Using Goosechase for Building Thinking Classrooms: Extending Work from Whiteboards to the Digital Space

How do teachers use Goosechase within the Building Thinking Classrooms Framework?

The 2nd Annual Building Thinking Classrooms Conference, co-hosted by Arizona Math Leaders, Arizona Department of Education, and Arizona Association of Teachers of Mathematics, brought educators from around the globe together to explore innovative math pedagogy. The event welcomed 1225 teachers from 45 states and 6 countries, to collaborate in learning that kicked off with a small pre-conference on June 30 followed by the full conference on July 1 and 2. 

The conference offered something for everyone interested in learning more about Building Thinking Classrooms —from novices to seasoned experts. The conference emphasized how to incorporate math thinking tasks with sessions that not only focused on deepening mathematical understanding, but also showcased how these methods can be applied across various content areas, making it a truly comprehensive professional learning experience.

Here's a sneak peek of the Experience we ran:

The Building Thinking Classrooms pedagogy, developed by Dr. Peter Liljedahl, focuses on creating a classroom environment that promotes deep thinking and active engagement in mathematics.

Key elements of the Building Thinking Classrooms method include:

• Non-Permanent Vertical Surfaces: Encouraging students to work on whiteboards or similar surfaces where they can easily share and revise their ideas.
• Random Grouping: Assigning students to random groups regularly to foster collaboration and ensure diverse perspectives.
• Problem-Solving Focus: Emphasizing rich, open-ended problems that require students to think critically and creatively.
• Teacher's Role: Shifting the teacher's role from direct instruction to facilitating and guiding student thinking.
• Promoting Independence: Encouraging students to take ownership of their learning by grappling with problems before seeking help.

This approach aims to create a culture of thinking in the classroom, where students are actively engaged, collaborate effectively, and develop strong problem-solving skills. 

To further highlight these practices, we were able to seamlessly utilize Goosechase to enhance collaboration, promote critical thinking, and broaden the active learning at the event.

During the conference, we were able to highlight the simplicity in which Goosechase could be incorporated into a BTC lesson with several custom Missions.  Our primary goal was to demonstrate the power of an engaging and interactive ed tech tool in a fun way.  Teachers experienced Missions as students would through their phones, further highlighting the ease in which the platform can be tailored to any activity. 

In this case, the Goosechase scavenger hunt allowed teachers to interact fully with their fellow participants.  They were able to focus on building camaraderie while also sharing conference information and best teaching practices on the Goosechase platform.

Each day, teachers were encouraged to share their key takeaways from the conference, reinforcing their learning for the day and helping to share information that others might have missed:

Another Mission encouraged teachers to share their notes on the platform, highlighting the strategy of writing notes for our “future forgetful selves.”:

Yet another Mission had teachers highlight any one of the 14 BTC practices in action:

Teachers have so many creative ideas, and each of the teachers playing the game found a fun way to incorporate Goosechase in their own classrooms. 

Teachers shared ideas that ranged from PD days, field trips, and parent nights to icebreakers in the classroom.  Several commented that they enjoyed the challenges and thought students would appreciate the competitive nature of the Leaderboard.  Many teachers thought Goosechase would be a great addition to formative assessments and even for reviewing skills prior to testing.  One ambitious educator suggested using Goosechase to create student portfolios. 

Regardless of how teachers will be using it in their classrooms, it is clear that Goosechase was able to help educators with many of the 14 BTC practices in our conference setting. 

Goosechase allows teachers to continue random grouping practices and extends the work from their whiteboards to a digital space.  This means that all of our students can benefit from meaningful notes, whether students were absent, or are simply working through what good notes should be.  

I loved Goosechase from the moment I first used it. I felt privileged to have led this experience for so many educators, sharing my passion for this hybrid learning. This opportunity enabled teachers to broaden their reach and deepen their own learning. It was inspiring to watch them exchange expertise, skills and insights throughout our time together. The seamless integration of conference learning with the technology was remarkable, creating an additional space for teachers to grow as a community of learners.

What is Goosechase EDU?

Goosechase is an online platform that helps educators create and run interactive learning experiences in their classrooms and beyond. Sign up and try creating an Experience, or contact us to learn more about our school and district-wide solutions!