At first, I thought classroom slides were just a way to share tidbits of information with students, usually for a very specific subject but I soon realized they could be used for so much more.
Classroom slides are not just for presentations anymore; they can be valuable tools for organization, classroom management, and engaging students.
Now classroom slides are my go-to for everything from our daily morning meetings to chunking assignment tasks to keeping myself organized with the day-to-day of classroom teacher life.
1. Streamline Your Morning Meeting Routine with Classroom Slides
There’s already enough going on in the mornings. Keeping track of where I put my coffee and taking attendance alone occupy a lot of my brainpower. So using slides to organize and display the morning agenda can set the right tone for the day. The bonus is classroom slides are also a helpful tool to manage transitions smoothly.
Students come in and know exactly what to do for the first 10, 20, 30 minutes of the day rather than just talking, wasting time, or repeatedly asking me! Morning classroom slides cut down on that start of the day chaos.
I find that including a timer built-in to the slides also helps keep everyone accountable because they know the task needs to be done in a specific time frame, which results in them wasting less time and getting right to work.
Morning classroom slides like these with timers can be used for bell work or even simpler tasks like reading quietly, “soft start” or mindfulness. They can even be used when preparing for a quiz with a simple set of instructions to let students know to have the following on their desks before the timer goes off (including a visual of the necessary items is always helpful).
2. Keep Students on Track with Assignment Slides for Classroom Management
You’ve probably seen those reels or TikToks where teachers share how many times a day they hear their names being called. One said that high school teachers hear their names 15-20 times, middle school 70-80, and elementary teachers an average of 100,000! While this might be hyperbole, I think the next video round-up should be how many times teachers hear “What am I supposed to do?” or “What do we do when we’re done”.
If you find yourself answering a ton of these questions, then assignment slides might just save your sanity.
Assignment classroom slides help teachers display clear instructions, track assignments, and give students a visual cue for what they should be working on at precise moments during class periods. It’s a chance to include must-do and may-do sections to have students review their work before moving on to another task or to help early finishers.
Similar to morning slides, assignment slides like these ones are a constant reminder on the board of what students should be doing during the period. You can use them after your lesson so you avoid those oft-repeated questions.
You can also put your lessons right on these slides and have everything in one spot to keep YOU organized!
3. Simplify Classroom Rotations / Centres
Beyond keeping students on track for assignments, classroom slides can simplify center rotations for subjects like math and literacy.
Simple visual cues on the slides can keep transitions seamless and minimize student downtime thereby increasing accountability and supporting students’ learning skills. Using very simple visuals makes such classroom slides a great option for younger grades as well.
Students know exactly what station to be at and how long they have there before moving to the next. The inclusion of such simple instructions on classroom slides means you don’t have to repeat this information as a teacher, which limits disruptions for you while you are working with small groups or individuals.
Check out the editable version of these center rotation slides to use during literacy rotation, guided reading, math rotations, daily 5, and any other centers you run in your classroom – you can customize them for your classes. These include times to ensure students know how much time is left and when to switch.
4. Save Time and Stay Organized as a Teacher
While it’s great to keep students on task, classroom slides are also an amazing teacher organization tool. I use them for daily lesson overviews, task lists, and reminders for me, while they also help maintain structure in the classroom.
Teachers already have enough on their plates and creating slides or writing out lessons on the board can take additional time that can be better spent on other things. Using pre-made slide templates saves time and reduces stress.
And it’s almost like saving two or three times the time because having these lessons digitized will actually save time in the future.
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So next year, when you are teaching the same unit again, you won’t have to think about your learning goals, key points of the lesson, or assignment requirements again because they will all be written out in your lesson slides for you. You just get to project and go!
Check out these posts to help you feel more productive and less stressed in your day-to-day teaching life:
- 5 Teacher Grading Tips to Get Ahead
- How to Create Effective Long-Range Plans
- The Ultimate Guide to Stress-Free Report Card Writing
