2025 MidSchoolMath National Conference

Ever wonder how to create an environment to boost student thinking? Or how can one get middle schoolers to actually embrace their mistakes?  Or get them to just work together?

It’s possible! This session will focus on how to create a classroom climate that celebrates mistakes and where the focus is on learning, not just the grade. You'll gain ideas and activities to support implementation of Building Thinking Classrooms, with Core Curriculum by MidSchoolMath and other Curriculums. The session will explore how to create a safe classroom culture, use non-curricular tasks to increase student thinking, and even housekeeping suggestions to get your classroom up and running smoothly!

Through creative questioning we can find ways for all students to engage in math through inquiry, find the fun in
thinking and create opportunities for authentic discourse and confidence building.

Using the Building Thinking Classroom approach, we'll look at content and non-content based problems, looking for more ways to engage our students in thinking rather than memorizing facts or being passive learners. We will discuss the techniques to keep students engage and thinking and how to extend problems so that we can differentiate within the room.

You'll leave ready to share these ideas with your students!

Tired of the traditional lecture-practice model in your middle school math classroom? Ready to ignite student engagement and deepen mathematical understanding? Join this session to discover how to transform your lessons using a task-based approach inspired by Building Thinking Classrooms.
We'll share how we've effectively combined the Practice Printable and Teacher Instruction components of Core Curriuclum by MidSchoolMath curriculum to create rich, open-ended tasks that promote critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaborative learning!
The strategies shared are designed around Core Curriculum by MidSchoolMath but will hold value in any math classroom that wants to use a Building Thinking Classrooms approach.

When students explore visual, tactile, and relevant problems before a unit of study, they are able to use their prior knowledge, construct new understandings, and connect their learning to the world! In this session, we'll explore some anchor problems using Building Thinking Classrooms practices, and talk about how to make exploration and learning memorable and durable.

We'll then discuss how then displaying mathematical representations of these problems around the room allows you to refer to the math throughout the year, intentionally helping students look for patterns and connections, deepen their learning, and build conceptual understanding. You'll leave having deepened your understanding of the Building Thinking Classrooms practices and resources to use with your students.

Are you ready to transform your math classroom into a dynamic learning environment but you can’t help but think of all the reasons why it can’t work in your room? Do you have concerns about the budget? Is your space or furniture challenging? Join us for this session when we'll confront those excuses and concerns explore how to apply the principles of Building Thinking Classrooms to any classroom.  

We'll address common concerns and provide practical solutions to help you overcome challenges such as limited budget, space constraints, and resistance from colleagues. Discover how to repurpose existing materials, find affordable options, and secure funding for classroom improvements. Learn creative ways to maximize your classroom space and create a sense of openness and flexibility. Gain strategies for building buy-in and overcoming resistance to change.

By the end of this session, you'll feel empowered to break free from the traditional classroom setup and create a space that truly inspires and engages your students -- and a toolkit of practical strategies to implement with your students!

Practicing math can become redundant. It’s easy to fall into the same routine: assign the page number, assign the math problems, and students get to work. Suddenly students are zoning out, their heads are down, they are engaging in off-topic conversations and now it feels like you are “putting out fires” and math practice comes to a halt.

In this session, we'll share what happened when we trialed and tweaked our approach to practice problems to allow for increased fun, increased engagement, and a highly collaborative MidSchoolMath Component: the Practice Printable. We have found these activities to include little to no prep and are perfect for Multi-lingual Students. Our strategies are designed especially for Core Curriculum by MidSchoolMath but will hold value in any math classroom.