Building Thinking Classrooms Toolkit 1

The first toolkit in the Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) Framework consists of three practices that need to be implemented simultaneously, rather than sequentially.  They are:

1. Give thinking tasks
2. Frequently form visibly random groups 
3. Use vertical non-permanent surfaces

In Building Thinking Classrooms Peter Liljedahl states that "If we want our students to think, we need to give them something to think about - something that will not only require thinking but also encourage thinking."  In math classrooms this starts with highly engaging, non-curricular tasks (aka low floor-high ceiling tasks).  Liljedahl also emphasizes that we have to "go slow at first, in order to go fast."  This makes sense and also ties into what Sarah Carter wrote about in 2018 that we have to communicate with students from day one that "we do math everyday."  BTC has some great tasks after most chapters, so I think my next step, as I begin to think about the first few weeks of school is to do them myself.  The nice thing about NYC schools having one of the latest back to school dates in the country is that so many fellow MTBoS teachers have already started doing this with students.  A challenge I am anticipating is that using non-routine interesting problems for the first week or two of school is how I usually start the school year, and students seem to really enjoy them, and then the switch gets flipped and we start our first traditional unit, I think, for the most part, students (and parents) kind of expect that, but if I am committed to building a thinking classroom, I need to stop worrying about the curriculum.  Math is about problem solving, and problem solving takes time and can get messy.  In addition to the non-curricular tasks that are suggested in the book, I hope to use some from Sigma, Olympiad & MathCounts competitions, which my students have participated in since 6th grade as well of the problem solving resources that I have gotten through my MfA PLTs.

Forming visibly random groups is another practice that I tend to start the school year with.  My favorite method is to use two deck of cards (one with a card taped to each student desk, in groups) and hand the corresponding cards from the other deck to students as they walk into the classroom each day, so that they are not sitting in the same seats the first few days.  I have also done this my having each of my groups be labeled with a different Greek letter/symbol (Alpha, Beta, Delta, Theta, Pi & Sigma) and then handing each student a card with one of the symbols on it as they walk into the classroom.  My worry this year, is that last year, desks had to be in rows, 6 feet apart and sharing supplies was not allowed.  We are on track to start this year with 100% of students back in the classroom, but I worry about whether or not grouping will be allowed.  Also, again, this was a practice I would do during the first week or or so of school, until I created a seating chart, and if I am committed to BTCs, I will need to keep this practice up beyond September.

Lastly is using vertical non-permanent surfaces (VNPS) in my classroom.  I dabbled with something similar to this at my previous school a few years ago when I was trying out 360 Degree Math.  One of the things I love about MfA besides the pizza (at least when we could physically go there in person) was that almost every wall was a VNPS).  Unfortunately my classroom (on the 5th floor of a building with no elevator and no working AC) has a wall of lockers on one side and windows on the other, and the two walls that could be used for VNPs aren't really set up for it.  The other very real problem to consider is that in a typical school year, my students would come to my classroom, and last year, it was the teachers that traveled between classrooms, so I taught in several different classrooms, all with different set ups.  We don't have official guidance yet on whether students or teachers will be traveling, so this is something I have to really think about.  Based on what I've seen from other teachers Wipebook seems to be really popular.  Luckily being in MfA I get $2000 to spend on classroom supplies, so the money isn't an issue, although I would really only like to buy one class set instead of three or more, depending on how many different classrooms I will be teaching in this year.