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two teachers explore Canva's features, representing the idea of Canva tips for teachers
Collage by Chelsea Beck for 麻豆传媒入口, Canva, TONL
Technology Integration

Supercharge Your Canva Projects

Pro tips from power users can help you up your Canva game, even if you already use it.

October 4, 2024

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If you鈥檝e been in the classroom these past few years, there鈥檚 a good chance you鈥檝e heard a peer or coach recommend Canva, the digital design platform that allows users to create posters, slides, social media posts, and much more.

鈥淐anva has become a one-stop shop for me,鈥 says instructional coach and Chinese teacher Shengnan 鈥淧enny鈥 Ma鈥攁nd the phrase 鈥渙ne-stop shop鈥 was echoed by several Canva users I spoke with. Even experienced users likely have more to learn about the platform: Canva has been steadily rolling out new features since it launched in 2013, and the wide scope of its offerings makes it easy to miss a tool that could help streamline your workflow.

Today, Canva has an entire suite of tools under the label Canva for Education, and K鈥12 educators鈥攁nd students鈥攃an access pro features for free after signing up on the site and getting their . Canva鈥檚 , which has worksheets, presentations, and even entire lessons鈥攐rganized by subject, grade, and resource type鈥攊s great for newcomers.

But what about teachers who already use the platform? I spoke to power users to gather pro tips that can help you supercharge your Canva usage. Here鈥檚 what they recommend.

Level Up Your Graphic Design

Graphic design is Canva鈥檚 bread and butter; it鈥檚 why many educators try the platform in the first place. But there鈥檚 a good chance many of them are overlooking some of Canva鈥檚 most useful design capabilities.

Magic Erase: If you need to edit a photo to use on a poster or slide, can automatically remove any part of the image that you highlight, making it look as though it was never there. Canva also offers a tool that can .

Magic Edit: If you find an image that鈥檚 close to what you need but not quite there, allows you to highlight a part of that image, then type a prompt for what you want to replace it with. You could, for example, replace a dog in the background of an image with a cat.

Magic Morph: If you鈥檙e making a poster for a bake sale, can transform the letters of the words 鈥淏ake Sale鈥 into images of cookies while preserving the letters鈥 shapes, says teacher and digital learning coach Erika Sandstrom.

Magic Switch: After making a poster, if you want to promote the same event with an Instagram post or a temporary banner on your school鈥檚 Facebook page, you don鈥檛 have to go back to the drawing board. can automatically reposition and resize the elements to create outputs that look good in other formats and sizes, too, says instructional design coach Alyssa Faubion.

Screenshot from Canva, in an article on teacher tips for Canva
Created with Canva
After creating a poster and using Magic Morph to turn letters into cookies, a Canva user can click the 鈥淩esize鈥 button in the top left to resize it for a different format.

Get a Head Start on Presentations

Many teachers also turn to Canva to create slide presentations; the site offers thousands of colorful . Ma has a pro tip: You can design a rough draft slide presentation from a single prompt with Canva鈥檚 AI tool. For example, after opening a blank presentation, type a prompt like 鈥渟econd-grade-level presentation about the planets of the solar system鈥 into the search bar. Canva will show you complete presentations on the topic that other users have created, and offer a couple AI-generated templates you can use to create your own, with relevant images and text on each slide.

Screenshot from Canva, in an article on teacher tips for Canva
Created with Canva
Upon opening a blank presentation, Canva users can type a short prompt into the search bar to see presentations that other users have made (under 鈥淎ll results鈥), and also two AI-generated templates that they can adapt (under 鈥淢agic Design鈥).

Due to the unpredictability of AI, the template鈥檚 text might be irrelevant or even outright false: 鈥淒on鈥檛 take it for granted, because a lot of times they might give you the wrong information,鈥 Ma warns. However, the general structure and design of the presentation will be something you can build on with your own writing, Ma says, significantly streamlining the presentation design process.

Additionally, Ma likes to use some of the website鈥檚 when delivering her presentations鈥攍ike 鈥楤鈥 to blur the current slide, 鈥楥鈥 for a confetti animation on top of the current slide, 鈥楺鈥 to display a shushing emoji with a 鈥渟hhh鈥 sound effect, and any number from 1 to 9 to set a timer that many minutes.

Screenshot from Canva, in an article on teacher tips for Canva
Created with Canva
Teachers can use keyboard shortcuts while presenting to generate fun and useful effects鈥攍ike pressing 鈥楺鈥 for this shushing animation.

Automatically Translate to Other Languages

Whether using AI or making a design from scratch, most readers will probably be creating their Canva designs in English鈥攂ut Ma notes that Canva has a feature that can an entire design鈥檚 text into another language, with over 100 languages supported. While it may make mistakes, this feature may be useful for language teachers or students, Ma says, as well as educators creating posters or handouts that will be seen by families who don鈥檛 speak English.

Screenshot from Canva
Created with Canva
By accessing Canva鈥檚 translation tool鈥攆ound in Canva鈥檚 鈥淩esize鈥 menu, or by searching 鈥渢ranslate鈥 in the 鈥淎pps鈥 tab鈥攗sers can instantly translate the text of an entire design to one of over 100 languages.

Create Your Own Images

If you want to generate an image from scratch, Canva now has that capability as well, with its text-to-image tool. This image generator has plenty of applications, teachers tell us鈥擨 explored a few in the video below.

After a creative writing activity, K鈥5 technology teacher and edtech expert Joe Merrill has had students use Magic Media to design a poster showing what their story would look like as a video game. He created an ; students can create an image with Magic Media by typing in a prompt relevant to their story. Similarly, middle school ELA teacher and edtech expert Kristin Merrill has had students create magazine covers to accompany chapter summaries. Students will likely have to try a few prompts before getting an output that fits well, the Merrills (who are married) note; this helps students think about how to distill the main idea of a text into just a few words.

Screenshot from Canva
Created with Canva
Students can make a copy of Joe Merrill鈥檚 video game cover template and use Canva鈥檚 AI image generator, accessed via its 鈥淓lements鈥 tab, to generate an image illustrating the core concept of a story they wrote.

Check Out Teacher-Created Templates

While AI can be helpful, teachers often benefit the most from resources created by other teachers. Canva allows people to create educational resources and 鈥攍ike TeachersPayTeachers, Sandstrom says, except the resources on Canva are free.

Many of these teacher-created resources take the form of editable templates that educators can customize to their own needs. For example, Sandstrom created 鈥,鈥 a meditation template. It features an animated bubble that expands and contracts, prompting the viewer to inhale, hold, and exhale for three seconds each鈥攂ut first, teachers and students can customize the bubble with a picture of their dog or their favorite sports team鈥檚 logo, and update the background to show a place that brings them peace. Other popular templates include , , and .

Make Use of Handy Text Features

While ChatGPT remains in the spotlight, Canva now has its own text generator, called , built into its text editor. Magic Write can help educators draft emails, handouts, schedules, and more. Users can also highlight a piece of text, then use Magic Write to automatically edit its tone鈥攎aking it more concise, more formal, or more fun.

Screenshot from Canva
Created with Canva
After opening a blank document, Canva users can click 鈥淢agic Write鈥 in the toolbar and type in a short prompt to instantly output a rough draft of whatever they may be writing.

This is useful for administrative and lesson-planning tasks, but teachers might be hesitant to give students access to a tool that can write on their behalf鈥攐r alter the tone of their writing with the click of a button. However, Faubion found that the tool gave high school students with learning disabilities more confidence in their writing; they were thrilled to see Magic Write recommend rewrites to their sentences around spelling and grammar, and even build on their ideas with its 鈥淐ontinue writing鈥 option. As a result, these students felt empowered to write more, Faubion says鈥攖he tech helped them feel less worried about making mistakes.

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Make me a cheatsheet of all the Canva tools in this article, plus a brief explanation of what they can do for me.
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