Part 2: Canva Tips and Tricks

Jaylyn Bell4 Comments

Hi everyone !!

Welcome to the second week of my journey of learning how to use Canva!

The first video I stumbled upon this week was on TikTok – and it was mind blowing!

As someone who is picky about colors and aesthetics, I will absolutely be using this trick.

As an example, you can take any image you’d like:

Then choose any color palette you’d like (from google) then copy and paste it into Canva – ontop of your original image.

You can then right click the palette image, select “apply colors to image” and BOOM – you’ve got this gorgeous look:

After finding this trick, I continued exploring  “All Day April” on TikTok & found a couple more helpful tips:

  • Since you want to be wandering about your classroom while teaching your lessons rather than being tied to your computer (obviously) she shares how to use your phone as the remote to control your presentation slides by scanning the QR code connected to your slideshow. This allows you to go from slide to slide, and use the magic shortcuts such as (curtain calls, the “shhh” emoji telling students to be quiet, and confetti).
  • She shows you how to take old pdf’s and insert them directly into Canva – this way if you are using some older material you’ve taught or a lesson/worksheet you’ve gotten from a coworker or online, you are able to make it your own very simply. You can switch up the fonts, colors, and formatting as you please.

I will absolutely be revisiting her page for future content and hacks!

I then explored another YouTube video called “5 Canva Hacks for Teachers” from an account I visited last week as well called Pocketful of Primary.

My favourite new hack I learned was using AI Integration with the Magic Write tool – which is very similar to ChatGPT! (9:50 in the video). This option is available when using the Doc or Presentation format.

  • Using the create a design tab, select the Presentation or Doc option, then click the circle in the bottom right corner and type in “magic write” to select the tool. You can then type in what it is you are looking to create. In her example she uses “Write a permission slip for a fourth grade field trip to the Museum of Natural History”. It will then generate an outlined permission slip that you can edit and use as you please. This is just another example of how to be extra efficient when creating the necessary forms, slips, letters, and other materials needed on a frequent basis.

 

 

 

Me + Tech = Love/Hate Relationship

Jaylyn Bell2 Comments

Soooo … when I think about my relationship with tech, it reminds me of my younger years when tech played a very simple role in my life. Starting with TV when I was a kid watching things like cartoons and Family Channel, it was often a point of connection with my family when we’d all sit together and laugh at what we were watching.

As I got older, and further into elementary school, I got my first mp3 player. It only had about 12 songs on it that would play over and over but I absolutely loved it. I would listen to them over and over, never getting sick of the same songs. Anytime I hear one of those songs now, it still reminds me of those moments on the bus or in my bedroom singing and dancing along.

When I got a bit older, I got my mom’s old Samsung cellphone that was a snazzy red and white combo with a keyboard that slid out. My friends and I would text all the time, and it was very fun.

A few years later when Snapchat and Instagram hit the scene, everyone started getting iPhone’s. Most people would post funny pictures of themselves or different kinds of meme’s they found funny. Fast forward to now, where many people are using all these different social media platforms as their own personal “blog” and also a source of income/as their career.

For me personally, I’m heavier on the consumer side of the scale vs the posting side. To be completely honest, I know social media gets a bad wrap and there are absolutely a million negative things you could say about it. But for me, I enjoy seeing what others are up to. It’s an indirect way of connecting but also staying in the loop! There are people I haven’t seen since high school that I follow, but you never know when you may run into them! I think it’s nice to know what’s going on in their life so you are able to ask them about it when you see them.

A great deal of my time is also spent on my laptop focusing on school work. Somedays, it’s a battle to get it open. But once I do, I find I can get into a flow pretty easily. The hardest part for me is actually STARTING. I remember when COVID hit I was midway through my psychology degree. We ended up finishing it all online and to be honest I loved having my own time to get through the material at a quicker pace and being able to watch the zoom lectures back to make sure I didn’t miss any information the first time through the lecture. I found that I was able to manage my time well, and that I had a lot more free time to do other things I enjoyed like going to the gym and outside for walks. It also helped that my brother was starting his degree at the same time from home so we helped keep each other accountable but would also do something together outside of the house each day!

Currently, I am relying on the Outlook app a lot for all of my scheduling as well as having access to my school email on the tab beside. This makes it highly efficient and easy to add things into your calendar and make sure you are staying up to date with all the course information and questions you may have for your peers or profs in the same place. The other part of the outlook app I use is the To Do List – it helps me keep track of all the other little things I need to get done and not have so much to keep track of inside my brain. Outside of this, I use Microsoft Word for most of my note-taking and open PowerPoints for school purposes. I am now adding Canva to my repetoire as one of my main sources of tech. So far I have been using Youtube and TikTok to help me learn more about it!

In order to maintain a level of balance between academic and personal tech-use I have limited myself to half an hour on social media each day using the screen time option in settings. Although you have the ability to override this, it comes with a lot more guilt that usually isn’t worth the extra scroll, LOL!

After I have spent that long consuming information that isn’t particularly necessary, I realize it’s time to switch to something more productive. There is ALWAYS something that could be done school wise that could help me improve my grades, get ahead of the game, or even just ask questions to ensure I am on the right track with certain assignments. I also have noticed how much better I truly feel when I am using tech for productive purposes rather than just casual consumption or scrolling. Academically, I am actually using my brain and being creative while having to think. On the personal note …. not so much – in fact it may even lead to negative or overthinking … which isn’t great either.

Part 1: A Blank Canva(s)

Jaylyn Bell1 Comment

Welcome everyone,

This is the home of my Learning Project for EDTC 300!

If you’re anything like me, you may struggle heavily with indecision.

Let me tell you how this process all started …

On the second day of class, Dr. Hildebrandt told us we could learn to do ANYTHING we want.

Immediately, my mind went wild with ideas! I thought about … starting a podcast, learning guitar (round 2), learning to teach yoga, speaking a new language, upgrading my cooking skills, taking up photography (seriously this time), I even googled things like “what should I learn to do?”

I then realized that most of my ideas are all things I’ve already tried or am still doing, just not too seriously! That got me thinking, what else could I do that would still be fun, require a bit more commitment, and help me in the future as a teacher?

I got thinking about the article we read for class called; “5 Reasons Why Your Online Presence will Replace Your Resume in 10 years,” I realized that the sooner I learn to use the online tools that will work to my advantage, the better off I will be in the workplace and more confident I will feel in my capabilities for the job. Rather than having a boring old resume, I could learn to create a digital one, while also making my lesson plans a lot more exciting and interactive for the students than a boring old PowerPoint I create from scratch.

This is when I landed on a completely new idea … CANVA. If you are unfamiliar with Canva, it’s an “online design and visual communication platform with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.” Although I had briefly explored it here and there, I knew it had potential to be an amazing resource for me and therefore, my students in the future.

Once I began diving in a bit deeper,  I realized that in the interesting of saving time – it’s sort of like a treasure chest for teachers!

The first video I watched was made by a teacher (Michelle Emerson) – Her YouTube channel is called Pocketful of Primary. She showed me exactly how to access the materials that have already been created from other educators, the templates you will need for specific lesson plans, (i.e. multiplication) and how to customize them by changing the colours, fonts, theme, elements, adding/deleting slides and more!

She also talked about the different ways you can present and how to use the toolbar:

  • You can either use the full screen present mode or select “presenter view” if using a video platform like Zoom.
  • When presenting in full screen, I learned that the toolbar at the bottom allows you to zoom in or out on your slide so you can enlarge the pictures as needed
  • She also shows how to use the “magic shortcut” at the bottom which contains a list of different keys you can hit in order to create effects like confetti, drumrolls, a curtain, mic drop, and other effects that can help keep your students engaged and interested!
  • She also shows how to insert a timer by simply selecting the number key equal to the number of minutes you want the timer for.
    • It also allows customization for number of seconds
  • Next to the shortcuts, there is an interactive Q & A option
    • Your students can scan the QR Code or use canva.live with a code and insert their questions into a chat format
  • She also shows how to control the slides using your phone or another device that you can use more easily.

This upcoming week, I am going to dive deeper into more design techniques and hacks for teachers that can help me start creating some lesson plans for practice I will be making in other classes!

A PEEK INTO MY LIFE!

Jaylyn Bell1 Comment

Hi everyone!

My name is Jaylyn, more informally known as Jay – it’s easier to say … (for my friends) AND easier to spell … (for the people making my coffee – haha!)

I am currently 24 and about 363 days (trying my best not to hit 25 here). I was born and raised in Swift Current, SK and have also lives in Kelowna, BC for a few years where I completed my degree in Psychology at UBCO. I then spent a few years in the workforce doing everything from sales, to reception, to legal work, all the way to … skirting and sweeping sheep wool. That event took place while working in the “sheep shearing sheds” in Southern Australia. Thankfully, I only spent about 3 months doing that and about 5 months travelling around as I pleased :).

As of this fall, I have now began a new adventure at the University of Regina where I am taking my Bachelor of Education (After Degree Program) in Elementary.

After being here for about a month now, I am really starting to love my program and have met some awesome people along the way! My favourite part so far is having smaller class sizes where we all get to sit together at tables of about 8 people, it’s been so much easier to get to know people (and not just on a “where you from” type of level).

I am looking forward to continued education, friendship, and all the other experiences that come with living in Regina!