Skip to main content

Sketchnoting - 12 Days Challenge



Last year (2018) I randomly ran across a 12 Days of Twitter Challenge about the same time I was getting into Sketchnoting. One of the teachers/tech coaches I follow Wanda Terral, an early sketchnote adopter, challenged folks to sketchnote their responses to the challenge. I was trying to sketchnote digitally and so I took on the challenge. Sadly I did not complete it. Sketchnoting digitally took up a lot more time then just paper and pencil.  I was using Kami as my online sketchpad...even though it isn't its intended use...it had all the tools I needed for use on my tablet. 

Fast forward to December this year (2019) and the challenge came up on my Twitter feed again. The challenges seem to be run by different folks on Twitter but more or less have the same components. 


This year I decided to use paper and pencil and sketch out simple vs. elaborate responses. I did it while watching TV at night with my husband and moved days ahead with my responses. I posted them to Twitter on the correct day but I was ahead as far as sketchnoting. 

I'm happy to report I was able to complete all twelve days of the challenge (see first picture). Sketchnoting wasn't required to do the challenge it was more of a way to keep my skills (such as they are) up. 

My biggest complaint is that the hashtag seems to differ so I was never sure if I was hashtagging #12DaysofTwitter or #12DaysTwitter....so I simply used both in my posts. 



I liked that I logged into Twitter each day and got some great ideas. Twitter is full of them...I just rarely have the time to scroll and post so the challenge forced me into it. 

This got me thinking about all the students I have taught sketchnoting to. I thought it might be fun to come up with an "early finishers" activity for students to sketchnote twelve things. It doesn't necessarily have to be Christmas-y either. Some of the things that made it on my list:

- Sketchnote your favorite book and why it is
- What is your favorite thing to eat during the holidays and why
- What do you hope to do over the break
- Tell us about yourself in a sketchnote

I would probably have a prize for students who completed all twelve at the end of the challenge and would make a fun December display in the hall. 

So stay tuned to this space next year to see if I am able to get the idea off the ground. 🤔

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Citizen Cards

This project idea came from a monthly challenge put out by Adobe Express. We have the free EDU version deployed in our district and I thought this might be fun to try with a class. I liked that there was a prize element where the students could win a classroom set of hero cards  and it tied in with Digital Citizenship Week (October 17-21).  I teamed up with an elementary technology lab teacher and we decided to try it with one fifth grade class.  We looked over the available templates and decided we liked the layout of the 6-8 template the best (because they had to list advice for staying safe online).  One of the best things about these Adobe monthly challenge templates is that they can be modified. The revised template can then be sent to students via a link or through Google Classroom.  All the templates for this challenge Adobe gives you a sample template with sample wording but we wanted students to come up with their own wording. Neither one of us was ke...

Secret Messages - How To (Light and Color)

This was fun activity that I got from Roper Mountain Science Institute. They suggested red theater gel to reveal the message, which can get pricy. Another idea I heard was to ask movie theaters to donate left over 3D glasses, which also have a red filter. A guest speaker we had last year said red jello would work. Tried it this week and it worked like a charm. The students thought it was very cool. I found my "attention challenged" students had trouble focusing on making their own secret messages so I was very glad that I had made extra copies of the sheets from the GEMS Color Analyzer book that they could color and then check under the jello.

Random Idea - Website Domain Name

For the past two years I have purchased a yearly subscription to a stand alone website (School World) which I love. I did this because our district was using a very nonuser friendly website for its teachers and I was tired of not being able to do what I want with the website they had given me. I got the idea of a separate website from one of my son's teachers who had done the same thing years ago, she used a different teacher website then School World but it was the same principle. The yearly subscription rate for my own website was $35 and was extremely reasonable. I simply provided a link on my district website to my new site. The district did not have a problem with this. Several teachers were doing it. I am one of these "don't ask...don't tell" teachers so even if there was a problem I wasn't going to find out about it :) Last year the rest of the fourth grade team purchased subscriptions to the site as well. We also purchased our own domain names throug...