Free classroom screen for teachers

On this page

• Open the free board
• What you can put on the screen
• 6 ready-made boards
• A sample class period on the board
• Free vs Classroomscreen
• When a classroom screen is not the answer
• Accessibility
• Privacy in one paragraph
• Guides by topic
• FAQ
• Related articles
• Sources

Open the free board

A classroom screen is the display at the front of your room turned into a live control panel for the lesson. Instead of saying "five more minutes" six times, the countdown is on the wall. Instead of choosing a student yourself, a name picker does it in front of everyone. MyClassScreen gives you that panel in a browser tab, free, on whatever computer is connected to your projector or interactive panel.

Getting started takes about a minute:

1. Open the board on the classroom computer. There is nothing to download and no form to fill in.
2. Click widgets in the bar along the bottom to add them, for example Timer, Names and Sound.
3. Drag and resize each one until the back row can read it.
4. Go full screen and teach. When the lesson ends, save the board with a name so it is ready next time.

It runs in a current browser on the computer already connected to the display. Open the board and use the browser's full-screen control. On a Chromebook it works in Chrome, and it can be installed as an app so it opens in its own window. If your school manages devices centrally, the Chromebook guide and the interactive panels guide list what to ask IT for, such as microphone permission for the noise meter.

The board is the product, and it is the same for everyone: no free tier with locked widgets, no trial period and no upgrade prompts on the screen your students are looking at.

What you can put on the screen

There are 43 widgets in the board's widget bar. These are the ones most teachers reach for first, each with its own guide:

If you are new to classroom screens, start with three: a timer so nobody has to ask how long is left, a voice-level signal such as the noise meter or traffic light, and a text box with the steps of the task. Use them for a week before adding more. Once those routines feel automatic, a name picker or group maker is usually the next widget that saves real time.

The rest cover dice, a wheel spinner, a scoreboard, a drawing board, QR codes, flashcards, a stopwatch, a visual timetable, an attention chime, images, PDFs, videos and a set of whole-class games. The classroom widgets hub sorts all of them by the job they do.

6 ready-made boards

If an empty canvas feels like extra work, start from a layout. Each link below opens the board with the widgets already placed. Change the text, add your names and save it as your own.

• Morning Meeting: clock, timer, text, name picker and traffic light for a structured start to the day.
• Bell Ringer: a timer, the warm-up question, a clock and the noise meter for the first five minutes.
• Station Rotation: group maker, timer, station list and name picker for centres.
• Quiz Time: name picker, timer, question text, traffic light and dice for whole-class review.
• Red Light, Green Light: a movement brain break run from the traffic light.
• Exit Ticket: poll, timer, QR code and a prompt for the last few minutes.

There are 22 templates in all, sorted by routine and grade band on the templates page.

A sample class period on the board

Here is an example of how one 45-minute upper-elementary maths lesson could run on a single board with three screens. It is an illustration, not a timetable to copy.

Building this once takes about ten minutes. After that it reopens from My Boards in one click, and you only change the warm-up text each day. Open the free board and try laying out your own next lesson the same way.

Free vs Classroomscreen

Classroomscreen is the best-known tool in this category, and it is a good one. Many teachers who find MyClassScreen are comparing the two, so here is the short version, checked against Classroomscreen's pricing page on October 5, 2026.

Classroomscreen is stronger if you want its own account to carry screens between computers. On MyClassScreen, press Save Board and the layout stays in this browser. Use Copy link to open it on another computer. MyClassScreen is the simpler choice if you want every widget free, no sign-in and saved boards without a subscription. The full comparison covers features, privacy and how to rebuild a Classroomscreen board here in five minutes.

When a classroom screen is not the answer

A projected board helps with shared routines: time, turns, volume and instructions. It does not replace teaching, and it is the wrong tool in a few situations. If students each need different work, use their own devices. If you need to record results per student, use your school's platform, because the board's polls and exit tickets only count taps on the day. And if a lesson is going well with nothing on the screen, there is no need to add widgets for the sake of it.

Watch for one more warning sign: students spending more time watching the board than doing the task. A spinning wheel or confetti burst is fun once, but if it starts to slow transitions down, switch to a plainer widget or remove it. The aim is a calmer room with fewer repeated instructions, not a busier screen.

Accessibility

A visible timer and written instructions give every student a second way to follow the lesson, which helps students who miss spoken directions. Several widgets pair colour with a shape, word or number, so colour-blind students are not left guessing: the noise meter shows a face and a percentage, and the traffic light names the active colour. Make widgets large enough to read from the furthest seat, keep backgrounds plain, and pair any sound cue, such as the attention chime, with something on screen.

Privacy in one paragraph

Students never create accounts or sign in, and you do not need one either. Saved boards are kept in your own browser's storage, not on our servers. The noise meter turns microphone sound into a loudness level inside the browser and does not record or upload audio. A few widgets do contact other services by design: QR codes are drawn by a QR image service from the text you enter, and videos load from YouTube or Vimeo. The board page carries no ads. The full details are in the privacy policy and the schools page.

Guides by topic

The site is organised into a few hubs, each with in-depth guides written for teachers:

• Classroom widgets: a guide for every widget, sorted by the job it does, with setup steps and classroom examples.
• Classroom screen guide: what to project, how big to make it, and boards for elementary, middle school and high school.
• Templates: ready-made boards for routines, brain breaks and stations, plus printable substitute sheets.
• Help: getting started, saving boards, Chromebooks, interactive panels and troubleshooting.
• Alternatives: honest comparisons with other classroom display tools, with dates on every price.
• Blog: classroom management, screen setup ideas and tool comparisons.

Frequently asked questions

Is MyClassScreen really free?

Yes. Every widget, template and saved board is free, with no paid plan or trial. Ads on the articles and guides fund the site, and the board itself has no ads.

Do I need to sign up to use the classroom screen?

No. Open the board and start adding widgets. You can also save boards without an account, because they are stored in your browser.

Does it work on a smart board or projector?

Yes. Open the board in the browser of the computer connected to your projector, or in the browser on an interactive panel, then press the full-screen button.

Can I save my board and use it again tomorrow?

Yes. Press Save Board and name it, and it appears under My Boards next time on the same browser. To use it on another device, copy the layout link and open it there.

Is the noise meter safe to use with students?

Yes. It measures loudness inside the browser and does not record, store or upload any audio. Students do not need accounts, and you can stop the microphone at any time.

How is MyClassScreen different from Classroomscreen?

MyClassScreen is free with no account and includes saved boards. Classroomscreen has a free Basic plan with remote poll voting and a paid Pro plan for saving and sharing screens. See the full comparison for details.

Related articles

• Classroom screen ideas for every part of the day
• A morning meeting screen template
• Back-to-school classroom screen setup

Sources

1. Classroomscreen, "Pricing" (checked October 5, 2026): https://classroomscreen.com/pricing
2. CAST, "Universal Design for Learning Guidelines": https://udlguidelines.cast.org/
3. W3C, "Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.1: Use of Color" (WCAG 2.2): https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/use-of-color.html

Start your classroom screen

Your next lesson can have a timer, a voice-level signal and a name picker on the wall in under a minute. It is free, and students never need to sign in.

Open the free board