Classroom Screen: What It Is and How to Set One Up

On this page

1. What a classroom screen is
2. What goes on it: the 6 core widgets
3. Build one in five steps
4. Back-row readability table
5. Framework map: CHAMPS, PBIS, SEL, morning meeting
6. Classroom examples: one period on the screen
7. Choosing a tool: free vs paid
8. Setting it up on any display
9. When a classroom screen is the wrong tool
10. Accessibility
11. Privacy
12. FAQ

What a classroom screen is

A classroom screen is a single web page shown on the projector, TV or interactive panel at the front of the room. Instead of a slide that sits still, it holds small live tools, usually called widgets: a countdown, a clock, a box of directions, a name picker, a volume bar. You arrange them once, and they keep working while you move around the room.

The idea is older than the software. Teachers have always written the agenda in the corner of the whiteboard, drawn a timer on a sticky note or held up fingers for a voice level. A classroom screen puts those same cues in one place, makes them large enough for the back row, and lets them change without you walking to the board.

Three things separate a classroom screen from a slide deck:

• It is live. A timer counts down, a poll fills up, a name gets picked. The display reacts to what is happening in the lesson.
• It is shared. Everything on it is meant for the whole class at once, not for one student on one device.
• It is reusable. The same layout comes back tomorrow, so routines stay the same even when the content changes.

On MyClassScreen, the screen is the free board. It runs in the browser, has no accounts and stores the boards you save in that browser.

What goes on it: the 6 core widgets

The board has more than 40 widgets, but most teachers lean on a small set every day. These six cover the questions students ask most often: how long, how loud, what next, who goes, with whom, and do we get it.

Add a seventh tool only when a routine needs it. A poll or exit ticket earns its place at the end of a lesson. A clock helps in rooms without a wall clock. Dice, the scoreboard and the game widgets belong to review days. The full catalogue, grouped by job, is on the tools page.

A useful test: if you can't name the job a widget is doing right now, remove it. A crowded board is harder to read than a plain whiteboard.

Build one in five steps

1. Open the board. On the computer that drives your display, go to myclassscreen.org/board/. An empty board loads with a dotted background and a dock of widget icons along the bottom.
2. Add the six core widgets. Click Timer, Sound, Text, Names, Group and Traffic. Each one appears on the board. Drag by the header to move it, pull a corner to resize it.
3. Fill in the content. Set the timer to the length of your next block. Type the agenda into the Text widget. Paste first names only into Names and Group. Click the traffic light until it shows the colour you want for the first activity.
4. Go full screen. Click the Fullscreen button in the top bar so the browser chrome disappears. Then walk to the back of the room and check that the timer numbers and the agenda are readable.
5. Save and reuse. Click Save Board, give the layout a name such as "Period 3", and leave it under My Boards. Tomorrow, open My Boards and load it instead of rebuilding.

If you prefer a finished layout to start from, open the Classroom Agenda or Morning Meeting template, then edit the text and save under your own name. More layouts are on the templates page.

Back-row readability table

A classroom screen fails when the last row can't read it. AVIXA's Display Image Size for Content (DISCAS) Basic Decision Making rule gives a practical way to check this. For typical presentation content, the farthest-viewer distance is image height times percent element height times 200 [1]. At a 3% element height (a common starting point for readable text), that is the familiar divide-by-six rule: the image height should be at least one sixth of the distance to the back row.

Translate that into the height of a letter on the projected image:

These figures are from the DISCAS Basic Decision Making formula at 3% element height, using AVIXA's published explanation of the standard [1][2]. They are a planning check, not a lab measurement. The practical test is still the same: stand in the farthest seat and read the timer. If you can't, enlarge that widget rather than zooming the whole page, so the rest of the layout keeps its place.

Contrast matters as much as size. Cream, Sky and Navy backgrounds keep text contrast high; a busy photo background does not. WCAG's contrast guidance is a useful benchmark when you upload your own image [3].

Framework map: CHAMPS, PBIS, SEL, morning meeting

A classroom screen is not a behaviour programme. It is a place to make the programme you already use visible. The table below maps common frameworks to widgets that support them.

Use one row of this table at a time. Posting every framework on the same board creates noise. The screen should say the one thing students need to do next, not everything your school handbook says.

Classroom examples: one period on the screen

These are examples, not prescriptions. Change the minutes and subjects to match your timetable.

Example: Grade 4 literacy block (60 minutes). Open Soft Start with a 10-minute timer and a Soft Start choices list while students unpack. Switch to a Text widget with the three reading-group tasks and a Group board for the day's groups. Keep a Timer at 15 minutes for each centre rotation. End with the Exit Ticket poll for two minutes. Save the whole layout as "Grade 4 Literacy" so Monday looks like Thursday.

Example: Grade 7 science (50 minutes). Load Bell Ringer with a 5-minute timer and a warm-up question. Replace the warm-up text with today's lab steps, add a Group widget for four lab teams and a Timer for the investigation. Keep Traffic light on yellow during partner talk and red during the write-up. Finish with Quiz Time or a short Names call for who reports results.

Example: advisory / homeroom (20 minutes). Use Daily Gratitude or Feelings Check-In, a Clock and a Timer for the share. Keep Names ready for who shares next. The board stays the same every day; only the prompt changes.

Grade-band versions of these boards are on the elementary, middle school and high school pages.

Choosing a tool: free vs paid

You can run a classroom screen with a free board, a paid board or a mix of slide software and a timer. The choice comes down to three things: price, whether you need an account and how much of the lesson lives on the wall.

MyClassScreen is free and has no premium tier. The board does not load a third-party script. A longer feature-by-feature comparison is on the Classroomscreen alternative page, and the wider list is on alternatives.

If your lesson is a fixed slide deck that never changes during the period, keep the deck and run a timer beside it. The Google Slides guide covers that setup.

Setting it up on any display

1. Connect the classroom computer to the projector, TV or interactive panel the same way you would for slides.
2. Open myclassscreen.org/board/ in Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox.
3. Click Fullscreen on the board (or F11 on Windows, Control + Command + F on a Mac, the full-screen key on a Chromebook).
4. Reset browser zoom to 100% with Ctrl + 0 (Command + 0 on a Mac) and use Reset View on the board if widgets look the wrong size after you connect the display.
5. Walk to the back of the room once and check the timer and the agenda against the readability table above.

For Chromebooks, managed devices and microphone permission, use the Chromebook guide. For SMART, Promethean and ViewSonic panels, use the interactive panels guide. Districts that need an allow-list and a privacy table can start on the schools page.

When a classroom screen is the wrong tool

• You need graded answers with student names attached. The board is a shared display. Use your learning platform or a student-response tool for work that must be scored.
• Nothing on the screen will change during the lesson. A slide deck may be simpler. Keep a timer next to it if you still want a countdown.
• Students need their own copy of the content. Share a document or a slide deck link. The board is for what the whole room looks at together.
• You need the same boards on every computer without links. Boards live in one browser's local storage. Use Copy link to move a layout, or keep a bookmark for each template.
• The room has no network at all. Load the board before class. Don't plan a lesson around it working offline.

Accessibility

• Size for the farthest seat. Use the table in the readability section. Enlarge the widgets that carry the message, rather than zooming the whole page.
• Don't rely on colour alone. Pair the traffic light with a spoken or written cue, because colour alone fails WCAG's use-of-colour guidance [9]. Work Symbols already pairs a label with each symbol.
• Contrast. Prefer Cream, Sky or Navy backgrounds. Check uploaded images against WCAG contrast guidance [3].
• No flashing alarms. The timer ends with on-screen text and a short confetti burst, not a strobing flash, which keeps the board within WCAG's three-flashes guidance [10].
• Touch targets. On a panel, make buttons you tap often larger. WCAG suggests a minimum target size for this reason [11].
• Sound. The timer's end is visible on screen, so students who can't hear an alert still see it. Tell the class in advance what happens when time runs out.

Privacy

• Students never sign in, enter an email address or join with a code.
• Boards you save with Save Board stay in that browser's local storage on that device [12].
• Copy link packs the layout into the link itself, including anything typed into widgets. Remove student names before sharing a link widely.
• The Sound widget asks for microphone permission and processes loudness in the browser. It does not record or upload classroom audio. You can allow or block the microphone in the browser's site settings [13].
• The board does not load a third-party script.

Full detail is on the privacy page. How the board is funded is on the pricing page.