Detracking with BTC series: Three Suggestions for Self-Support to Guide You Toward Success, Part 1

In this final series of BTC posts, I offer guidance I gleaned during the course of our BTC implementation.

Arming yourself with BTC knowledge supports a more competent level of implementation.

In July 2022, I was on a Building Thinking Classrooms math conference tour! I spoke about our implementation at four different conferences, I wrote about it, and I was on a webinar. My presentation was one of the nation's earlier Thinking Classrooms sessions on the conference circuit at that time, and it has remained unique because my colleagues and I used the methodology to detrack pre-algebra. 

One of the segments I shared with session participants described three suggestions that I felt contributed or would have contributed to our success. During the school year, I applied two of the suggestions; I requested the third one, but it did not fully come to fruition. Hindsight is 20/20, right? 

Suggestion #1: Impenetrable research and collaboration

Read and discuss 

Find a colleague with whom you can read or at least discuss Building Thinking Classrooms. You will nod your head in agreement with many of the practices, but you will wonder how to implement them in your current context. You will think some of the ideas are impossible, but discussing them with a colleague will help you weigh pros and cons, restrictions and possibilities, and ultimately focus on making decisions that support your math students rather than those that reflect your fear of trying something new. Give yourself time to plan, revamp, toss out, and revise your lesson plans. Collaborating with a colleague will reduce your hesitation and help you see the advantages of adding some of the practices to your instructional repertoire.

Read as much as you can about BTC. Visit the back of the book and read some of the research from the bibliography. Attend workshops and watch webinars. Find blogs that specialize in BTC posts and subscribe to their sites. Arming yourself with as much knowledge about the process–ideas that have worked for teachers and those that haven’t–will strengthen your confidence in the practices and fortify your implementation. It will bolster your ability to speak to the administration and to parents who may not be as supportive initially because the practices are unfamiliar to them.

Whenever I work with teachers, I never hesitate to emphasize that they are each other’s greatest resources. Even if you’re the only math teacher of your grade, reach out to a colleague who can be your thought partner and support your efforts as you work to figure out how to renovate your classroom to optimize mathematical thinking. 

Implement in increments 

Consider implementing the 14 practices or aspects of the practices in increments. We were able to implement a significant quantity of the methodologies because during the summer, we spent over a month mapping out the first three months of our lesson plans and studying the curriculum. Once the school year began, our high-level mapping allowed us to make adjustments as we progressed through the year, rather than plan from the ground up in real time. It also allowed us to be equitable in our planning and respond to the students’ individual needs, since we knew what was coming up from day to day, week to week.

If you don’t have the time to devote to this process in the way I described, be selective in your implementation choices. Don’t feel the need to totally revamp your instruction and insert ALL 14 practices on Day 1! Some ideas: 

• Maybe you ease into giving optional homework only on Tuesdays, just to see how the students respond and how that impacts your instruction and instructional time (and your sanity!) on Wednesdays. 

• Maybe you have the students huddle up for the lesson launch only on Fridays. 

• Maybe you start by giving your students only one problem or task to do while standing and using the vertical non-permanent surfaces (VNPS), rather than multiple problems or an entire lesson, so you can observe how they interact. 

• Maybe you work on keeping students in FLOW through your intentional design of a set of problems during one of your lessons and assess their understanding afterward. 

  
  

We definitely made adjustments before the school year began and during the year (that’s a post for another day). The book doesn’t demand that every practice is followed to the letter; give yourself some grace as you work through this new style of teaching and learning. 

Connect with others on social media

In 2022, we were just becoming aware of the Building Thinking Classrooms buzz, which was a soft murmur at the time. Nonetheless, I intentionally connected and communicated with as many teachers as possible on the site formally known as Twitter. I asked teachers questions, offered ideas, and shared videos, quotes, and pictures of our students and their work. 

Sharing our experience helped us engage in a small community online that provided suggestions and support for us.

Now that the BTC practices are better established, more frequently implemented, and just plain popular, there are Facebook groups, Instagram pages, and social media educator groups just about everywhere teachers virtually congregate. Join a group or page that provides guidance and insight as you begin your BTC journey. There is a teacher somewhere out there who’s just like you, teaching your same grade, with the same mix of students, trying to figure this out right now; find that person so you can grow together. You must read the book first, of course, but if you still need support, watching a YouTube video or TikTok reel may be just what you need to boost your confidence and take a chance with one of the practices. This is no longer novel advice--but if you haven't done it yet, what are you waiting for?

If you dig far enough back into my X account, it is a treasure trove of our Building Thinking Classrooms experience. We knew we were doing something special and we wanted to record as much of it as possible (I still have lesson plans, students' journal entries, the VNPS, and my students' assessments!). We kept posting to not only showcase our experience, but to learn from fellow educators who were tackling similar challenges as they shifted their instructional practices. Take advantage of social media and find your tribe.

Next Up, Suggestion #2:

Part 2 of the series addresses parent pushback.