Projector etiquette: Paper, Night and Chalk, and when to put Peabody on the screen

1 The bar under every tool

Open almost any tool on the site, such as the timer, the name picker or the wheel spinner, and you will find the same row of buttons under it. Learn it once and it works the same way everywhere.

• Full screen (F): the projector view. Press F on the keyboard or the button; Esc leaves it.
• Paper, Night, Chalk: the three color themes. The one you pick is remembered in this browser and used on every tool page you open after.
• Share: opens your device's share menu, or copies the page's address and shows "Link copied".
• Print: prints the tool. The button bar and the site's menus are left off the paper.
• Pin to desk: adds the tool to "Your desk", a line of shortcuts at the top of the home page. Pins are kept in this browser only, up to 24 of them.

Some tools add buttons of their own to the same bar. The F key is ignored while you are typing in a box, so you can type a list of names without the page jumping to full screen.

2 Full screen: the projector view

Full screen is the view meant for the wall. It asks the browser for the whole screen and then strips the page down to the tool itself.

• The site's header, menus, breadcrumbs, page title and footer are hidden, and the tool fills the screen edge to edge.
• The button bar moves to the bottom right corner and fades out. Move the mouse or touch the screen and it comes back.
• After two seconds with the mouse still, the pointer disappears, so a stray arrow doesn't sit on top of the timer.
• Esc, or the Exit full screen button, brings the normal page back.

Because the pointer hides itself, you can start a timer, step away from the computer, and the class sees only the tool. If you need the bar again, nudge the mouse. If your computer is connected to the projector as a second screen, drag the browser window onto the projector first, then press F.

Full screen does not change what the tool does or what it keeps. A timer counts the same, a picker picks the same, and anything you typed stays where it was when you leave full screen.

3 Paper, Night and Chalk

The three themes change the colors of the whole tool page, not just the background. Text, borders, links and highlight colors all switch together, so nothing ends up dark on dark.

• Paper is the default: a warm off-white background with dark blue-gray text and a golden yellow highlight. It looks like the printed page.
• Night is a near-black background with light text, a brighter yellow highlight and pale blue links.
• Chalk is a chalkboard green background with off-white text and a pale yellow highlight.

The choice is kept in this browser and applied to every tool page you open, so set it once on the classroom computer and leave it. It applies only on tool pages; guides like this one and the other article pages stay in the normal colors.

Nothing about the theme is sent anywhere. It is one small setting stored on the computer you chose it on, which also means a different computer, or a private browser window, starts on Paper again.

4 Which theme for which room

The right theme depends more on your room and your projector than on taste. A theme that looks fine on your laptop can look washed out on the wall. Before the first day, try all three from the back row with the lights the way you keep them during lessons.

• A bright room, or an older projector: start with Paper. Dark text on a light background usually holds up best when the room light is falling on the screen.
• Lights off or dimmed, such as during a read-aloud or a video: try Night. A big white screen in a dark room lights up the whole room; a dark one doesn't.
• Glare on an interactive panel or a glossy screen: compare Night and Chalk; a darker background often shows less reflection.
• A room where you write on a chalkboard or a green board beside the screen: Chalk makes the screen match the board.

Whatever you pick, check two things from the back: can the smallest text on the tool be read, and can the highlight color be told from the text? If either fails, try another theme before you change anything else.

Students who sit close to the screen, or who find bright screens uncomfortable, may tell you which they prefer. Asking takes a minute and costs nothing.

5 Projector etiquette for a shared screen

A projector shows the class whatever is on your screen, including things you didn't mean to share. A few habits prevent most surprises.

• Open the tool before you turn the projector on, or freeze the projector while you get it ready.
• Close email and messaging tabs, and turn off pop-up notifications, before you project.
• Use full screen so the class sees the tool and not your bookmarks, other tabs or search history.
• Before you type a list of students' names into the picker or the group maker, decide whether those names should be on the wall. The tools keep the list in your browser only, but the projector shows it to everyone.
• Use first names only on screen, and never anything private: no grades, no reading levels, no notes.
• Keep the volume low the first time you use a tool with sound, and test it before the class is waiting.
• Leave full screen and turn the projector off before you open anything personal.

The tools on this site don't ask for sign-in or show ads, and tools like the timer, picker and wheel keep what you type in your browser, which removes a lot of risk. What the class sees on the wall is still your call, every time. The privacy page says plainly what the site keeps and what it doesn't.

6 When to put Peabody on the screen

Peabody is the character the children's side of this site is built around. On the teacher site there is no switch that turns him on or off across the tools: the timers, pickers, wheels and boards are plain by design. He appears in exactly one tool, the Peabody's books timer, one of the fun timers.

What that timer shows

Counting down, eight books stand in a tower on a table and Peabody reads his way down it. The book he is on is open in his hands, and each finished book goes on a pile beside him, so the tower shrinks as the pile grows. Three books left means three eighths of the time is left, which children who can't read a clock can still see. Counting up, the tower builds instead. It opens at 15 minutes.

On that page, S moves to the next scene, so one key takes Peabody off the screen and swaps in another picture; U switches between counting down and up; M turns the sound on or off; and H plays the sound so you can check it before the class hears it.

When he helps, and when to leave him off

• Put him on for independent reading, a read-aloud, or quiet reading at the end of the day. The picture matches what the class is doing, and the countable books answer "how much longer?" without a word.
• Leave him off during a test or any time the picture would pull eyes away from the work. Use the plain countdown timer or the visual timer.
• With older students, ask them. Some middle schoolers enjoy a picture timer; others prefer numbers. The plain timer is a tap away.

7 Printing and sharing from the projector computer

Printing from a tool page leaves the button bar, the site's menus and the footer off the paper, and the page itself prints on a white background with black text. Some tools draw parts of their picture in the theme's colors, so if you are on Night or Chalk, switch to Paper before you print to be sure nothing comes out dark.

Share gives a colleague the same tool. On a phone or tablet it opens the share menu; on a computer it copies the address. Many tools keep their settings in the part of the address after the # sign, such as the questions in a quiz or the slices on a wheel. Browsers don't send that part to a server, so the settings travel in the link itself.

• Before you share a link, look at what is in the tool. If you typed students' names into it, those names may travel with the link.
• For a substitute, pin the day's tools to the desk on the classroom computer, or write the links in the sub plan.
• On a shared computer, remember that pins and the theme stay in that browser for the next person too.

If you are choosing between screen tools, the list of classroom screen and projector tools compares ours with others, side by side.