Category: Sketchnotes

How Do You Learn From Others?

As you may have read in my last post, I’m currently enrolled in a program called Apple Learning Coach. It is for teachers/tech leaders to learn about Apple’s apps while also learning the art of coaching.

One of my favorite parts about the program is that we learn by doing. In order to get our certification as an #AppleLearningCoach, we must demonstrate our skill competency through projects and submitting a portfolio.

One of the projects include creating a SKETCHNOTE. This was my jam. As you’ve seen in other blog posts, I’ve been sketchnoting for years, and continue to explore ways to improve my visual thinking and note taking skills both analog (pen/paper) and digitally.

For my sketchnote of “How I Learn From Others” I took a non-traditional approach… not really looking at “what” others have taught me, but more HOW mentors and leaders have supported me in different ways. Some have planted the seeds in my mind, others provided space to grow, or helped remove barriers/“weeds” that might get in the way. Others provided stability and guidance. Some were the “marigolds” who nurtured and made me better, just by being in their proximity (see Cult of Pedagogy’s blog post: Find your Marigold- the One Essential Rule for New Teachers)

I like to think of my mentors who have coached directly (staff members, administrators, etc) as well as the indirect coaching/inspiration (authors, instructors, peers, many of whom I’ve never met) and how my growth is all due to the many supports I’ve had to get me to where I am today.

That is a big reason why I coach, why I lead trainings, why I design materials and resources, to mentor and give back by serving others. A pay it forward so to speak, helping others unlock their unique, buried gifts.

Sketchnote Breakdown

While my go to digital sketchnoting apps tend to be Procreate or Notability, I opted to try out the recommended Tayusui Sketches School app for this project.

I was pleased to see some familiar features from the other digital sketching apps I’m used to:

++ Brushes were easy to use and the visual nature of them felt natural, like grabbing a new brush from a physical art set. While I love Procreate app for it’s wealth of digital brush options, essentially a digital art store at your fingertips, it can also be quite overwhelming and lead to choice paralysis. The brushes on Tayusui allowed for variety yet still some constraint. In this sketchnote I explored the watercolor brush for background, pen/marker for details, and some light pencil for initial sketch/layout.

++ Layers are a paid feature (just $5.99 for pro version) but worth it if you’re used to this style of art process. I like to use layers because it helps me break down each component I add, testing it out for style, size, layout, and if I don’t like it… simply delete that layer, without having to erase all the hard work below.

+ Color options. There is a built in standard range of colors, option for building color palettes, as well as the opportunity to set the brush to a specific color hex code if you’re looking to match specific colors to theme/websites. I loved all these options but with the color picker in the bottom right corner of the screen, I found myself accidentally bumping the color section with my palm, switching colors unexpectedly mid-stroke. I imagine like most apps that I might be able to move the tool bars around, but for a first time use, I’d like to check out this feature more in depth.

Have you used Tayasui Sketches app before? What do you like about it?

I’m looking forward to exploring this app more and learning the different features and brush options.

Want to build your sketchnote skills and find your support group?

Come join me on Doug Neill’s Verbal To Visual Sketchnote Community on Mighty Networks. In this global community of over 1,000 members we learn the art of sketchnoting, share our progress, give each other feedback, and mentor/inspire as we build our visual thinking skills as related to our various fields of expertise! Find YOUR people who support your learning.

Annual Review- What resonates from your 2020?

For a few years now I’ve been following Doug Neill over at Verbal to Visual. He has a great YouTube Channel and Mighty Networks group (sketchnoting courses and global community) that I’ve had the privilege of watching grow over the past few years.

Each December, he reflects on his new learnings and achievements by sketchnoting an Annual Review (click the link here for his 2018->2019 video). As this year I didn’t get my Christmas cards out ontime and didn’t want to totally scrap the tradition, I opted to sketch out my year in review to send in some packages to friends and family across the US.

Like most things on this site, I decided to split it into two categories, WORK and LIFE, because each influences the other so much in the tug of war pull we try to think of as balance. While this did not capture a comprehensive list and I opted to “skip” some of the negatives… ie family health issues, lost jobs, global pandemic… you know, the things we couldn’t avoid this year, I did want to highlight some bright spots. Most essentially, reflecting and realizing what I had gained this year by choosing to be intentional about screen time (after Zooming all day) and making better efforts with daily fitness and creative outlets.

Alisha’s 2020 Annual Review

What makes the cut for YOUR Annual Review?

  • New habits or hobbies that arose from sheltering in place for months?
  • New skills or ideas that have had major impacts on your teaching?
  • What mindsets, realizations, or new traditions were born out of survival this past year, that may stick with you long after 2020 is just a distant memory?

I know we’re only a few days into the new year with an uncertain future ahead, but fast forward 12 months from now. It’s December 2021. What will you want to see on next year’s Annual Review? What habits, goals, or intentions might you set now as you kick off a fresh year?

Whether you choose to share with an audience or keep it on lock in Dear Diary, take 10 minutes out of your day to write or sketch out your annual review. We spend so much time reading about others’ histories. Why don’t we take the chance to record our own? You never know, it may end up a primary source document as it captures the life and times of a 2020 citizen.

And if… just if… you have the confidence to share with an audience, I’d love to see your annual review! Feel free to share in the comments below, email me, or tag me on Twitter @AlishaZare.

Teaching to Strengths (Trauma-Informed Teaching)- a book-summary sketchnote

“Half the students in U.S. schools are experiencing or have experienced trauma, violence, or chronic stress.” – Teaching To Strengths (Zacarian, Alvarez-Ortiz, Haynes) That statistic came from a national study in 2012. Fast forward 8 years to mid-March 2020… and let’s update that statistic: “ALL students (and teachers) are currently experiencing trauma, and possibly chronic stress.” Welcome to life in a global pandemic. The book, Teaching to Strengths: Supporting Students Living with Trauma, Violence, and Chronic Stress, cannot be more appropriate for a back to school year. The text starts out with the foundations of strengths-based (vs. deficit based) teaching theory, and breaks down key criteria for setting up not only your classroom, but creating a school community that fosters a strengths-based approach. Some major categories explored in the video:

  • Preparing for working with diverse learners
  • Creating a strengths-based learning environment
  • Scaffolding student-to-student relationships
  • Fostering family/guardian engagement


Want to learn more? Click the links below!

Behind the Curtain… how was it made?  Welcome to “hopefully” a new series of blog posts I’ll be sharing that go behind the scenes and look at the process, obstacles, and aha’s as I “learn in public”. I intend to use this space to hold myself accountable to sharing my new learning as I go, rather than only posting after the final product (so that you can see more of the raw trials and revisions, not just the select few I feel are “ready” for publishing. As a #recoveringperfectionist, this has been a New Year’s Resolution for some time now, but it’s all about action, not intent. So here it is… the first behind the scenes look!

1- Read

First I skim the book, making note of the table of contents and what’s to come. This makes for a sort of “mental filing cabinet” by knowing how the book is organized and what to look for in terms of major content and subtopics. It is easy to dive “too deep” by over highlighting and annotating so sometimes I intentionally skim first then dive deeper on a 2nd read.

2- Summarize

A technique I used to teach my 4th grade students to help with recall was to put a post-it on the first page of each new chapter BEFORE reading the book. This intentionally slowed them down from speed reading without taking time to process what they just read. So post-it served 1. as a physical barrier from starting the next chapter, and 2. as a small space to capture a few main ideas while it was fresh in their mind. When I know I am reading a book with the purpose of sharing the main ideas with others, I tend to use this post-it summarizing trick to help keep a record of the main ideas since it typically takes me a few weeks (or months!) to read through teacher texts such as this one.

3- Synthesize

Next, I take those chapter summary post-it’s and scan for major categories or main ideas. For this sketchnote, I opted for that WHY-WHAT-HOW categories in order to summarize the founding research and principles (“start with why”) then invest the majority (top half of the Sketchnote) on the how… the practical ideas and takeaways. This stage is when I often thank myself for taking the time to do those chapter summaries. I often look back to the text for quotes/details, not main ideas since I already documented them.

4- Conceptualize

This is where YOU shine in this process. Anyone can do a basic summary. Anyone can read and outline a text, but your creativity, your organization, and your icons/fonts/flair (if you’re sketchnoting) is where the true personality shows. Deciding how to conceptualize an entire multi-hundred page text in a “one page” sketch is difficult. You have to take an Essentialist approach in identifying the key gems and cut out the extras. For this sketch, I opted to take Doug Neill’s recommendation and try out the app, Concepts. I learned it in my Digital Sketchnoting online course and decided to try it out after learning about the “infinite canvas” ability that allows you to keep sketching in any direction. Usually I have to intentionally sketch within the confines of a page, and have to be intentional about size/layout so I don’t run out of space. This mind mapping app actually allowed me more flexibility, and I opted to start in the center and branch out in more of a radial approach. You can see more of my initial thoughts on the app/sketching process on my Instagram post.

5- Vocalize

Lastly, while a sketchnote is great, a static image is elevated so much more when you get to hear the commentary behind the visuals and text. I found that panning through/screen recording the mind map actually led to some serious motion sickness from the zoom in/zoom out needed. Instead, with this one I opted to screen shot and sequence the sketches by putting them in order on slides. This text was a required reading for the EDUO 9944 Compassionate Classrooms professional development course I taught this summer, so the initial audience was the 39 K-12 teachers in the class. In the hopes to share with a larger audience (my school district + PLN on Twitter), I decided to re-record and post to YouTube. This is newer for me to share my videos and work but I hope that the investment in reading/sketching/sharing helps YOU with taking a strengths-based approach with your teaching and inspires you to learn more about the topic!

To my fellow sketchnoters- what is your work flow for synthesizing big ideas? Do you have a preference in mind mapping or sketching apps? Share a comment below! 🙂