Teaching & Present Mode
How to present lessons, control student pacing, lock slides, sync the class, use bookmarks, and check lesson completion.
Entering Present Mode
Present Mode is a distraction-free teaching view. The admin toolbar disappears and you get a clean lesson player focused on the content. Students follow along on their own devices in real time.
Click 'Present to Class' from your class dashboard
This opens the course in presentation mode linked to your class. Students who are on the course page will see your class as active.
Unlock the topic you are teaching
Click the 'Locked' badge on a topic to release it for students. Do this before the lesson starts.
Click 'Start Lesson' on any lesson card
The lesson viewer opens in full-screen mode. Navigation controls appear at the bottom.
Slide Navigation
Previous / Next buttons
Bottom-left and bottom-right of the lesson viewer. Click to move one slide at a time.
Arrow keys
Use left/right arrow keys on your keyboard for hands-free navigation at the board.
Dot navigation
The dot row at the bottom shows every slide. Click any dot to jump directly to that slide.
Lesson dropdown
Click the lesson title in the top bar to open a dropdown listing all lessons — jump between lessons without returning to the course page.
Slide indicator
Shows "Slide X of Y" so you always know where you are and how many slides remain.
Lock Slide
Lock Slide blocks student access to the slide you are currently viewing. An "Activity Paused" overlay appears on that slide — students cannot interact with anything on it, but they can still navigate to other slides.
🔒 What Lock Slide does
- • The locked slide is covered with an overlay — students cannot interact with it
- • Students can still navigate to other unlocked slides
- • Lock a game slide when you want students to move on to the next activity
- • Lock sensitive content before students reach it, then unlock when ready
- • You can still view and interact with the slide freely on your own screen
Common use cases
- Time's up on a game — students are playing a game slide and you need them to move on. Lock the game slide so it becomes inaccessible and they naturally progress to the next slide.
- Sensitive content — lock a slide containing sensitive material (e.g. graphic health content, mature topics) before students reach it. Unlock it when you are ready to discuss it together.
- Prevent skipping ahead — lock upcoming activity or quiz slides so early finishers cannot jump ahead while you are still teaching the content slides.
- Stagger release — lock multiple activity slides at the start of the lesson and unlock them one at a time as the class progresses through each task.
- Wrap up a discussion — lock the reflection or discussion slide once everyone has contributed so students refocus on the next section.
Find the Lock icon in the top-right control bar of the lesson viewer. Click once to lock, click again to unlock.
You can lock multiple slides at once — navigate to each slide and click Lock. Use "Unlock All" to clear every lock in the lesson, or unlock slides individually.
💡 Pro Tip
Lock a game or activity slide when time is up so students move on. Unlock it again if you want to give them more time later.
Present (Sync Students to Your Slide)
Present mode (different from Lock Slide) syncs all students to follow your current slide position. As you navigate forward, every student's screen automatically advances with you — like a projector for their own device.
📺 What Present (Sync) does
- • Every student's screen mirrors your slide position in real time
- • When you click Next, all students advance simultaneously
- • Students can still scroll within a slide or interact with widgets
- • Best for direct instruction — keeps the class together
- • Turn it OFF on activity slides so students work at their own pace
Lock Slide vs Present — the difference
🔒 Lock Slide
Blocks access to a specific slide. Students can navigate elsewhere but cannot interact with the locked slide.
Use when: time is up on a game, restricting sensitive content, or moving students along.
📺 Present (Sync)
Pulls all students along with you as you navigate.
Use when: pacing through content slides and you want no one left behind.
ℹ️ Note
You can use both at the same time — Lock blocks the current slide while Sync keeps students following your position. Most teachers use Sync for content slides and turn it off for activity slides.
Bookmarks
Bookmark any slide to mark your place for a future session, or to flag a slide you want to return to quickly during the lesson.
Add a bookmark
Click the bookmark icon in the top control bar while viewing any slide. The icon fills to show it is saved.
Bookmark visible on lesson card
Bookmarked lessons show a pin indicator on their card in the course view so you can spot them instantly.
Teacher notes panel
Open the notes panel (top bar) to see all your bookmarked slides in one list.
Jump to bookmark
Click any bookmark in the panel to jump straight to that slide — great for starting next lesson where you left off.
Teacher Notes
Add private notes to any lesson slide that only you can see. Notes persist between sessions — useful for reminders, discussion prompts, or timing notes.
Open the Notes panel
Click the Notes icon in the top bar of the lesson viewer. A side panel slides in.
Type your note
Notes are free-text. Add anything you need — a reminder to pause for discussion, a question to ask the class, a timing note for the period.
Notes are slide-specific
Each note is attached to the specific slide you were viewing when you wrote it. Navigate to that slide and the note appears in the panel automatically.
💡 Pro Tip
Use teacher notes to write prompts like "Ask class: what could go wrong here?" or "10 mins — stop here for activity." You are the only one who sees them.
Lesson Check & Complete
At the end of a lesson, students can click Check Lesson to mark it as complete and receive AI-generated feedback on their responses throughout the lesson.
Student marks complete
The Check Lesson button appears after the final slide. Students tap it when they have finished all activities.
AI feedback generated
When AI is enabled for the class, TeacherAI analyses all the student's responses and generates a personalised summary: strengths, gaps, and next steps.
Recheck grace period
Students can re-check a lesson a limited number of times within a grace period if they want to improve their responses before the feedback locks.
Teacher view
You can see each student's lesson check status and AI feedback from their student profile.
XP awarded
Completing a lesson awards XP. The amount depends on the lesson length and the number of activities completed.
Slide Types
Each lesson is made up of different slide types with distinct purposes:
Sets the scene — learning goals, context, and what students will achieve by the end.
An engaging question or scenario to activate prior knowledge and spark curiosity.
Rich text, images, videos, and diagrams for explaining concepts. Teacher-paced using Lock/Sync.
Embedded video slide — plays directly in the lesson viewer on student devices.
A free-position design slide. Place any widget, text, image, or object anywhere on the slide and use rotate, resize, and layering.
Interactive tasks — short answers, polls, matching, code editors, and 90+ widget types. Students respond on their devices.
A built-in quiz slide with scored multiple-choice or short-answer questions.
Embedded mini-games built around lesson content — rapid quiz, word snake, space invaders, tetris, spell caster, and more.
Students write a free-form reflection. Submissions appear in the Reflections section for you to read and respond to.
Key points recap. Great for end-of-lesson review or a next-class warm-up.