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 session explores how Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) principles can be adapted for physics classrooms and laboratories to promote deeper conceptual understanding, scientific reasoning, and student engagement. Participants will examine examples from both theory-based lessons and experimental investigations, learn how BTC practices support the development of physics thinking, and discuss successes, challenges, and practical strategies for implementation. Attendees will leave with concrete ideas for creating more collaborative, student centred physics learning environments.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
