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Welcome to EdTechExplain, the video series which will share one powerful education technology tool that you can use in your classroom in just a few minutes
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Today I'll explain how you can use Classroom Screen for classroom management and to help students focus on their work. Here we go
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The idea for Classroom Screen came from Lorenz Koppers, a science teacher from the Netherlands who was looking for a more attractive way to communicate expectations than just writing out directions on a whiteboard
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With the help of his neighbor, Sebastian DeVries, Lorenz developed Classroom Screen, an interactive website that allows teachers to customize their own digital screens that they can project onto an interactive whiteboard by adding on-screen tools to help students focus on their work
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So with Classroom Screen, you don't really need to create an account and you can start by just clicking the Launch Now button, but I'm going to recommend that you do create a free teacher account to start and you'll see why in a second
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The first thing you can do is to customize your background. You can choose still photos or animated movies provided by Classroom Screen or you can upload your own photos
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Now it's time to start adding the tools that we want on the screen and you can see there are several different options to display while students work independently, such as a traffic light, work symbols, a timer, and a stopwatch
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There's also tools that a teacher might need for whole group instruction, like dice, drawing tools, videos, media, and widgets, or a random name generator
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And there's even this widget that allows your computer to monitor the noise of the classroom with an audible reminder when it's too loud. You can add widgets by simply clicking on an icon and remove them by clicking the X
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The free plan allows you to save up to 13 widgets at once. This is the main part of Classroom Screen, but you can also access two other great features by clicking the Home button
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Choosing Poll will let you generate a poll question that students can answer on your interactive whiteboard, either before class or on their way out the door
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There's also a random group maker that you can use to randomly assign students and groups
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So as you can see, there are many awesome features in Classroom Screen that should help you with classroom management
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But I know that many watching this are probably wondering, can I save the screens that I create at a later time
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Well, unfortunately, to save a screen, you need to purchase the Pro account, which will allow you to save screens as well as other helpful features
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You can create as many screens as you want at once, but as soon as you refresh or navigate away from Classroom Screen, they'll be gone
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You can, however, save up to three class lists with the free version, which should make the group maker and the random name picker a little easier
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Whether you sign up for the free version or purchase the Pro license, I definitely recommend Classroom Screen, especially if you're just looking for a way to prompt students during independent work
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Of course, there are other programs and web tools that you could use to design visuals, but I think that Classroom Screen might be a little easier with all the tools available in one place that are easy to use
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So let me know what you think about Classroom Screen. Leave a comment below and if you like these videos, feel free to subscribe to my channel
