The Power of Keeping a Sketchbook as a Teacher

Sketchbooks Support Teachers’ Arts-Integrated Practice

On day one of our arts leadership programs, every teacher receives a sketchbook and drawing pencils, colored pencils, and pens. 

Some hesitate and say, “But I am not an artist!” And we smile and say, “These are for you.” 

Teachers open the book and put something on the front page that defines the book as theirs. Most add their name and some immediately embellish the page and make their book unique.

Right away, drawing skills are taught and teachers have a place to practice. They practice sketching tornadoes and drawing spheres. 

“Ah…! This is what a sketchbook is for,” they think. Still some say, “But I am not an artist.”

In the workshops that follow (exploring aesthetics, supporting the brain-body connection, leveraging the arts to teach reading, and more) teachers take notes on a blank page, which feels odd since lined paper is the norm. They create icons, emojis, arrows, and simple drawings to represent words as images. This organizes their thoughts and deepens their understanding. 

“Ah,” they say. “This is what a sketchbook is for! It could be fun to be an artist.”

Then we lead the teachers through mind-mapping techniques: a strategic process that personalizes the learning and propels thinking. We teach them how to create questions that ignite curiosity and guide students in drawing their own mind maps.

Participants exclaim, “Drawing helps me remember!”

In subsequent sessions, the previous images and pages of their sketchbook refresh their memory of what has been learned and practiced. Learning is extended with new notes and sketches. Soon, a year’s worth of learning is documented, and participants say, 

“Ah, this is what a sketchbook is for. I am thinking and learning, like an artist!”

Teachers in our programs benefit from keeping a sketchbook while participating in hands-on workshops and group discussions. They document progress in their professional learning. They take ownership of the key ideas and record takeaways and ideas for application in their own classroom. They learn artist strategies for sketching and taking visual notes (see these strategies in Cindy’s blog post). They learn through experience how a sketchbook is different from a notebook or journal.

Sketchbooks Are Not Only for Visual Artists

In Cindy Clark’s blog post “Sketchbooks and Visual Journals in the Classroom” ––where she offers strategies and techniques for keeping a sketchbook––she writes, 

“Sketchbooks are not just for artists: anyone can benefit from using a sketchbook or visual journal. Maintaining a sketchbook or similar visual practice is a useful way to record ideas and develop meaning-making skills that link memory with experience…They record progress and process.“

A Sketchbook Vs. A Journal

Words are delicious. We pour memories and emotions into a written journal to reflect on our experiences: journals become a vital and rich venue for recording and sharing important facets of our daily walk. 

• Words evoke images, animate a story in our mind, and activate all the senses.

• Readers or writers can be transported to new places. 

• Journals capture key moments of life and help us label our journey in meaningful ways. 

• Journaling develops the skill of writing and crafting words. 

However, when exploring new information or when expanding original ideas, sketchbooks bring additional value. A sketchbook includes drawing, coloring, diagrams, icons, images, inserts, and clippings from other sources, all used for slicing, dicing, stirring, digesting, assimilating, organizing, and connecting information. 

Drawing improves long-term memory of information. Images, icons, and symbols provide meaning more succinctly than words. Patterns can be identified and associations instantly connected with arrows and diagrams telling complicated stories in simplified form.

Sketchbooks are not just for visual artists to develop their ability to see and draw; they open a world to all of us for living and learning artfully. They can help you create a vision and plan solutions in your teaching practice. The complex experience of educating children includes balancing the needs and strengths of many students, with the content to be taught, and selecting the best pedagogies. This requires creativity and improvisation. To map out possible solutions, teachers can use a sketchbook to make their thinking, desires, goals, and experiences visible. With reflection, patterns and connections will emerge that provide information about relationships, learning strategies and answers to challenges that occur. 

Sketchbooks: How do you use your sketchbook? Send a photo of your favorite pages with a short description to artspartnership@byu.edu