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!
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.
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.
Special Education students in streamed classrooms can be provided with opportunities to engage in rich thinking opportunities, either in the small classroom environment or integrated with grade-level classmates. With supporting documents from Lambert, Karp, and NCTM/NCSM Position Papers, I engaged in pilot opportunities to expose grade-level material to students with IEPs. The use of random groups, learning skill continua, priming (pre-teaching), and access to rich tasks led to an increase of student engagement, student achievement, and teacher confidence. This session will explore some of the supporting research, summarize key takeaways from the experience, lay the groundwork for new inquiry this school year, and build a professional learning community from the attendees.
Universal Design for Learning looks at ways to increase access for all students. Come examine the principles of Building Thinking Classrooms through a UDL lens to explore how the practices support all learners. Participants will actively engage in a thinking task before examining how the planning for and facilitation of the task follow the principles of UDL.
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.
Many teachers struggle with confidence in mathematics, which often leads them to rely on rote procedures rather than engaging with students' thinking. Furthermore, a lack of deep conceptual understanding can make it difficult to teach ideas flexibly or address student misconceptions effectively. This session tackles these challenges. By providing sustained, classroom-connected professional learning, teacher confidence and conceptual understanding can be strengthened alongside more dynamic instructional practices. Using the Building Thinking Classrooms framework, curriculum leaders will learn how to engage educators in meaningful collaboration. Specifically, participants will dive into hands-on exploration of additive and multiplicative relationships using Cuisenaire rods.
This session is for those who provide PD and/or support teachers in their math teaching practice. In this session, the Math Collaborative Team from Riverside School Board (QC) will engage participants in tasks and reflective experiences focused on planning and facilitating professional learning grounded in the Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) approach. We will explore how the team at RSB has used and adapted the BTC approach for teaching teachers about mathematics teaching (it’s very meta!). This workshop will demonstrate how “Teacher Tasks” and other professional learning structures can be used to develop specific BTC practices, such as Giving Hints and Extensions. This workshop will provide practical strategies and insights for designing impactful, BTC-aligned professional development.
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.
Join us as we reflect on one school district’s journey implementing the 14 Practices and explore the steps they are currently taking to strengthen their educational system.
Through shared experiences, participant engagement, and reflective dialogue, we will examine how systems-level change develops over time. The session will highlight conversations, insights, and reflections gathered throughout the district’s implementation process, offering practical perspectives for educators and leaders seeking to foster meaningful, sustainable change.
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.
Experience BTC from the inside! Originally tested in high school, this immersive session is open to all grades and subjects. We’ll dive into a non-curriculum task—it's a concept that puts everyone on equal footing as pure learners. Step into students' shoes! Working in collaborative groups on vertical surfaces, you’ll tackle progressive, "thin-sliced" tasks requiring zero prior knowledge. You will: Discover how thin-slicing sustains engagement in any subject or grade level. Feel how BTC pedagogical flow builds confidence when facing unfamiliar content. Leave with concrete, actionable ideas to use in your classroom tomorrow.
One of the biggest hurdles in implementing BTC for Mathematics is figuring out how to engage students in differentiated practice, without falling into mimicry or procedural sequences. The value of practice is to help students note where they are so that they can do something about it; additionally, it is essential to have formative assessments to adapt pacing or identify specific needs. Proposal: present a “recipe” for constructing a practice thinking task for any grade level. Task name: Mild, Medium, Spicy.
In summarizing the task creation, connections to a myriad of BTC principles would be referenced. The presentation would emphasize the benefits of this organization for the teacher as well as the students while guiding attendees through an example of the preparation & action processes.
What happens when a compelling phenomenon meets a Thinking Classroom? In this interactive session, participants will experience a sea turtle phenomenon as learners while exploring how BTC practices support scientific thinking and sensemaking. Participants will work at VNPS to notice patterns, ask questions, analyze evidence, develop explanations, and revise their thinking. We will examine how the phenomenon creates a reason to learn science content and how intentional task sequencing, questioning, and consolidation move students toward deeper understanding. Participants will leave with a practical process for transforming phenomena into rich thinking tasks that can be adapted to any science curriculum.
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.
