I had the opportunity to attend the International German Teachers’ Conference in Lübeck from 28 July to 1 August 2025. This event was impressive on so many levels: I made many new contacts with other teachers from all over the world, had plenty of time to chat with my own colleagues in a more private setting, the programme was very inspiring, and there was also a lot to discover in beautiful Lübeck.
I love conferences because they give me so many new ideas and offer me the opportunity to pause and look at teaching from a different perspective. At the same time, however, I always feel a little overwhelmed by the many impressions, and this is where sketchnoting really helps me. There were several lectures and workshops that particularly impressed me. In order to process the content and everything I thought about it, I summarised it in sketchnotes – some on the spot, some after my return.
When I create a sketchnote based on my notes, it helps me to think everything through again calmly, to prioritise and filter, to incorporate my own thoughts and also to have a basis for explaining the most important content to others who did not attend the lecture or workshop. Above all, however, it also allows me to clear my head and first fully understand the topic and then put it aside.
When doing this, I consciously take my time and don’t stress myself out. Since these are ‘only’ notes for myself, I write them down in whatever way feels best for me at the moment. Everything goes into my notebook, without any special layout, just a few small sketches here and there, and often it’s just a lot of rather sloppily written text. 😉 I then simply postpone the elaboration as a sketchnote to a second phase, where I calmly review my notes, incorporate my associations and conversations about the lecture, and work through everything again. Only then do I sort the information and work out the sketchnote on my iPad. This is not very time-efficient, but it suits my personal way of working much better than doing everything the first time I listen. I am simply very much geared towards ‘slow productivity’ and the snail is increasingly becoming my favourite animal… 😉
What was particularly nice this time was that I sent the sketchnotes to the speakers as a small thank you and received very nice feedback. Everyone was delighted, some asked if they could use or share the sketchnotes 😊, and one speaker said she would print out the sketchnote and hang it up in her office. That’s really lovely and made me very happy!!
For many, it was the first time they had received a sketchnote. That’s when I realised once again how unfamiliar sketchnoting still is in our everyday lives. To me, the world feels full of sketchnotes, but in reality, in many areas it is still something special and unusual to record and share information in the form of sketchnotes.