It's a new school year and you want the perfect slides to bring structure your teaching; full of personality, color and all the tools you'll need to teach your new class. In this blog, we'll be diving into how you can customize, decorate and personalize Classroomscreen to suit your teaching style.
Your background on Classroomscreen can be anything you like, from a plain canvas to a lofi video.
Here are the comprehensive options available:
- Select a background from our curated range of stock images, unique illustrated canvases or plain colors. Some backgrounds are only available for Pro users, but there are plenty for any teacher to get started with.
- Upload a custom background. Any image over 1080×1920 pixels in size can be used, and you can even add GIFs to add some movement to your screen. Your backgrounds will be stored for later so you can reuse them at any time.
- Add your own video background. You can place widgets directly on top of videos, whether that's a lofi playlist or a geographical tour. For this tutorial, we will be using a video wallpaper created by Cat Trumpet.
No morning screen or daily slide is complete without content; so here is where we start adding widgets - the tools you can use to help with your teaching.
When adding widgets, there are lots of color options available. To access these, click the widget and then click on the cog icon labelled 'Settings'. When you are in the widget settings, scroll down to 'Color theme' to select the color that you want to use.
You can also get creative and use our Annotation boxes to create custom widget designs, like this.
If you are used to using Google Slides or Canva presentations, there's a simple way to add them into Classroomscreen. Using the Embed widget, you can add your existing slides to share them with students through your interactive display.
tip:
If your school or district has blocked student access to sites like Canva, your students will be able to see your presentation in your screen and access it if you share a link to your screen.
Once you've customized your screen and added your widgets, there are lots of little ways to optimize your screen to best suit your teaching style.
Our Timetable widget is a blank canvas that you can really make your own! Add your class schedule, with custom icons, and it keeps the whole class on track. You can pin your schedule to appear on every screen in your screen deck, so no matter what you need, it's right there to help!
example:
If you teach special education, you can include recognisable symbols such as Widgit icons.
One of our most popular widgets is the Sound level monitor, a simple tool that measures class noise (without recording anything) and emits a quick alert when ambient noise goes above a certain threshold. Just pop it on your screen and it'll make a world of difference.
Did you know that you can draw over any & all widgets in Classroomscreen? Label a map, annotate a PDF or even draw over a presentation! No limits; just creativity.
tip:
A fun way to use this feature is being able to draw or annotate Youtube videos. Just place a video widget on your screen, add your URL and you can really bring your lesson to life.
Screen decks work in a very similar way to your current daily slides, just with additional functionalities. To move to the next screen, simply click on the arrows in the bottom-right hand corner of the screen.
Many teachers use one screen deck a day, moving between each slide depending on the activity. If you are looking for more inspiration, check out our In the Classroom examples.
We've worked hard to add more customization and personalization options this year, including the custom pictograms and color picker feature, but there is always more we can do! If you have a suggestion, just leave it here and our team will get to work.
Thanks for reading!
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