Teaching Sketchnotes To Teachers

Last month I was in California and Texas, teaching teachers how to sketchnote, then helping them build curriculum to teach sketchnoting to their students.

Here's what I learned:

Teachers are excited about sketchnoting

They get especially excited when they see how it helps improve student understanding and participation in the subjects they're learning.

In Fresno, California, teachers were already using sketchnoting in science classrooms and labs are seeing a positive impact, because their students are drawn into subjects through visualization.

In our all-day sketchnote workshop, teachers learned sketchnoting for themselves, then crafted new curriculum ideas to integrate sketchnoting into their classrooms.

Here's a sample curriculum idea for science fair boards:

In Austin, Texas, an engineering teacher told me he'd been a skeptic during my kickoff keynote, as I shared sketchnote samples and taught basic sketchnoting skills. Still, he decided to give sketchnoting a shot during his 2 days of professional development, and found himself sketchnoting everything he was learning. He became a fan, and was excited to share it with his students.

Sketchnoting is giving teachers new ways to teach

Throughout both of my teaching sessions in Fresno and Austin, teachers were getting insight about integrating sketchnoting into their classrooms.

Some teachers had allowed sketchnoting for students, but hadn't explored it deeply themselves. That's precisely why I was invited to teach sketchnote workshops—to share principles and exercises. Teachers saw first hand what their students were so excited about, and it was awesome!

Sessions yielded fantastic ideas:

Science teachers planned to have students sketchnote scientific articles to better understand facts by visualizing them. They loved the idea of making a comprehensive visual icon library for their science students to use in their science notebooks and reports.

An english teacher planned to have small groups of students visually map the works of Shakespeare on large sheets of paper. He was excited to try a fresh approach, helping his students see literary masterpieces in a different way.

Two librarians planned to have students sketchnote the books they're reading, to get a deeper understanding through visuals. It was awesome to see teachers excited about sketchnoting in the classroom!

I'm excited to keep teaching sketchnoting

Teaching is hard work, but is rewarding when I see the results so immediately. I want to keep teaching more teachers how to sketchnote, and how to share these idea with their students.

If you or your school are interested in a workshop, reach out.

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