Impactful Integration With Amy

Looking to brush up on your Canva skills?  Interested in trying out the new features?  I have just the thing for you!  I put together this Canva PD choice board that you can use to explore the features you are interested in.  You can work the tasks in any order you choose and at you own pace.  The most important thing is to choose what you feel you need to learn about and just have fun!   This post is part of a training session I held for our district back to school technology professional development.  You can find my presentation linked on the choice board.  Don't forget to download your badges and share them with me @SoTxLibrarian and @LibrarianLugo I'd love to hear what you think of this choice board. Please tell me in the comments below.  

When you are creating in Canva, there are so many amazing items build right in that you can add to your graphic designs.   Elements in Canva has updated and now you can find photos, shapes, graphics, videos, animations and more all together in one tab.  This is an amazing feature when it comes to searching because everything is in one place  However, sometimes it can almost be overwhelming trying to decide what to include from the elements tab.  That is where Keywords come into the pictures.  I am putting together a series of mini tutorials walking you through how to use these features in your classroom.  Today's topic is how to make your graphics look amazing with Canva keywords. How to Remove Backgrounds in Canva 1.  Go to Canva and login to your account.   2.  Create your presentation or choose a presentation/ project you have already made.  This works for any size project.  It doesn't have to just be a slideshow/ prese...

Have you ever wanted to remove the background on your photo?  Well, Canva can help you out with that!  I am putting together a series of mini tutorials walking you through how to use these features in your classroom.  Today's topic is how to remove backgrounds on Canva. How to Remove Backgrounds in Canva 1.  Go to Canva and login to your account.   2.  Create your presentation or choose a presentation/ project you have already made.  This works for any size project.  It doesn't have to just be a slideshow/ presentation. 3.  Add a photo to your project.  You can upload your own photo or browse through the stock photos on Canva.  Make sure to choose a photo with a simple background. 4.  With your photo selected go to the top toolbar and select effects. 5.  Choose background remover.  If you don't see it scroll down to the bottom of the list of effects. 6.  Now you can resize your photo if you need to and place...

Did you know that Canva has a screencasting feature embedded right inside?  You can record your screen right inside Canva!  I am putting together a series of mini tutorials walking you through how to use these features in your classroom.  Today's topic is how to present and record on Canva. How to Present and Record in Canva 1.  Go to Canva and login to your account.   2.  Create your presentation or choose a presentation/ project you have already made.  This works for any size project.  It doesn't have to just be a slideshow/ presentation. 3.  Go to the top right hand corner and select the three dots.  Choose present and record . 4.  Choose go to recording studio. 5.  Set up your microphone and camera.  6.  Click start recording. 7.  Once you finish click end recording.   8.  Then click done. 9.  Download video or share the link out.

Hey, fellow educator!  Did you know that Canva has been adding some amazing updates just for educators like us?!  I am putting together a series of mini tutorials walking you through how to use these features in your classroom.  Today's topic is how to present live on Canva. How to Present Live in Canva 1.  Go to Canva and login to your account.   2.  Create your presentation or choose a presentation/ project you have already made.  This works for any size project.  It doesn't have to just be a slideshow/ presentation. 3.  Go to the top right hand corner and select the three dots.  Choose present. 4.  Choose standard.  Once you are in presentation mode look at the bottom right hand side and turn on live. It looks like of like this ((.)) 5.  With Live turned on you will see "start session."  Turn this on. 6.  Share your link and code with your participants. 7.  Click on any questions or comments you...

Hi friends!  As the return to school quickly approaches, I am preparing materials to share with my staff.  One of the items on my to do list is to put together a list of tools that would be the tools I'd recommend to any teacher to try out.  During the school year, I made a list of all the technology tools I am familiar with and I categorized them by how I would use them, for example- collaboration, video editing, creative response, screen casting, etc.  It started out as a Google Doc that you can check out here.  Since then it has evolved.  I knew I wanted to take this to the next level and make it more visually appealing.  So I did a thing... I made an ebook using Canva!  I put together some tips on lesson planning with technology integration and some tools I'd recommend based on the 4 C's.  I wanted to make sure it was not too overwhelming.  So you will find a few tools for each category.   Can I ask for your help?  Wil...

This post is week 6 of 8 in the #8WeeksofSummer Blog Challenge for educators.   This time I'm looking into what I will keep, lose or try in the upcoming school year.  I really liked this question posed by the Hot Lunch Tray blog: "What makes educational technology a keeper?"  To me this is an essential question to address because as we come back to completely in person instruction my goal is to help teachers feel empowered to continue using technology in impactful ways with students and not just say well we are back let get out the worksheets.  In order for educational technology to be a keeper for me it has to address the 4 C's- creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration and it needs to be simple enough that we aren't wasting too much time explaining how to use the tool over and over again.   Which Tools Will I Keep? Canva - 100% yes!  This year I attended a session by Kristina Holzweiss, author of Hacking School Libraries and @li...

This post is week 4 of 8 in the #8WeeksofSummer Blog Challenge for educators.   As we settled in to virtual learning for over a year in my district, my technology integration expertise definitely grew.  I felt like I was in a constant period of growth and learning.  Which tools did I discover this year and which familiar tools did I branch out and try in new ways?  Today's topic is a fun one, but also a little overwhelming to answer.  I feel like, where do I begin?  I'm sure you probably feel this way as well.  The 2020-2021 school year was the year of "all the technology tools." The Familiar I think the most frequent tools I used were the Google Workspace platform.  Getting Google Trainer certified was the best decision I made in the summer of 2020.  It truly propelled me to be equipped to train my staff and students on technology integration.  I was able to start visualizing any task and connect which Google tool would be the right fit...