When students use AI, does the thinking stop, or has it just begun? This session explores how the 14 Practices of Building Thinking Classrooms scaffolded a 7th-grade AI elective and a transdisciplinary 9th-grade project.
Participants trace a curricular journey from how the brain learns to the mechanics and ethics of AI. VNPS and Visibly Random Groups shifted AI from a solitary screen experience into a collaborative, social process, keeping student cognition visible alongside AI outputs.
Highlights include students identifying real-world problems and using AI as a thinking partner, BTC practices ensuring cognition remains visible, and collaborative thinking that turned local problems into service learning with real-world impact
Student self-assessment within the BTC framework is essential. Using technology to do this provides great opportunity, but takes some planning. Come learn how to use several different platforms including Amplify Activity Builder and Padlet to have students check their own understanding, beyond just checking teacher provided solutions. Discuss how this can allow in-class time to be most effective and meaningful with and for your students!
This lesson is a collaborative thinking task rooted in co-creation, where students work in small, randomly formed groups at VNPS. Each student uses a different coloured marker so contributions remain visible. Each student begins with quick, individual marks to introduce ambiguity and reduce pressure. A curricular theme is then introduced as a guiding question, shifting the task toward purposeful thinking. Through a series of 20-second timed rounds, students build on one another's ideas to transform the marks into a shared visual. In the final phase, they extend their thinking by contributing to a shared written narrative. The focus is on collective thinking, iteration, and meaning-making, where students build knowledge together rather than working in isolation.
Participants will leave the session with practical strategies to integrate data science into Thinking Classrooms. They will understand how Building Thinking Classrooms practices and a data mindset work together to foster critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving. Attendees will gain other ways to incorporate Toolkit #1 and #2 in their classroom.
Are students doing the work—or doing the thinking? This session applies Building Thinking Classrooms practices to writing instruction, helping teachers shift from task-oriented writing to thinking-centered learning. Participants will explore how to reduce answer-getting behaviors, increase discourse, and design tasks that require reasoning, interpretation, and creativity. Using the BTC framework developed by Peter Liljedahl, teachers will leave with actionable strategies to deepen engagement and improve writing outcomes.
(Here is my updated session description that could be used to explain my session in the schedule) - Whiteboards, random groups, and thinking tasks aren’t just for math. They belong in humanities classrooms too! As a junior high ELA, FLA, and Social teacher who has spent four years learning about BTC without ever teaching a math class, I’ve worked hard to adapt these strategies for my subjects. I’ve had flops, but I’ve also had incredible successes! In this session, I’ll share the thinking tasks I’ve created and walk you through some of them, so you can see how they work and how to build student buy-in. I also want to leave time for questions and discussion, because those conversations are where we all gain the most, myself included, and I’ll do my best to answer your questions based on my own classroom experiences.
Picture books paired with joyful math problems spark curiosity, foster collaboration, and build a sense of belonging in a Thinking Classroom. Learn how these story-driven learning experiences support your students in developing a growth mindset, perseverance, and a positive math identity. Leave with practical strategies and ready-to-use lessons to help all students see themselves as mathematicians and problem solvers. Most importantly, come experience the joy of connecting an amazing picture book to a great math problem!
Numeracy Lead Teacher, Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools
Alicia Burdess has been a teacher, assistant principal, and math coach with Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools since 2005. She has served as the President of the Math Council of the Alberta Teachers' Association and the Chairperson of the National Council of Teachers of... Read More →
This session invites educators to step into the role of advertisers to explore how propaganda works by first selling the unsellable. Participants begin with a hands-on activity creating an appealing advertisement for a deliberately undesirable property, identifying techniques such as selective truth, emotional appeal, exaggeration, and omission. The session then connects this experience to the Last Best West settlement campaign, examining how government and railway advertising promoted Western Canada while omitting Indigenous presence, environmental realities, and settler experiences. Designed for upper elementary and secondary Social Studies classrooms. Educators leave with ready-to-use lesson structures and discussion prompts to help students question sources and recognize propaganda.
Move students from passively reading to active engagement in the text through the BTC framework. This session will explore the use of randomized groups at vertical non-permanent surfaces to foster critical thinking about a variety of text types. We will discuss the ways that teachers can thin-slice ELA tasks to scaffold literary and non-fiction text analysis. You will leave the session with a variety of strategies to use thinking tasks to encourage every student to think critically about their texts.
Participants will explore how curricular Navigation Maps can transform assessment from a process focused on grades into one that communicates learning, growth, and next steps. Using a traditional unit test, we'll examine how conventional assessments often provide limited information about student understanding and then redesign the assessment using a Navigation Map to generate more meaningful evidence of learning. Through authentic student examples, participants will practice providing targeted feedback and explore how Navigation Maps support transparent, standards-aligned assessment and grading. Designed for Grades 7–9 educators familiar with Building Thinking Classrooms, this session offers practical strategies for making assessment more informative and reflective of student learning.
Get a glimpse of a BTC classroom, in rural Alberta, in action. This session will focus on how one grade 8 math outcome has been taught over multiple classes. The first day consists of an opening sequence at the board, random groups made using cards, thin sliced questions using banners and a consolidation task of ranking questions. The second day consists of an opening sequence at the boards, a few more thin sliced questions and then notes made as a class. Participants will get an opportunity to be immersed in the experience, as well as see some videos of me, in my classroom, doing this with my students.
Building true team synergy remains one of the most practical challenges in any collaborative classroom. This session presents an RWS (Reader, Writer, Speaker) adapted workshop designed to bridge the gap between individual contribution and collective success. By using the logic game SET, participants must navigate the "fog of uncertainty" by relying on strictly defined roles. Drawing from 30 years of experience as a math teacher and textbook author in Croatia, the presenter demonstrates how this specific RWS adaptation helps students identify their strengths and actively address their weaknesses. Through a final SWOT analysis, participants will explore how to enhance group agency and ensure that every student finds a functional, empowered space at the whiteboard.
This assignment brings Building Thinking Classrooms to life through image, story, and shared inquiry. Students interpret an image of an Indigenous rider overlooking the land, connected to She Holds Up the Stars by Sandra Laronde, a novel centered on identity, belonging, and voice. Framed by a personal narrative, students are invited to give voice to an untold story. In randomized groups, they co-construct a narrative using evolving sentence constraints, fostering creativity, risk-taking, and collective meaning-making.
This practical session will explore the natural alignment between BTC and UDL, with a focus on creating inclusive learning environments where all students can meaningfully participate in critical thinking. Participants will experience firsthand learning activities that incorporate BTC structures and UDL principles. The focus will be on two key areas: 1) Designing the physical classroom environment to support inclusion & thinking routines. 2) Intentional planning for instruction, routines, and learning experiences to ensure all students can access and engage in rich learning tasks.
Participants will leave with concrete, classroom-ready strategies for designing inclusive thinking classrooms that maintain high levels of engagement, collaboration, and cognitive demand for all learners.
The real-world implementation of BTC at Lucerne Valley Middle High School, a rural 7–12 site. Attendees will learn how the site introduced BTC in ways that honored teacher voice, reduced overwhelm, & created early wins. A key focus is coaching to sustain change by co-teaching, real-time feedback, & lesson design experimentation in a safe & supported environment. Leadership modeled vulnerability, encouraged risk-taking, & framed struggle as productive & a shared experience. Attendees gain practical strategies to navigate resistance, address challenges, & maintain momentum through reflection. Through a consolidation activity, attendees will gain actionable strategies for BTC implementation, supporting teachers at varying levels, & building a culture where thinking drives instruction.
Do your students struggle to take notes? Are you looking for new ways to help students process their learning? In this session we will explore how to support students in sense-making, cognitive engagement, and meaningful note-making that goes beyond “fill-in-the-blank” or “copy what I write” notes. Participate in the process of collaborative note-making, inspired by the research and ideas presented by Peter Liljedahl in his book Mathematics Tasks for the Thinking Classroom, and walk away with strategies to engage students in the note-making process and solidify their transfer of learning from short-term to long-term memory. This session will explore how the process can be used in all content areas including Math, Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts.
In this interactive session, participants will experience a Building Thinking Classrooms approach to writing instruction. Beginning with Gary Provost's famous poem on sentence variation, educators will work in visibly random groups to uncover how authors use sentence length, word choice, and structure to engage readers.
Using thin-slicing, participants will collaboratively build and revise a story one small piece at a time. Along the way, they will explore how choices in sentence length and word selection can transform ordinary writing into compelling text.
Teachers will leave with a practical, classroom-ready literacy task.
