Recently Richard Byrne shared the fantastic short TED video by Sunni Brown called "Doodlers Unite." (Shown below). Being a lifelong doodler myself, and also one that has realized how much my students do it, I was eager to share the video with the rest of my school and see how they reacted. So imagine my delight, when my principal emailed me the following story today:
The framed pencil sketch of "Mr. Rykal's class" on my wall is from my first classic doodler. When he was in 4th grade, I went to him, ripped a doodle page from his notebook, and then stapled it to my bulletin board. I told him if I couldn't stop him from doodling, I was going to be the first person to own his original work. The result was the portrait.
Later, when he graduated from HS, he sent me a note, thanking me for recognizing that he had to doodle.
He is now an artist who illustrates children's books. I purchased one for our library, and a couple years ago emailed him a picture of the portrait on my wall.
The framed pencil sketch of "Mr. Rykal's class" on my wall is from my first classic doodler. When he was in 4th grade, I went to him, ripped a doodle page from his notebook, and then stapled it to my bulletin board. I told him if I couldn't stop him from doodling, I was going to be the first person to own his original work. The result was the portrait.
Later, when he graduated from HS, he sent me a note, thanking me for recognizing that he had to doodle.
He is now an artist who illustrates children's books. I purchased one for our library, and a couple years ago emailed him a picture of the portrait on my wall.
As a new teacher, I was always the one that would try to "catch" students not paying attention and doodling was definitely one of my many "clues" as to who was aptly listening and who wasn't. I assumed that if they were busy with their hands there was no way my fascinating lecture could be captivating them as well. Often, my doodlers would be embarrassed by being called out in front of the class like that and their doodling would disappear. I wanted control so badly of my room that I confused it with controlling my students' every move as well.
It wasn't until two years ago, when I realized that some people focus much better when they doodle and perhaps I had just given doodling a bad name. What was an annoying habit that I needed to get rid of, was something I myself do when I sit in meetings. Oops. Big learning moment when I realized that. And now I wonder how many students grow into be artists when we let them doodle? How many students discover their love of using tools to create when they doodle? How many students focus more aptly because their hands are busy? I now encourage doodling in my classroom as we work and have had students share their doodles as well.
So there we have it - Doodling isn't wasteful, it is an art-form, something that helps students focus. Rejoice and celebrate the doodling.
