On two consecutive Fridays (May 29 and June 6), Tennessee public school teachers from Washington, Sullivan, Carter and Hamblen Counties came together in our Kingsport computer lab for a workshop called “Teaching Branding with Canva.”  The workshop was led by Kelly Porter, Assistant Professor of Art & Design at East Tennessee State University and Felicia Strayhorn, Education Technology Specialist with the Washington County School System. All teachers who completed the workshop received professional development credit—and we like to think they enjoyed themselves while they collected some new ideas to take back to the classroom. 

The response was good. A librarian commented, “And, let me say that this PD [professional development] was so amazingly good! I really enjoyed it and got A LOT out of it!!! I was telling colleagues about it and they were so interested! I’ve shared some of the info I received!” A hospitality teacher sent this message: “Thank you so much! I thoroughly enjoyed the Branding PD. I learned so much and look forward to setting something up for you to be a guest speaker for our classes.”

Teachers who participated came from across the K-12 spectrum and taught in areas such as Career & Technical Education (CTE), theatre, graphic design, hospitality, and marketing. The workshop focused on using the popular Canva app, which is available to all public school teachers and students. The participants explored the foundations of branding and design and gained some tools to take back into the classroom with them next fall. One teacher who also serves as the yearbook advisor at her school commented that a lot of the design fundamentals would be very helpful to her team as they put together the 2025-26 yearbook. 

This workshop was sponsored by the Center for Excellence in STEM Education (CESE) at ETSU, the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network, and ETSU’s Northeast Tennessee STEM Innovation Hub. Many thanks to Dr. Alissa Lange, Director of the CESE, for telling us about this opportunity to serve our hardworking and dedicated public school teachers. We’re looking forward to hosting two more of these Innovative Educator Workshops next October.