School Visits

I had a few inquiries on what I bring with me on my school visits. 

I walk in with two things: an iPad mini and this pencil bag. 

I use an iPad mini for travel, and all of my presentations are on Keynote. I also use the iPad's camera to project live video footage of me drawing if the room is really large. 

My entire presentation is on a cloud should the worst case scenario present itself. 

In the pencil bag:
• Two dongles. (I hate that word, but that's what these adapters are called.) One plugs the iPad into HDMI cables, one into RGB cables. You just never know what the school may have, and I don't depend on them to have these. (And note that they are labeled, because I can be forgetful.)

Some schools have an Apple TV with AirPlay set up, but I share videos. And videos and AirPlay are not yet BFFs from my experiences. 

• A charger for my tech. 

• Fine point Sharpies (black and silver) for signing books and a large Sharpie for when I draw during the presentation. (I do ask schools to have these on their end, too, just in case.) 

• A stamp with my website and a drawing marker. I create a bookmark for the schools to copy. This way every kid walks away with something. (I treasured a mimeographed copy of Jack Gantos's signature that I was given in third grade on his author visit.)

• Altoids so that the kids that I talk to won't forever be scarred because the author's breath smelled like nasty coffee...

And that's it. It's a far cry from the days when I needed to find overhead space on the flight for my slide carousel...

For their convenience, I give the schools a checklist of the supplies I need from them. (Who doesn't like to check items off a list?!) It's a pretty basics list—screen, projector, easel with paper, etc.