Deeper Learning Canada: Full Schedule

Save The Date! July 2nd - 4th 2026

You will be able to validate your attendance (Check-In to sessions) using your personal schedule.

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8:00am PDT

Breakfast

Saturday July 4, 2026 8:00am - 8:45am PDT

Breakfast will be provided by Imagine High's Professional Cook PC1 students. There will be gluten free, dairy free, and vegetarian options available.

Saturday July 4, 2026 8:00am - 8:45am PDT
Imagine High 45669 Yale Road Chilliwack BC V2P 2N1

Meals, Meals

8:45am PDT

Transition

Saturday July 4, 2026 8:45am - 9:00am PDT

Imagine High

Saturday July 4, 2026 8:45am - 9:00am PDT
Imagine High 45669 Yale Road Chilliwack BC V2P 2N1

Transitions

9:00am PDT

Student Voice Summit

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:00am - 9:30am PDT

Imagine High - Theatre 158

Speakers

Carter Mochinski

Student, Central Okanagan Public School District #23 - George Elliot Secondary School

Carter Mochinski is a passionate change maker and a highly involved youth community leader. He is most passionate about making change in reducing inequalities, specifically for those with neurological divergence, differently applied persons and inequalities in climate action, while... Read More →

Finny Bicycle

Student, School District #33 Chilliwack - Imagine High Integrated Arts & Technology Secondary

Finny Bicycle is a grade 12 student at Imagine High. He has been profoundly impacted by his experience with project based real-world learning, and would like to share his insights. He plans to become a high school social studies teacher and integrate his teaching with different subjects... Read More →

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:00am - 9:30am PDT
Imagine High - Theatre 158

All Attendees

9:30am PDT

Break

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:30am - 9:45am PDT

Imagine High

Snacks will be provided by Imagine High's Professional Cook PC1 students. There will be gluten free, dairy free, and vegetarian options available.

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:30am - 9:45am PDT
Imagine High 45669 Yale Road Chilliwack BC V2P 2N1

Transitions

9:45am PDT

Den Talks - The Great School Debate

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Room 217

What happens when a room full of educators has to design a school together... while passionately arguing for ideas they may not actually believe?

In this highly participatory Den Talk, attendees will take part in a playful “turncoat” debate experience where they’ll be randomly assigned opposing sides of foundational educational issues. But there’s a twist: midway through each debate, participants must physically switch sides and argue the opposite perspective.

Facilitated by members of the Classmate team, this session blends educational philosophy, improvisation, and structured debate into an experience that is equal parts thoughtful, funny, and unexpectedly revealing. Participants will help “found” a fictional school together, gradually shaping its culture and values through a series of live debates.

This is not a sit-and-listen session. Participants will be invited to speak, move, debate, improvise, reflect, and inhabit perspectives beyond their own in a safe, playful environment.
Rather than trying to arrive at the “correct” answers about education, this Den Talk explores the tensions underneath school design and what those tensions reveal about trust, authority, creativity, structure, and learning itself.

Speakers

Jani Mitanovski

School Navigator, Classmate

Jani Mitanovski is the CEO and co-founder of Classmate, a Vancouver-based organization helping educators reimagine how students learn and express their ideas. As a teenager who immigrated to Canada at the start of high school, Jani knows firsthand that creative expression — through... Read More →

Nick Evans

Team Facilitator, Classmate

Nick is the Team Facilitator at Classmate, where he collaborates closely with schools and the Classmate team to design creative learning experiences, reflective processes, and collaborative projects. His work often lives at the intersection of facilitation, team culture, experience... Read More →

Jon Yergatian

Systems Navigator, Classmate

Jon is the Systems Navigator at Classmate. He spends a lot of time thinking about the systems we work within, both at Classmate and at schools. He's deeply interested in organizational design — why hierarchies form, what purpose they actually serve, and how we might transform them... Read More →

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Room 217

Workshops & Den Talks

9:45am PDT

Den Talks - When the Land Becomes the Teacher

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Room 142

This Den Talk will be a facilitated conversation reflecting on a completed year-long on-the-land learning journey with a Grade 6/7 class called Desert Trails and Lake Tales. What began as a simple question, “What do you think about doing some on-the-land learning?” quickly showed that the reality is this kind of learning is hard. Staying in the classroom and doing what is familiar is easier. Choosing to learn on the land required time, coordination, support, some stress, and a willingness to sit with uncertainty. Grounded in the First Peoples Principles of Learning, this session invites educators into an honest discussion about what shifted when land, relationships, and community became central to learning.

Rather than presenting a polished program or model, this session will share stories, student voice, and teacher reflection to explore how learning grew through a “yes, and…” mindset. Participants will be encouraged to engage in a guided conversation about how resourcing learning through people, place, and Indigenous support structures made the hard work possible, what tensions arose along the way, and what educators notice when learning is allowed to unfold through lived experience rather than predetermined outcomes.

Speakers

Beth Bastedo

Teacher, School District #74 Gold Trail

Beth Bastedo is a Grade 6/7 teacher who designs interdisciplinary, land-based learning experiences grounded in the First Peoples Principles of Learning. Her current year-long project, Desert Trails and Lake Tales, connects students to local land, community, and story through seasonal... Read More →

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Room 142

Workshops & Den Talks

9:45am PDT

Den Talks - Why Agency Matters to Students: Designing and Experiencing Student Led Projects

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Library 101

Carter Mochinski and Finny Bicycle are high school students who love learning. They will take you through the student perspective of agency. Together you will explore why giving students a choice in their learning empowers them, and how we can amplify inquiry-based learning. Participants will become students and investigate what a student created project can look like from a new perspective.

Speakers

Finny Bicycle

Student, School District #33 Chilliwack - Imagine High Integrated Arts & Technology Secondary

Carter Mochinski

Student, Central Okanagan Public School District #23 - George Elliot Secondary School

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Library 101

Workshops & Den Talks

9:45am PDT

Workshop - Choice, Metacognition & Co-Creation: Building Learner Identity

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Room 223

Dr. Schnellert’s session will explore how student choice, metacognition, and the co-creation of criteria can transform learning experiences. Participants will examine how empowering learners to help design success criteria and supports students in building strong learning identities and agency. This workshop will offer practical strategies and inspiring examples for educators looking to create more inclusive, engaging, and identity-affirming learning environments.

Speakers

Dr Leyton Schnellert

Associate Professor, Faculty of Education - University of British Columbia

Dr. Leyton Schnellert is an Associate Professor in UBC's Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy and Co-Director of the Canadian Institute of Inclusion and Citizenship. His scholarship attends to how teachers and learners can mindfully embrace student diversity and inclusive education... Read More →

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Room 223

Workshops & Den Talks

9:45am PDT

Workshop - Cultivating Anti-ableist Practice: Possibility and Pride

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Room 141

Leah Kelley is an author and storyteller, who invites educators to consider how our view of disability shapes our practice. She weaves lived-experience as an educator and researcher who identifies as Neurodivergent and otherwise disabled, and parent of an Autistic son (now an adult), with the ideas of disability studies. Participants will explore how we might engage and navigate conversations about practice and pedagogy, when we see and consider disability as a normal part of the full range of human experience.

The influence of ableism, the importance of the language we use, and various models of disability (Medical Model, Social Model, Identity Model, etc.) will be discussed and examined, as lenses and perspectives that shape our approach, understanding, and response to people with disabilities.

In this session participants will explore and consider opportunities to guide and support students with disabilities/disabled students in embracing pride, cultivating advocacy and self-understanding, and ask: how might we welcome students as being fully and perfectly who they are, in this moment… and then build from there?

Speakers

Leah Kelley

Neurodivergent Author and Education Consultant, Independent

Dr. Leah Kelley (she/her) is a Neurodivergent author, educator, activist, and education consultant whose work bridges the worlds of storytelling, advocacy, and inclusive practice. With over 25 years of experience in public education—as a classroom teacher, inclusion resource teacher (K–12), and SEL/Mental... Read More →

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Room 141

Workshops & Den Talks

9:45am PDT

Workshop - From Assessment to Action: Making Targeted Differentiation Work

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Room 205

In this session, participants will experience both the student and teacher roles in classroom practices that promote engagement, targeted intervention, and purposeful practice. We will approach these goals through the lens of fact fluency instruction in a math class, but the routines and structures that we explore will be applicable to any subject.

Speakers

Christian Lodders

Numeracy Support Teacher, School District #33 Chilliwack - Learning Services

14 years of teaching experience, K-6. 4 years as a Numeracy Support Teacher.

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Room 205

Workshops & Den Talks

9:45am PDT

Workshop - Inquiry-based Learning as Education System Transformation

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Room 219

In this workshop, participants will be introduced to the PSII inquiry approach. They will learn about the foundations of the approach and the school, and will then have an opportunity to experience inquiry learning directly through a series of guided activities. The intention is to simulate what it feels like to be immersed in inquiry and also to get a glimpse of how interdisciplinary inquiry is assessed at the high-school level. participants will learn by listening, doing, talking, and asking.

Speakers

Jeff Hopkins

Co-Principal, Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry

Jeff and Jessica are co-principals of the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, a small, independent school in Victoria, BC. Both of them have been there since the beginning of the school's life in 2013. Jeff founded the school after having been a school district superintendent... Read More →

Jessica Asp

Co-Principal, Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Room 219

Workshops & Den Talks

9:45am PDT

Workshop - More Voices, Deeper Thinking

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Room 209/Woodshop 178

In this minds‑on workshop, participants will learn by doing—talking, listening, moving, and thinking together in ways that make learning feel lively and meaningful. Through shared experiences, they’ll explore how simple, intentional routines can help every learner participate, think more deeply, and feel confident sharing ideas. The session focuses on building classrooms where thinking is expected, voices are valued, and learners feel safe to try out ideas and learn from one another. Participants will leave with practical insights and a renewed sense of possibility for creating engaging, talk‑rich classrooms that support deeper learning across subjects.

Speakers

Hollie Redden

Literacy Coordinator, School District #33 Chilliwack - Learning Services

Hollie Redden is the Literacy Coordinator for the Chilliwack School District and a big believer in growing teachers and students together. She’s passionate about engagement, deep thinking, and the magic that happens when learning feels meaningful. A lover of picture books, Hollie... Read More →

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Room 209/Woodshop 178

Workshops & Den Talks

9:45am PDT

Workshop - Project Tuning: An Idea Hive

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Room 218

In this workshop participants will briefly view three projects (this could be a gallery walk, or old school slideshow) that have been taken to completion by the presenter/me (2 or 3, whatever keeps us short, inspiring and sweet). Then I'd like to bring the focus back to how daunting it can be to get started and how valuable the project tuning process is. I'll explain it, and then run three rotations of a tune. The protocol is 20 minutes long per tune. I could run two tunes and leave one 15-20 minute section at the end for questions and collaboration, or run three tunes.

Speakers

Jen Eddie

Educator, School District #74 Gold Trail

Educator in School District #74. Lover of multi-disciplinary, project based, beautiful learning that brings joy to kids and adults

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Room 218

Workshops & Den Talks

9:45am PDT

Workshop - Purposeful Field Trips: Designing Learning Beyond the Classroom

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Room 215

A meaningful field trip isn't only defined by where you go — it's shaped by what students do when they get there.

This workshop invites educators to reimagine field trips as intentional learning experiences designed with purpose, student agency, and reflection at the center.

Participants will explore how thoughtful pre-work, clear intention during the visit, and meaningful post-trip projects can transform field trips from passive visits into powerful learning experiences. Drawing on real classroom examples (including a Grade 6 documentary field study at the Vancouver Aquarium), the workshop highlights how students can shift from visitors to researchers, creators, and field workers.

Through hands-on activities and collaborative planning, participants will learn a flexible framework for designing field trips that:
• Deeply connect to curriculum
• Center student voice and choice
• Encourage observation, documentation, and reflection
• Expand the range of possible field trip locations
• Lead to rich pre and post-trip learning and projects

Participants will leave with a concrete field trip plan they can adapt for their own context, and a renewed sense of what’s possible when learning leaves the classroom with intention.

Speakers

Jennifer Chen

Creative Coach, Classmate

Jen is a Creative Coach at Classmate, where she partners with teachers and school leaders to design engaging, student-centered learning experiences that blend technology, creativity, and curriculum with intention. Her work focuses on project-based and experiential learning through... Read More →

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Room 215

Workshops & Den Talks

9:45am PDT

Workshop - Rooted in Land: Play-Based Indigenous Math Journey

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Room 132/133

This interactive workshop explores how to use place and play-based high-yield numeracy routines through an Indigenous lens. Participants will engage with the Forest and River SNAP Numeracy Kits to design equitable learning environments. The session will also highlight historical elements of the mat and demonstrate how collaboration with Teacher Librarians can deepen learning opportunities. Through hands-on exploration with numeracy manipulatives, participants will experience how play-based learning fosters strong foundational numeracy skills.

Speakers

Anna Webb

Numeracy Support Teacher, School District #33 Chilliwack - Learning Services

I am a Numeracy Support Teacher with 14 years teaching experience in the Chilliwack School District. I work alongside educators to strengthen instruction and to lead district-wide initiatives. I have a strong passion for integrating Indigenous perspectives into mathematics, particularly... Read More →

Janice Farnley

Teacher, School District #33 Chilliwack - Robertson Elementary

Janice Farnley: I am a Grade 1 teacher in Chilliwack with 17 years of teaching experience, including 13 years at Robertson Elementary, an inner-city school. I am passionate about creating a caring and inclusive classroom where every child feels safe, valued, and heard. I work closely... Read More →

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Room 132/133

Workshops & Den Talks

9:45am PDT

Workshop - So….How Do We Actually Transform Student Learning?

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Room 221

Transforming student learning does not happen by accident. It happens when educators and leaders align around a clear vision and plan for teaching and learning and intentionally design the conditions to bring it to life. This Deep Dive is for teacher leaders, system leaders, and/or district teams who want to move beyond isolated initiatives toward transformative change of learning in classrooms, schools, and districts.

Participants will develop an aspirational vision for change, and apply research on leading change to develop a concrete theory of action to make it happen. Through hands-on learning, dialogue, and inquiry, you will examine systems thinking, research on effective change, and practical ways to align pedagogy, professional learning, and improvement efforts.

You will leave with concrete tools and artifacts, including a draft theory of action, a clear pedagogical focus for change, and an Observable Impact Model to guide evidence collection and next steps. Attending with a team is strongly encouraged to strengthen shared leadership and coherence.

Speakers

Jamie Robinson

Assistant Superintendent, Central Okanagan Public School District #23

Jamie Robinson is a passionate educational leader with 32 years of experience advancing equity, excellence, and innovation in public education. Currently serving as Assistant Superintendent of Schools with Central Okanagan Public Schools, Jamie provides district-wide leadership in... Read More →

Jim Laird

Principal, Central Okanagan Public School District #23

Having spent 17 years in school-based admin, Jim Laird has most recently served as the principal of École George Elliot Secondary in Lake Country, BC. From 2023-25, GESS was one of eight schools to represent Canada in the recent OECD Schools+ project, an international network and... Read More →

Jordan Kleckner

Director of Instruction of Learning and Innovation, Central Okanagan Public Schools (SD23)

Jordan Kleckner is the Director of Instruction of Learning and Innovation for Central Okanagan Public Schools, leading district-wide work to advance student learning through inclusive learning cultures, intentional design of learning, and collaborative professionalism. He works alongside... Read More →

Troy White

District Principal of Learning and Innovation, Central Okanagan Public School District #23

Troy White is the District Principal of Learning and Innovation in Central Okanagan Public Schools, leading a team of teacher consultants who support schools in advancing pedagogical change aligned with their school learning goals. Drawing on Shane Safir’s work on Student Agency... Read More →

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Room 221

Workshops & Den Talks

9:45am PDT

Workshop - Think Different(iated)

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT

Imagine High - Room 134

We will be exploring how we are looking at different ways to help support student learning in non traditional classroom environments (even if they're in the classroom). This includes a look at asynchronous PBL Math (History of Math 11); Literacies that include Role Playing Games, Comics, and 'worse'; and how a "Club" mindset can help with other activities (such as a school Comic Con). Collaboratively, we can personalize learning!

Speakers

Ian Landy

Regional Principal, qathet School District #47

Ian Landy is Regional Principal at Partners In Education - qathet School District 47's Provincial Online Learning School. Ian has been in education since the late 1900s and continues to learn and reflect at his days of learning blog at technolandy.com

Saturday July 4, 2026 9:45am - 11:15am PDT
Imagine High - Room 134

Workshops & Den Talks

11:15am PDT

Break

Saturday July 4, 2026 11:15am - 11:30am PDT

Imagine High

Snacks will be provided by Imagine High's Professional Cook PC1 students. There will be gluten free, dairy free, and vegetarian options available.

Saturday July 4, 2026 11:15am - 11:30am PDT
Imagine High 45669 Yale Road Chilliwack BC V2P 2N1

Transitions

11:30am PDT

Deeper Learning Closing with Dr. Leyton Schnellert

Saturday July 4, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm PDT

Imagine High - Theatre 158

DR. LEYTON SCHNELLERT

Dr. Leyton Schnellert is an Associate Professor in UBC's Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy and Co-Director of the Canadian Institute of Inclusion and Citizenship. His scholarship attends to how teachers and learners can mindfully embrace student diversity and inclusive education. Dr. Schnellert is the Pedagogy and Participation research cluster lead in UBC's Institute for Community Engaged Research (ICER) and co-chair of BC's Rural Education Advisory.

His community-based collaborative work contributes a counterargument to top-down approaches that operate from deficit models, instead drawing from communities' funds of knowledge to build participatory, place-conscious, and culturally sustaining practices.

Dr. Schnellert has been a middle and secondary school classroom teacher and a learning resource teacher K-12. His books, films, and research articles are widely referenced in local, national, and international contexts.

Speakers