What it’s like to be a Canva for Education Creator

Canva is running a new marketplace initiative, Education Creators, with a small group of early adopters. The Education Creator program is designed to add learning resources to the Canva library through content submissions from teachers all over the world. This will ensure Canva for Education teachers and students can find resources for every subject, grade, and classroom need right from the Canva marketplace. Today, we’ll hear from a few of our early adopters to learn more about their experience in the Education Creator program.

Find out more about our Education Creators program here⁠(opens in a new tab or window).

First up, we’ll hear from Jo, a Prep (Kindergarten) teacher in Queensland, Australia. She has sixteen years’ teaching experience in primary (elementary) school settings across several Australian states, and she’s worked in private, public and independent school settings. She specialises in digital and design technologies, robotics and Makerspace.

I have been creating educational content for Canva since October, 2020 as part of their early adopter scheme.

What I love about the program is the ability to be dynamic and versatile - I create content for all key subject areas as well as personal interest and specialities. My content aligns with Australian curriculum requirements, but I also design based on current and popular trends and themes. I think I have created just about every type of educational resource: worksheets, interactive activities, presentations, digital stickers, posters, flashcards, games, booklets⁠(opens in a new tab or window), Google Headers, timetables, newsletters, planners, infographics and calendars. However, my creator profile is definitely geared towards the lower-primary age bracket, as that is the area I am currently employed in.

By profession, I’m not a designer, I’m an educator. I’ve been brought in because of my experience in education, and I have had to learn a lot about design during my Canva journey. I am so grateful to the Canva team for their feedback and assistance along the way in helping me understand design elements and techniques. I have learnt so much in such a short time and I absolutely cringe when looking at my original templates! Having said that, I have no method to how and what I create. Sometimes I publish something I make for my own classroom, other times I find a really awesome Canva element and am inspired to create something using it. If I am looking for something and I can’t find it, I create it. What I love about Canva is the ability to edit and modify content so that it is accessible by every student.

These past nine months I have discovered a passion for design and creating. I quickly became a Canva-addict. Creating on Canva is my downtime, and I have really enjoyed my experience being a Canva Creator. I really love the ease of using the software and appreciate that the Canva team is always looking to improve and add to it to make it easier and more accessible to all users, regardless of their technological experience.

Additionally, being a part of the early adopter group has given me a great sense of pride. I recently walked into a classroom to see the students working on a template their teacher had downloaded from Canva: a template I had created. I love knowing that others are enjoying my creations.

For those considering becoming a Canva Creator, my advice would be to put in the time and effort to establish your profile. I was lucky to have joined the program when on maternity leave so I had a lot of time to play with the software, learn some design tips, and add a lot of content to the Canva library. It took a few months before I started to experience decent export numbers but it was well worth the time and effort I spent initially.

I am constantly discovering more features and functions within Canva. My all-time favourite is the “Tidy Up” feature, as I create a lot of worksheets with lines and it is a lifesaver! I also love that when I use an Element, similar Elements are suggested. Text Effects, Frames and Colour Picker are also big favourites.

My profile is eclectic and I have a lot of favourites. At the moment, I am loving abstract, boho and rainbow themes. Recently, I have added some themed teacher planners, abstract multiplication posters and an alphabet set of enchanted woodland animals. Last year I made some simple unicorn affirmation posters that my daughter loved so much she has them hung in her bedroom now. I have a lot of pictorial presentations which were super simple to create but working with children, a picture speaks a thousand words and they’re able to make connections with real life images.

Find resources from Jo here: https://canva.com/p/teach

Rory is a math teacher in New Jersey, and has been teaching for 15 years. She creates content for Algebra and Geometry and shares her resources from lesson plans to videos on her YouTube channel. Rory is a Canva for Education Advocate and loves creating templates for fellow math teachers to use in their own classrooms. She shares everything she does in her classroom (lesson planning, classroom setup ideas, technology use, etc.) through social media (Instagram and TikTok) under the handle @iteachalgebra.

I started creating back in October of 2020. Canva asked if I would like to create educational templates for other teachers to use as a part of their early adopters program, and I immediately said yes. It has been my mission over the last 5+ years to create and share educational content, so I knew this was the perfect opportunity for me. I was already a fan of Canva, but I really kicked things up a notch with the Education Creator program.

I love creating all different kinds of designs. From math worksheets, spanning middle school to high school Geometry, to digital banners for teacher websites, to print-and-go bulletin board sets.

I find that I love to create resources that are relevant for the time of year as well. Right now, I’m creating tons of resources to support back to school. In summer, tons of teachers are planning ways to make their classroom bright, engaging, educational, and welcoming for their students. This is especially important after the last tumultuous school year. So, I'm creating resources to support that transition back to the classroom.

I create my templates by planning out how I want my resources to be used in my classroom. For example, I make sure that I leave the appropriate amount of spacing on worksheets for student work. I also keep in mind what it might look like to print any of the colorful worksheets in black and white, so that teachers can still have fun accents and elements on the page without them looking washed out. I also try to create poster designs that are relevant to multiple grades of math classrooms - usually from 6th to 10th grade.

One of the best parts about being a Canva Creator has been the Canva Community. We share tips and tricks in our Facebook group, have “happy hour” Zoom chats, and message each other about fun ideas and projects. It’s been so happy to be a part of such a fun and comforting community.

I’ll admit, I did not have the easiest time getting my templates approved in the beginning because of some of the design requirements. But thanks to the other creators and the amazing Canva team, I was able to get templates published successfully. I’ve learned a lot of handy design tips & tricks to make sure my templates get in the library.

I’d say I’ve had an amazing experience learning how to design and create content for other educators to use. Canva also provides you with a ton of resources: weekly webinars, t tips and tricks about how to get templates successfully approved, and demos of the new features that are available.

My favorite Canva tools have got to be all the positioning options: alignment, spacing, and forward / back. As an educator, I need problems spaced out perfectly - and the Canva positioning tools allow me to do that with ease.

I abolutely love the bulletin board templates sets that I have been creating. They are appropriate for nearly any school level and are so easy for teachers to edit, print, and post.