This year, several of our third, fourth and fifth-grade teachers are piloting an exciting approach to math instruction called Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC), in partnership with Clackamas Education Service District math specialist Lori McKenzie.
What is a Thinking Classroom? Instead of sitting quietly at desks watching a teacher solve problems at the front of the room, BTC gets students up on their feet, working in visibly random small groups at vertical whiteboards around the classroom. Students tackle rich, engaging math problems together while teachers circulate to ask guiding questions rather than just giving away the answers. It builds deep conceptual understanding, perseverance and collaborative problem-solving skills.
Inspiring future teachers: Last week, Lori McKenzie brought a group of future educators from George Fox University’s teaching program to observe John Wetten Elementary classrooms in action. Even though several of our teachers just launched these practices this year, the visiting university students were blown away by what they saw!
Here are a few highlights they shared from their visit:
High engagement and collaboration: Visitors noted that student engagement averaged 80–85% (and up to 100%!) across full 30-minute sessions at the boards. Students naturally walked across the room to gather inspiration from other groups' strategies when they got stuck, bringing fresh ideas back to their own teams.
Math talk in action: Future teachers heard students actively using respectful sentence starters ("I agree..." and "I disagree...") to debate and refine their mathematical thinking.
Student ownership and teamwork: Groups transitioned smoothly into their random teams without hesitation, kept each other on track (“We're on a roll!”), and even used quick rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors to fairly share the whiteboard marker!
Guiding over telling: Visitors praised how our teachers empowered students by pointing them back to what they already knew, helping kids build confidence in their own reasoning.
We are so proud of our third, fourth and fifth-grade learners for embracing new challenges—and grateful to our teachers for opening their doors to inspire the next generation of educators!