I used Canva to create different banners for my virtual co-op. Canva is a great resource that allows one to create posters, banners, and other fun signs for any occasion. As a pre-service teacher, I especially love the options for creating lesson plans or worksheets that look organized as well as fun. There are also options to create logos, social media posts, brochures, invitations, and many other posters. There are hundreds of templates to choose from in which one can edit and move around each element. You can choose to add pictures, clipart-type elements, videos, text, and even music to your project. In my project, I created banners that were 820 x 312 pixels. For my Halloween Banner, I used a template and added some extra elements as well as changed some colors. In my other banners, I started from scratch and played around with different pictures and layouts. Check out some of my creations below!
I will definitely use Canva in the classroom. Both myself and my students can use it to create imaginative yet professional projects for any occasion. With an educator account, you also receive access to premium content but for free! Personally, I will use Canva to create fun posters or banners for my elementary classroom. The posters will help motivate my students and reinforce concepts or rules that we have discussed in class. I can make flyers or newsletters about events happening on campus and hang them around the school or send them home to parents. I will also use the templates for lesson planning and staying organized. My students will also get to use Canva to show their creativity and make posters or projects to present to the rest of the class. They can make bigger presentations and collaborate on projects or create a simple flyer to reinforce an idea learned in class that day. The movable elements in Canva make it extremely easy to create professional content while showing a portion of your personality.
By using Canva, teachers can meet several of the standards in the Danielson Framework for Teaching. For example, you can use the lesson plan templates or worksheet templates to help meet 1E: Designing Coherent Instruction. The templates can help you organize your ideas and contribute to effective unit planning. Canva can also help contribute to any of the standards in Domain 2: The Classroom Environment. By creating posters with class rules or procedures, you can effectively establish your expectations for the students. This can help you manage the class by holding both yourself and students accountable to the rules posted around the classroom. Fun posters of students' work or motivational quotes can also help contribute to a positive physical space and environment for learning. Posters can encourage students or present information to reinforce a particular concept they have learned. A final way Canva meets the requirements of the Danielson Framework is by helping communicate with families (4c). You can create a fun newsletter with important events or accomplishments of the students to send home to their families. By having easily accessible and ready templates, you can efficiently create these newsletters and let parents be a part of their child's academic life while not spending too much time worrying about formats or welcoming pictures.
Not only does Canva help one meet the Danielson Framework for Teaching, but it also helps students meet the ISTE standards. For example, it helps students become creative communicators. Students can use Canva to create presentations or posters to demonstrate what they know while adding bits of their own personality into the assignment. Canva can also help enforce the concept of digital citizenship. All content on Canva is either free or properly marked for purchase. Students can create content using pictures and videos that are copyright free and therefore legally create projects with a variety of images. Canva also contributes to the 4C's of teaching: Creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication. Students can demonstrate creativity by playing around with different layouts, elements, and colors on their projects. They can add their own images and videos as well to add a personal touch to their content. Students can show collaboration by using the share feature and working together on a Canva project. They can show critical thinking by creating a brochure or infographic to present their solutions to a certain problem they are given. Finally, they can show good communication by using any of the templates on Canva to present a certain idea or topic to the rest of the class. Then, they can look at their classmates' projects and learn to give good feedback/ constructive criticism.