The Power of Sketchnoting

A couple of weeks ago I participated in the weekly #whatisschool Twitter chat which that week was hosted by @sylviaduckworth.  Many of you reading this will know her as the guru of #Sketchnoting - something I've long been a fan of using...with my students.  It has so much potential for helping students organise their thinking and share their learning so, of course, I was going to be a fan.  I had been toying with the idea of using it to help me organise my, at times, wandering mind for my studies but had really dismissed the idea due to a lack of artistic ability but when I saw the topic of the chat, I thought I'd lurk and see what other's had to say...

Isn't it funny how, as teachers, we are our students' biggest cheerleaders when it comes to wanting them to have a growth mindset and give things a go...to not expect to be perfect at something...but when it comes to our own growth mindset that sage advice often goes out the window??!!  What do they say about 'Physician heal thyself'.  A lot can be learned from this.

How many times do we say this...but do we practise it ourselves?

As usual, the conversation on the weekly chat lead to deep reflection about my own beliefs about learning - it's funny how a 140 character Tweet can do that sometimes.  I've always been very vocal about things such as pedagogy before tools in the case of my passion for all things digital and ideas / content before surface features in writing, as just two examples, but here I was, reluctant to give something a 'go' which I knew would be powerful for my own learning just because I might be lacking in the artistic department.  What message would that be sending to my students if they knew about that..?

So...I'm going to be exploring sketchnoting throughout my PhD studies in gifted education as a way to explore my thinking and record my learning. It's something different and I'd be very keen to find out if any other PhD students have explored this.  Watch this space - or the page on this blog I'm going to dedicate to my PhD learning journey.  I'm going to practise what I preach and develop a growth mindset around this - after all - as everyone in the chat kept saying, and I tell my students...it's about the ideas not the art...

Image by Sylvia Duckworth