What happens when Building Thinking Classrooms moves into an additional language classroom? This session explores how its principles can be applied to language learning. Using strategies such as vertical non-permanent surfaces, random grouping, and open-ended tasks, we will create spaces where students think together, use the target language more naturally, and make their learning visible. The focus shifts from producing perfect language to building confidence, encouraging risk-taking, and using language as a tool for meaning making. Participants will leave with practical ideas and adaptable tasks that can be used immediately to promote engagement, thinking, and authentic communication in additional language classrooms.
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.
(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.
In this practical, hands-on session, a picture book will be used as a springboard for a student-centered learning experience that includes cross-curricular connections, student questioning and discussion strategies, and activities that are guided by BTC Toolkit #1. Come and see the power of connecting a picture book with science, math, language arts, and health.
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.
