An Online Course for Teachers and Facilitators

REGISTER NOW

Visuals are inspirational and playful. They stimulate creativity, thinking, memory, and learning, and they foster intelligent communication. The process of sketching provides a pathway leading from ideation to productivity. Why not explore visual note taking and discover ways to better facilitate learning? VISUALS for CHANGE is offering an online course beginning in June.

The course will cover visual communication tools for teachers and facilitators. Specifically we will learn and practice techniques for creating and teaching visual notes. There will be five live, online sessions, homework and optional practice labs. (Recordings will be available after each class for those who have conflicts with scheduling.) Email amanda@visualsforchange.com to begin the registration process.

VISUAL COMMUNICATION TOOLS FOR DEEPER LEARNING
Visual Note Taking (sometimes known as Sketchnoting) for Teachers & Facilitators

TIMELINE - five 2 hour online sessions & two optional 1 hour practice labs
June 11, 13, 18, 20, 25 (Tues, Thurs, Tues, Thurs, Tues)

from 8.15-10.15 pm EST

Optional Saturday Labs for extra practice on June 15 & 22nd (Time tbd by learners)

PRICE - $280 USD
DEADLINE for REGISTRATION – June 4, 2012 - Register via link below. Send any inquiries to amanda@visualsforchange.com

REGISTER HERE NOW

WHAT WE WILL LEARN
What is Visual Thinking? Why does it matter? What is Sketchnoting (visual note taking)? How do I incorporate it into my work/teaching? This class will provide answers to these questions as well as new thinking tools/sketching skills that help clarify, engage, and inspire. We will learn techniques and begin to practice our own sketchnotes. You will walk away with a usable tool.

* This class does not require prior drawing experience. Everyone is welcome.
* Although the class is geared toward teachers, skills learned will be applicable to facilitators, presenters, and thinkers of all kinds.
* Live sessions will be conducted using online technology, no prior experience necessary. (Although having a working webcam will improve your experience.)
* Please ‘bring to class’: blank paper (printer paper is perfect), your favorite pen and/or favorite drawing utensil, a few colored markers, and most importantly your open mind and creativity.

I hope you will be able to join me. If you’re interested but unable to attend this course, send an email (via the registration email above) and you will be notified when the next class is offered. Thank you for your consideration and support.

May visuals be with you!

OR JUST REGISTER…

I was excited to be a part of the Plexus Conference this year in many roles – as participant, community mural instigator, presenter, sketchnoter, and graphic recorder. Whew! It was a fabulous experience overall, although a bit of a whirlwind. Rather than overwhelm one blog post with all my visuals and reflections, I’ll share in several posts. Categorization might look something like this: Jazz as emergent (this post already published),  Sketchnotes Plexus-style (see below), Change catalyst tales, Collaborating on the community mural, Big-scale drawing at Plexus, Ever heard of Pecha Kucha?, and Action as I see it (or as I draw it?)… enjoy!

Sketchnotes Plexus-style (with reflections Amanda-style)

Day 2 started with a open welcome to those who had come from near and far. The tone was set and assumptions were questioned right away: ‘action’ – is it always linear? So often we think about a process or journey to action beginning with an idea, next creating a plan, and then comes action. Assumption gone awry?

I find this conference more engaging than others because of its design – and use of liberating structures. The amazing folks behind Plexus also curate change catalysts to share their genius! (Sketchnotes from day 2 catalysts coming in the next post!)

Day 3 of the conference provided structure for each of us to commit to action. Many of us hosted open space. Open Space for our purposes looked like smaller action sessions (or conversations) hosted by community members around various topics. Our principles were ‘whoever comes are the right people’ and ‘if you aren’t feeling it, go somewhere else, no hard feelings.’ I hosted a session where we took the time to draw out our individual visions and the actions to get us to them. It was a ‘chat & draw’ – where we allowed drawing to illuminate things we hadn’t seen or yet acknowledged.

Next, we shared feedback about the conference on index cards in a fun process that was new to me (drawn below).

AND in finale, each individual shared a personal take-away:

SHOUT OUT to all those at Plexus Action 2013! It was certainly a fabulous learning experience!

LINKS

Plexus Institute – website where you can find blogs, calls and more - twitter (@plexusinstitute),

Michael Gold (@jazzimpact) of Jazz Impact opened for the Plexus Institute of Complexity Science conference which focused on action this year. As his twitter profile states, Michael uses “jazz to teach organizations the skills of collaborative improvisation” – and I was lucky enough to see him in action. So much of our every day work in organizations includes listening (really listening), fielding change & improvising our next move while it’s happening. Listen to this rocking jazz as you check out the sketchnotes from Michael’s session. (I’d recommend opening it in a new tab or window in your browser.)

MY TAKE-AWAYS

A few of my favorite lines, paraphrased from the session (most pictured above):

‘Jazz is simply releasing ideas.’

‘In jazz the process is the product.’ I LOVE this concept, especially because it fits so perfectly with the idea of drawing to communicate. I think so often we get caught up in the end outcome and don’t pay attention to the process unfolding before us. In my work, where we use drawing to create deeper meaning and understanding, it’s often hard not to get caught up in trying to create something beautiful. Beauty might come, and it’s more likely if we focus on sharing the pertinent & real information. However, beauty is often the by product of something raw and real. We try to focus on that while drawing and not get caught up in the ‘beautification’ of it all.

‘In organizations we’re so distracted by our seeing and we don’t acknowledge it.’ I think the ‘it’ here is [how our listening is influenced by our seeing]. There was an exercise where Michael asked us to close our eyes and listen and then reflect upon what we heard with our eyes closed. It was a powerful moment.

THANKS

Wow, thanks so much for sharing your music & creative process with us, Michael!! Rock on!

I had to share this link to a blog post because I’m blown away – amazing fun with illustration! Thanks for sharing David!

He’s a dad that draws on sandwich bags, as well as a designer and more. Check him out via these rocking links. Soooo fun! I’m inspired.

A blog post here.

His site there.

Bio here.

Flickr there.

NEWS

My logo is on the Dell website! I’ll be working with them this coming Saturday at Student Voice Live! I’m super excited to be among so many brilliant students, & humbled to be capturing their thoughts via graphic recording! Woohoo!

SHOUT OUT: AWESOME BLOG POST

Check out this awesome blog post by Maria Popova (@brainpicker) of Brainpickings called “The R&D Lab of Creativity: Inside the Sketchbooks of Beloved Illustrators and Designers”:

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/11/23/laurence-king-sketchbooks/

UPCOMING EVENTS – join me as I facilitate more visual thinking!

1) NYC Monthly Workshop co-facilitated with Leslie Lefer (who brings us SoulCollage®)

Tuesday, April 23 from 6-8pm at cityHunt
(4 West 37th Street, 6F, New York, NY 10018)

DETAILS & RSVP link

2) FACILITATING with VISUALS in MIND, a workshop

April 27th, 2013 from 9 am – 12 pm

Plymouth Meeting, PA

DETAILS & RSVP link.

I had fun taking visual notes at NYC Fair Trade Coalition‘s event at Wix Lounge. Check them out below! NYC Sketchnoters attended the event to capture the essence & practice live visual note-taking! VISUALS for CHANGE hosts a monthly workshop called NYC Sketchnoters. We attend events and host events. (Join us next month – April 23rd from 6-8 for Soul Collaging! Details & RSVP coming soon at this link.)

LINKS

NYC Fair Trade Coalition’s blog post about the event

Wix Lounge is amazing free co-working space sponsored by the fabulous Wix.com (they’ll help you build your website)! They also host tons of amazing events – often free!

The panelists were Benita Singh (@benitastyle) of source4Style (source4style.com) and Zolaykha Sherzad (LinkedIn) of Zarif Design (zarifdesign.com). THANKS for sharing your stories, Benita & Zolaykha!

Fair Trade vendors included Mr Ellie Pooh (mrelliepooh.com) selling elephant dung paper, Madecasse (madecasse.com) selling chocolate, and Friends of Fresh & Green (www.friendsoffreshandgreen.com) selling scarves & jewelry. THANKS for sharing your goods!

Local projects which empower women were introduced as well. Check out Manufacture NY (manufactureny.org) and WishWas (wishwas.org)! THANKS for sharing your projects!

Conversations about peace have a way of grounding me. The way the dust settles after conflict and smiles ignite connections. Learning new ways to deal with conflict can help keep your spirit alive… Thanks to the mediators who shared their stories the other night in NYC at Cardozo Law & props to NY Peace Institute (@NewYorkPeace) for hosting!

MEDIATION THOUGHTS

Mediation is an amazing skill to have. Every time I meet a mediator I’m humbled, as a group they’re a great lot. It’s their job to listen, to ask questions and do their best to help parties find resolution, the kind that’s true to the parties. They experience extremely personal struggles between people where often things are not what they seem. There is often a ‘something else’ that comes up beyond the stated conflict. Finding ways to help humans deal with the humanity they’ve been given is a gift. A HUGE thanks to all the mediators I’ve met and learned from.

NY PEACE INSTITUTE’s introduction to the event

“Stories Mediators Tell is a collection of first-hand accounts of theunpredictable and often-dramatic nature of mediation.  Written by mediators (including Peace Institute mediators Carol Liebman, Lela Love, and Peter Miller), the stories draw back the curtains to reveal the difficult conversations that ensue in mediation and the range of potential outcomes.
The event will involve sharing stories from the book and will also encourage members of the audience to share their personal stories about their experiences in the neutral’s seat.”

LINKS & RESOURCES

- Find me on twitter (@amanda_lyons) or facebook

- The above sketchnoted event can be found via this page

- Stories Mediators Tell – the book (some of) these talks were loosely based on – edited by Professor Lela Porter Love & Eric Galton

- Find the next Peace Talks event here

- I’d highly recommend learning more about mediation if you don’t know it already. (One way is via this rocking Basic Mediation Training.) Also know that there are resources such as free mediation to help you out with that neighborly, family, or co-worker conflict. Check out services from the NY Peace Institute.

FOR LEARNING – FOR HIRE

*Want to learn to draw your notes? No experience necessary! VISUALS for CHANGE holds sketchnoting workshops regularly in NYC. We also create custom workshops for your needs. Reach out!

Laura Lee Gulledge

There’s something about Laura Lee’s style that grabs me. It’s a combination of gut, truth, and vulnerability, and while the cleanliness of lines drawn direct my viewing, her storyline keeps me curious and challenges my imagination. I’m humbled by her brilliance and inspired to get out the paint, the markers, the anything-I-can-create-with.

I recently found Laura Lee’s book Page by Paige via my local library and not only fell in love, but found myself referring to it while teaching classes in visual note-taking (yes, I do this! next class coming soon, stay tuned!). I went searching for others like it and am siked to find that she’s coming out with a new book in May. Woohoo!

Below is a link to a rocking blog post about Laura Lee’s process of designing her new book cover. Enjoy!

http://whoislauralee.blogspot.com/2013/02/designing-will-whit-cover.html

Rock on Laura! Thanks for the inspiration!

Amanda Palmer‘s TED talk: the Art of Asking blew me away. Her style is truthful and raw. In her talk she reveals that her vulnerability is what fosters the amazing connections that find her in the street, at fan’s houses and in the crowd. Following are my visual notes from her Talk, my take-aways, the talk itself & links – enjoy!

VISUAL NOTES – Amanda Palmer: the Art of Asking

In her talk, Amanda says, “The perfect [online] tools aren’t going to help up if we can’t face each other and give and receive fearlessly but more importantly to ask without shame.” Her choice of the word fearlessly, her talk of vulnerability gets straight to the human condition.

My TAKE-AWAYS

It’s about the human connection – the analog of a shared laugh, the uncertainty that comes with learning a new perspective, the moment when you reach common understanding.  Make what you do and how you act matter. Make it human. I was inspired to draw:

THANKS for making me think (& question), Amanda Palmer! Props to Palmer for inspiring us to ask better!

the TED talk proper

LINKS

- Palmer (@amandapalmer) on twitter & via her blog

P.S. I do this for a living. You can hire me to take notes of your meeting, talk, presentation or event! Contact me via twitter (@amanda_lyons) or email (amanda@visualsforchange.com) to talk about the possibilities. – Amanda Lyons

I’m currently re-working the resources page of my website, and remembered doing a guest post for the rocking graphic recorders Heather & Nora at ImageThink. Check out this post from back in the day on some of my favorite visual thinking books!

I’m excited to be updating my resources list and sharing all the new beautiful and amazing images I’ve found! My latest read: Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel – LOVED IT! (Also think using it to teach rocks… go teacher Ralph Lagana!)

Would love to hear about your go-to books in the comments section! What book/author/illustrator inspires you?