Let’s walk through one of the coolest things I’ve found as a teacher. If you don’t know what Canva is or don’t use Canva, OMG! Please mess around with it now and see if it works for you. Let’s go step by step on how to get Canva for free as an educator. I want to be transparent in saying that this post is NOT sponsored or in any way requested by Canva or any other entity. I just seriously love Canva for Education and want to share it with you.
Now, in order basically get Canva Pro for free, you do have to verify that you are a teacher. There are two ways to do this:
- If you are making a brand new account, you can use your school email and it will automatically approve due to the school domain. If you don’t want to use your school email or already have an account, just follow the next step way to verify.
- If you are not using a school domain email, you’ll need to verify with an “approved document” when you apply. This can be photos of your license, employment status, or school ID. When I first heard of Canva for Education I already had Canva, so I applied in with my school ID and was easily verified.
There are SO many cool ways to use this resource as an educator. You can use templates and change them to fit the needs of your classroom, find pre-made resources, you can even make a class with student access! If you do that, you can use Canva assignments similarly to Google Classroom assignments. You post the assignment, and students use that as a template (they can also see instructions as an attachment). I wish I knew more about this, but since my kiddos are so young (Kindergarten and 1st Grade SpEd) it just doesn’t work out in my classroom. I do know that you can INTEGRATE CANVA INTO GOOGLE CLASSROOM!
How do you add students you ask? There’s multiple ways to do this, so you can choose what works best for your situation. You can invite via:
- Link
- Code
- Google Classroom
Canva is so versatile. Not only can you set up your classroom, they even have the platform to set up a school. I use Canva to create assignments to print, for newsletters, and for posters/visual schedules/anything visually appealing in my classroom. I also use Canva to make a template for my student IEP at a Glance document so that I don’t have to duplicate the document each time manually. Canva’s website also gives some great tips that you can find here, including a video course for teachers.
Moral of the story, do yourself a favor and at least explore what Canva has to offer. You can ALWAYS reach out if you have questions or need ideas. Like the classic movie High School Musical says, we’re all in this together.
Sending you good vibes,
Courtney