Tech It Up a Notch

Welcome to the final minisode in the "Start Smart" series. Here we are chatting about one of the more subjective parts of starting a new school year: Classroom Displays. Whether you are a 'laminating queen' or more 'minimalist and clean', we’re sharing our favourite digital tools and ‘old school’ hacks to get your room ready to go.

Key Takeaways

• Digital resource hubs provide easy access to themed lettering and visual timetables that support student routine and accessibility.
• Inclusive design is essential when decorating; ensure fonts are legible and color schemes are mindful of students or colleagues who may have varied needs.
• Curated decor bundles from online content creators offer polished, cohesive aesthetics that save teachers hours of design and formatting time.
• Student-centered displays, such as interactive door art builds a sense of belonging and ownership from the very first day of school.

Featured Resources

• SparkleBox: Excellent for pre-made signs, themed lettering, classroom management posters, and visual timetables.
• Instant Display: A UK-based site perfect for themed alphabet sets
• Canva: The modern teacher’s best friend for DIY borders and custom lettering using their massive library of stock images.
• Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT): The go-to marketplace for ready-to-print bundles.

Miss Jacobs Little Learners: Highly recommended for cohesive, beautiful classroom decor bundles

Getting organised for a new school year looks different for every teacher. In this minisode, we explore how digital planners can support your workflow and which Clare and Rachael prefer. From Calendar and Slides based daily planners to colour-coded grade books in Sheets, we talk through practical, flexible ways to plan, adapt, and stay on top of the teaching load in 2026. We also share ready-made options for teachers who want a polished planner without building one from scratch.

Key Takeaways

• Digital planners can replace, or enhance, traditional day books allowing easy collaboration and a lighter bag to carry ;)
• Slide decks work well as a daily or weekly visual planner for students and teachers, with links to lessons and resources.
• Spreadsheets are a powerful for grade books, using drop-downs, colour coding, and data validation.
• Collaboration is easier when planners and grade books live in shared platforms
• Paid Teacher sharing platforms often offer polished, low-cost digital planners you can adapt.
• The best planner is the one that fits your device, system, and professional needs.

Resources

• Google Calendar – for time blocking, booking links, and lesson organisation
• Google Slides – for daily/weekly classroom planners and visual schedules
• Google Sheets – for grade books, assessment tracking, and reporting support
• Teachers Pay Teachers – digital planner templates
• Mrs Presley ICT
• Talkin Chalk
• Canva – digital planner templates and visual planning layouts

In this minisode, we explore how smartwatches can act as a quiet, practical assistant in the classroom. From discreet notifications to reminders, alarms, and multi-factor authentication, a smartwatch can help reduce mental load, support time management, and keep teachers focused on teaching.

Key Takeaways

• Smartwatches allow for discreet notifications, helping teachers stay contactable without checking their phone in front of students.
• Voice assistants make it easy to set reminders and alarms on the go, supporting memory and organisation during busy school days.
• Timers and alarms are useful for lesson rotations, transitions, and medication reminders.
• Smartwatches can support multi-factor authentication, saving time when logging into school systems.
• Calendar-linked reminders and tasks help reduce the mental load of teaching.
• Additional features (health reminders, movement prompts, camera remote use) can support teacher wellbeing and workflow.

As with any tech, it’s important to test settings outside the classroom before relying on them at school.

This holiday minisode introduces the Productivity Trifecta, a powerful way to streamline your work using Docs, Calendar, and Tasks. If your school uses Google Workspace, this episode will walk you through simple but game changing features that help teachers stay organised, reduce mental load, and help teams follow tasks through from start to finish.

Key Takeaways

• Using Shift + @ in Google Docs unlocks smart building blocks like meeting notes, decision logs, and email drafts.
• Meeting Notes automatically link to Calendar events, making them easy to find later.
• Tasks can be assigned directly from a Doc and sync across Google Tasks and Calendar.
• Assigned tasks update in real time and cross out in the document once completed.
• Smart chips make collaboration clearer by tagging people, dates, and files in context.
• Shared Docs can replace long email chains for planning, events, and programming.
• When collaborative tools are used together, they create a seamless workflow that saves time and reduces overwhelm.

Resources

• Intro to Building Blocks
• Google Calendar Training and Help
• Google Tasks - training and Help
• Google Docs - Training and Help

Get ready for the new school year with Tech it up a Notch. In this first minisode, Rach and Claire share practical, realistic strategies to help teachers reset their inbox and reduce email overwhelm before the new school year begins. From decluttering to mindset shifts and smarter email habits, this episode is all about starting the year fresh and in control, without spending hours sorting your messages.

Key Points

• A clean inbox can be a powerful mental reset before the school year starts
• Archiving old emails is often more effective than trying to sort everything
• Labels and tabs can dramatically reduce clutter once you have trained your inbox to sort for you
• Knowing which email tools are available helps maintain professional boundaries and supports the “right to disconnect”
• Turning off notifications allows you to control when you engage with email

Resources

Archive emails - Gmail

Archive emails - Outlook

Schedule Send - Gmail

Schedule Send - Outlook

Right to Disconnect - Fair Work Australia

Notifications - Apple

Notifications - Android

Gmail - Priority inbox

Templates in Gmail

Drawing on real classroom experience, Rach and Clare explore how Canva can streamline design tasks, reduce time spent policing image use and empower students to communicate their learning creatively. From posters and presentations to podcasting, video, green screen, and interactive projects, this episode is packed with ideas you can try straight away, especially as you’re setting up for a new school year.

Key Takeaways

• Canva for Education provides free Pro-level access for teachers and students using a @edu email
• Canva supports the creation of multimodal texts, making it ideal for English and other KLAs
• Canva enables student choice through video, audio, visual, and interactive formats
• Built in copyright compliance makes it safer and easier for classroom use
• Collaboration features support group work but require clear expectations
• Canva can be a powerful differentiation tool, particularly for students who struggle with handwriting or fine motor skills

Resources

• Canva for Education
• Canva Design School (Teacher Essentials & PD courses)
• Canva Tutorials & Help Centre
• LMS + Canva Integration
• Canva Accessibility & Design Tools

Dive into one of the best known coding tools in Australian classrooms: Scratch. In this conversation we unpack why Scratch continues to be a favourite, how to introduce it with confidence and give examples of how it can enhance learning across subjects. From block coding foundations to project ideas, hardware integrations and classroom management tips, this episode is packed with practical strategies to help teachers use Scratch as a tool for creativity, computational thinking and problem-solving.

Key Takeaways

• Scratch is a free, block-based coding platform designed for ages 8–16 that lowers the barrier to entry for coding through visual, drag-and-drop blocks.
• Suitable for new learners and those who need extension.
• Its familiarity and longevity make it less intimidating for teachers who want a foolproof, supported way to introduce programming.

• Ensure students create accounts so they can save multi-lesson projects and avoid tears over lost work.
• Use Scratch’s class function to manage and support students access and projects.
• Encourage students to explore existing community projects and use the ‘See Inside’ feature to learn from other creators' code.

• In built tutorials help those who need step-by-step scaffolding.

Resources

• Scratch Website

• Code.org
• Code.org Dance Party
• Code.org Minecraft Tutorials

• Makey Makey
• Micro:bit

• Scratch Educator Resources
• Experience CS

.Dive into the wonderfully versatile world of Ozobot, tiny, sensor powered robots that can be colour coded with textas / markers or block coded. Our listener question inspires a discussion into how to use Ozobots in KLAs beyond Digital Technologies. We explore practical, engaging classroom ideas that span English, HSIE, Science, and PDHPE. As always we give common troubleshooting tips and real stories from the classroom to give you an insight using these pocket-sized robots in your classroom.

Key Takeaways

1. Ozobots are ideal for screen free coding

2. Cross curricular potential is great, but be sure they aren’t overpowering the content you are aiming for.

3. The creative layer boosts engagement in areas which may need it (e.g. understanding perimeter) and enhance it in others (e.g. coding a narrative)

Resources

• Ozobot Educator Resources
• Ozoblockly Coding Platform
• Ozobot Classroom Platform
• Colour-Code Guides & Printables
• Example Ozobot costume inspo Story Map Inspiration Blog (referenced in discussion)
• Sea Bin https://seabinfoundation.org/ (referenced in discussion, a great example of STEM in action)

This week, we Tech It Up a Notch with Google Drawings, a free, often overlooked tool in Google Workspace that opens up creative possibilities for learners of all ages. We share practical classroom ideas for using Google Drawings to make art, design diagrams, and explore maths and science concepts in visual ways. We unpack how this simple tool can boost creativity and digital fluency without the need for fancy software.

Key Takeaways

• Google Drawings is a free, cloud based tool for creative and visual learning.
• Great for art, design, diagrams, mapping, and maths concepts like tessellation and symmetry.
• Works seamlessly within Google Workspace (Docs, Slides, Classroom).
• Promotes collaboration, creativity, and sustainable digital practice.
• Best used on laptops or Chromebooks (not mobile or iPad compatible).
• A powerful entry point for digital art and design across the curriculum.
• Perfect for collaborative planning and thinking through new projects with colleagues.

Resources

Google Drawings

Google Workspace for Education

Google Classroom

This week we introduce Classroom Screen, a simple yet powerful tool for managing classroom flow and engagement. We discuss its key features, explore how it supports effective teaching and share ideas for bringing calm and structure to your learning environment. Along the way, we wander off on a few topical tangents, including discussing our new recording space.

Takeaways

• Classroom Screen is a versatile classroom management tool.
• Timers, noise meters, and visuals can help create calm and structured learning spaces.
• Classroom Screen is easy to access across devices and supports teacher wellbeing and voices!
• Paid versions offer extended customisation and additional features, including saving screens - just watch out for the US/AU price difference.

Resources

• Classroomscreen
• Google Educators Certification
• Bluey Study Video
• Esafety commissioner Social Media Age Restrictions Hub
• Vivi
• Snoopy Jazz
• Hypno Motion - Lego Cooking
• Victorian Government Digital Device Announcement