New year New Tool🥳
In the middle of the semester, I decided to start using a new tool.
I used to be the teacher, especially during the pandemic, who would make a Google Slides background that was very seasonal, had a picture of my dog, linked pictures to calming activities, and an agenda for the day that would link to the activities for the day. After a few months, I realized I was just doing this for me, I was the only one using the links, and the tools, and I was the one presenting the breaks to my students. Our current administration wanted to have a linked agenda to Google Classroom so they can see what students are doing. Nothing was student-facing, except for them facing the front screen at the beginning of the day that I projected.
When we fully returned from the pandemic (pandemic teachers may know what fully returning means…) we were still required to have something posted for students to interact with if they were sick. For me, this was having things posted on Google Classroom. I still felt like there was a disconnect between what I was doing and what the students were getting in terms of how the class flow was running and what they were expected to do. As the classes started getting more and more apathetic to classroom learning and expectations I needed more visual cues for students to get used to so they understood what was expected of them.
I have a pretty elaborate “warm-up” in my math class that has evolved over the last few years which includes math talks, numeracy work, mathematical understanding, practice asking for help using content vocabulary, and now practice SAT problems. I started creating presentations on Canva. Again, I was the only one who did anything with the activity. It was really pretty though, I mean award-winning pretty, but still, nothing that did much for the students in my class. I needed something more: timers, random people pickers, checklists, image generation, repetitive icons.
Welcome to Classroom Screen!
Remember when you had to turn in lesson plans?
I felt like I had finally found the perfect mix of Google Slides, Canva, and Promethean Board widgets! I finally had many of the tools I needed for class at a click. Set up took a minute but now it’s like a planner and agenda all at once. New this semester (2025) they allow you to share your screen as a presentation-style link. I can do a station rotation with my fancy warm-up, and hold kids accountable for talking, working, and asking questions. They are interfacing with the screens and I get to walk around and talk with students again, hearing their thinking, challenging their ideas, gaining fluency within action, and holding kids to a higher expectation of initiation and accountability. I normally don’t promote paying for things but this was worth every department budget shekkle.
It started with free…
I started with the free version for a month. I am not one to pay for things so I wanted to try out its full abilities before committing and fully using my classes as “test rats”. I created one of my really pretty backgrounds in Canva and then uploaded it to Classroom Screen. Then I added what I needed to make the class run.
I had a stop light for ‘ think independent’, ‘think together’, and share with the class modes. There were timers to show how much time they had (fluency work). Kids were held accountable with random people pickers, rolling dice, and randomized groups (that you can shuffle on the fly).
Yup, take my money…I mean money from my budget!