Many schools begin their Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) journey by adopting random grouping and vertical boards, yet these tools often lack a strategic purpose. Without moving beyond this mechanical implementation, students miss out on the genuine thinking, clear collaboration norms, and supportive environments necessary for making mistakes and formalizing learning. Designed for coaches and school leaders, this session focuses on how to support teachers in moving past these initial steps toward a deeper, more effective model. We will explore high-leverage practices—including sequencing thinking tasks to ignite curiosity, structuring consolidation to ensure shared understanding, and shifting note-making to occur after the learning has happened. Participants will leave with a clearer blueprint for scaling their implementation and concrete strategies to build their teachers' capacities and self-efficacy toward a sustainable Thinking Classrooms.
In this session, participants will explore how to plant and nurture the “growing conditions” needed for Thinking Classrooms. Through hands-on, cognitively engaging tasks, we’ll examine how choice, access, and experience—not mandates or formulas—help teachers build deep conceptual roots. Our districtwide journey of cultivating systems that support the 14 practices will be shared and we will invite reflection on barriers, opportunities, and leadership intersections. Participants will analyze their own contexts and identify actionable “tweaks” to strengthen their implementation journey.By participating in this session, attendees will be able to:Identify district and school “growing conditions”—systems, structures, and cultural factors—that support or hinder the implementation of Thinking Classroom practices.Analyze how choice, access, and experiential learning deepen conceptual understanding and foster authentic engagement for teachers.Reflect on their own district’s context to notice strengths, barriers, and opportunities in their implementation journey.Apply actionable “tweaks” that strengthen their leadership approach and support teachers in building sustainable Thinking Classrooms.Design next steps for cultivating their district’s “growing conditions,” aligning instructional research with system-level coherence.
In this session, participants will: Examine leadership structures and coaching strategies that sustain BTC implementation across schools. Explore communication tactics that build districtwide excitement and coherence. Analyze examples of student growth that illustrate the power of thinking-centered instruction across subjects. Reflect on how BTC principles can strengthen leadership teams, PLCs, and professional learning systems.Administrators and coaches will leave with concrete tools and stories that show how Building Thinking Classrooms can grow beyond a classroom model—into a districtwide culture of curiosity, collaboration, and deep learning for both students and adults.
Participants will leave with a clear understanding of how school and teacher leaders can create the conditions for Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) to thrive across a school or district. They will gain: Practical leadership strategies for supporting BTC implementation schoolwide Tools for coaching teachers on thinking tasks, student discourse, and productive struggle Structures for using PLCs, walk-throughs, and collaborative planning to sustain BTC Methods for aligning BTC practices with school improvement goals, NEASC recommendations, and Portrait of a Graduate competencies Equity-centered approaches to ensure all students, especially those historically underserved, experience high-level thinking and agency
Particpants will understand that school leaders contribute to the success of classroom instruction when they establish routines, structures, and conditions that support teacher practice.
