Additionally, it introduces the use of vertical non-permanent surfaces (VNPSs) to transform the classroom into an interactive space, encouraging risk-taking and sustained engagement in mathematics for all students.

Let’s use picture books with characters and settings from Central America, the Middle East, India, Africa and multi-ethnic America to explore literacy concepts in the Thinking Classroom! How can we incorporate photographs to help students make connections between their world and the greater world around them? Let’s explore some activities and strategies together!

This is an after school enrichment math camp that focuses on kids with special needs who may or may not be open to math.  It combines BTC techniques with Boaler's mindset using lessons from Mathematics Tasks for the Thinking Classroom and Boaler's, Aunty Math and JRMF websites.  

The Hawaii Lab Cohort is a professional development model where a small group of teachers gather over the course of a year to learn together, reflect on artifacts of practice, and provide feedback through peer observations. In order to take a deeper dive into the shifts of BTC, our learning was anchored in the four toolkits at the pace of one toolkit per quarter.  Participants will get a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to structure this type of job-embedded learning from the perspective of both facilitators and teachers.  

How can Building Thinking Classrooms be integrated into a Middle Years IB Programme, with IB’s required rubrics and assessment criteria? A group of middle school teachers finishing up year one of a switch to a Building Thinking Classrooms model share what we’ve learned about synthesizing two systems as a model for how other teachers can adapt BTC to fit with their school’s or district’s requirements. We will look specifically at an algebra unit on solving inequalities built around the MYP's Criterion B and Criterion C. Additionally, we will share how MYP Criterion B, C, and D assessments can provide rich tasks and exciting assessments for non-IB classrooms and share tasks we've created

Gretchen Voskuhl, Lower and Middle School Math Specialist, Annie Wright Schools, gretchen_voskuhl@aw.org, Katie Miller, Middle School Math Teacher, Annie Wright Schools, katie_miller@aw.org, Linh Phan, Middle School Math Teacher, Annie Wright Schools, linh_phan@aw.org

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!

Discover how Kempsville High School implemented the Building Thinking Classrooms framework to enhance rigor and drive schoolwide improvement. This session highlights the impact on our Plan for Continuous Improvement across Core, Inclusion, Honors, AP, Dual Enrollment, Elective, and Industry Certification settings. Learn about our implementation strategies, including in-service planning, monthly professional learning, and walkthroughs. Explore how we supported teachers with interactive PD, modeling, co-planning, and co-teaching. Participants will collaborate to start designing plans tailored to their school’s unique needs.

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.

This session explores the alignment between the Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) framework and cognitive science research. It highlights how core BTC practices—such as the launch, flow, consolidation, and check-your-understanding questions—are grounded in cognitive science principles like cognitive load, schema acquisition, and the role of prior knowledge. By unpacking these practices, the session demonstrates how they support effective learning and cognitive development. It also examines the implications for classroom instruction, emphasizing how understanding these connections can help teachers provide equitable, high-quality learning experiences for all students.