27Live sessions
Small things that make a remote group feel like a room.
LaserTurn on Laser pointer and move over the board — a glowing dot follows your pointer on every screen. Drawing pauses while it's on, so it's purely for pointing.
Eyes upFlashes a full-screen prompt with a soft chime on every screen — a quick "look up here".
PulseParticipants tap 🟢 Got it, 🟡 Unsure or 🔴 Lost. You see a live count, so you know whether to push on or go again.
HandsRaised hands are numbered in the order they went up and sort to the top of the list, so you take them in turn. Tap a hand to lower it; participants can lower their own too.
Ask a question — studentsOpen Collab and press ❓ Ask a question, then tap the part of the board you are asking about — mouse, finger or pen. A small card offers a reason if you want one (I don’t understand, Why this step?, Can you explain?, My answer differs) — none is needed — then Send question. Cancel or Esc backs out at any point, and tapping to place a question never leaves a mark on the board. A small ? shows your spot, and your list under the buttons says whether it is Waiting, Seen or Answered. Only you and the teacher ever see your questions. If the link drops while you send, it says so and sends by itself when the link is back — once.
Ask a question — teachersQuestions never interrupt you: your view never moves on its own. The Collab button shows how many are waiting, each one appears as a small ? with the student’s name at the spot they asked about, and the Questions section of the panel lists them with the reason and board. Go to takes your view to the spot (switching board if needed) and counts as Seen; Seen and Resolve tell the student, quietly. Resolved questions leave the board; Clear resolved tidies the list. Markers are never part of the board itself — they are not selected, erased, exported, printed or saved — and questions last for the session.
Spot question — askingAsk the class something in the moment and collect everyone’s working. In Collab → Spot question, press ▭ Draw region and drag a box round the question on the board (Esc cancels); or take This view, or a Blank card with just a typed prompt. Add a prompt, choose a time limit if you want one, whether you will watch as they work (students are told) and whether a typed answer is allowed, then Send to class. A pill at the bottom counts hand-ins and the time left; tap it for the gallery. One question collects at a time — asking another offers to stop the first.
Spot question — studentsA card opens with the question at the top and room to work underneath — pen, finger or mouse, six colours, three sizes, an eraser, undo and clear; the page grows as you write. Press Hand in; you can change it and Hand in again until your teacher stops collecting, and only your latest counts. When time runs out, whatever is on your card is handed in for you. Only you and your teacher see your working. If your link drops it says Sending… and sends by itself when it is back; if you reload the page, join again with the same name and you pick up where you were. – tucks the card away to a pill, and once you hand in it tucks itself away — tap the pill to change your answer. When your teacher stops collecting, the question folds into My spot questions in your Collab panel; every question of the lesson is listed there, and tapping one opens it again with your teacher’s marks. Marks for an earlier question wait there with a red dot (and a number on the Collab button) rather than interrupting what you are working on.
Spot question — gallery and markingHanded-in work comes first (newest at the top), then anyone still working (live, if you chose to watch), then those who have not started. Open one to see it large, with ‹ › to step through. Mark lets you write on it in red, add ✓ ✗ or ★, pick a reward (the reward sticker designs, with the student’s name on) and a short comment, then Send back — it pops up on that student’s card under Teacher’s marks. Show to class puts it on your board as an ordinary picture labelled A student’s working; tick Show name first if you want the name on it.
Spot question — keeping itSave PDF gives a cover page (the question, who handed in and who did not) and a page per student with their working, typed answer, marks and comment. Collections are saved with the lesson file — hand-ins and marks, not live drafts — and ✍️ Spot questions in this lesson in the Collab panel opens them again later.
Break timeIn Collab → Break, choose how long (1 to 30 minutes) and press ☕ Start break. Every student’s screen is covered by a calm break screen — a large countdown over slowly drifting light — and their board takes no taps, pen or keys until the break is over. Your own screen stays yours: a pill at the bottom shows the time left with +1 min and End break. The break ends for everyone when the time runs out or when you end it early. Your board keeps updating underneath, so anything you prepare during the break is there when it ends; a student who joins or reconnects mid-break lands on the break screen with the right time.
Random pickChoose who answers next, fairly and in front of everyone. In Collab → Break & activities, press 🎯 Random pick. Every screen in the session opens the same full-screen spin — a colourful wheel with a slice per name when 30 or fewer are in the draw, or a rolling list of large names for a bigger group — that slows to a stop, and the chosen name is revealed — You’re up next! — with a burst of confetti; the student it lands on is told That’s you!. Only you can spin; the choice is made once, on your device, so everyone sees the same result. In ⚙ Settings: pick from Live participants (everyone in the session, kept up to date as people join and leave) or My list (one name per line — paste from a spreadsheet; remembered on this device); No repeats until reset (on by default — the count shows how many are left, and when everyone has had a turn it says so and offers Reset selections); an optional question or task, shown under the name on every screen; and an optional sound. Space spins, Esc or Return to board closes it for everyone. Someone joining mid-spin sees the same result.
Game TimeDots and Boxes for 2–6 players. Open it from Tools → 🎲 Game Time, or in a live session from Collab → Break & activities. It opens over the board in its own layer — nothing you do in the game becomes ink, and Return to board brings the board back exactly as it was. The rules (shown to everyone as three moving pictures while you set up): join two dots next to each other with one line across or down; draw the fourth side of a box to claim it for a point and take another turn; when every box is taken, the most boxes wins. Setting up (only you): tick the players — students in the session, and Me if you want to play — or, with no live session, choose 2–6 and type names to pass-and-play on one screen. The board size is suggested from the number of players (6×6 for two, 8×8 for three, 10×10 for four, 12×12 for five or six) and you can set anything from 2 to 20 boxes each way; a board of W×H boxes has (W+1)×(H+1) dots. Choose 10, 15 or 20 seconds a turn, and turn sounds (off by default) or celebrations on or off. Playing: every screen shows the same board, scores and countdown; the player whose turn it is points at a gap — the nearest free line lights up in their colour — and clicks, or on a tablet presses and lifts (slide off the board to cancel). Keyboard: Tab to the board, arrow keys move between lines, Enter draws. Each player has a colour and a shape (● ▲ ■ ◆ ★ ✚), so boxes can be told apart without colour. The countdown turns amber in the last five seconds; when it runs out the turn passes on. A player whose connection drops shows as away and is skipped until they rejoin — they get their seat back. Students who are not playing watch. Your controls: Pause/Resume and End game; you see every move, the clock, the scores and who is connected. At the end the result — winner or tie, places and boxes — stays on every screen until you Dismiss it (each person can tap See the board to look at the final board). Rematch and New game are separate; dismissing never starts another game. Add result to board puts the result on your board as a picture, so it is saved and printed with the lesson. Only you can start, pause, end or restart a game — your device keeps the score and checks every move, so a late, repeated or out-of-turn move is simply refused.
Game TimeHit the Target — a mental-maths game for the whole class. Open Tools → 🎲 Game Time and choose 🎯 Hit the Target at the top of the setup (Dots and Boxes is the other choice). Everyone gets the same target number and the same number tiles, and makes the target using each tile at most once — they don’t need them all. Setting up (only you): choose the operations — add, subtract, multiply, divide and brackets are on by default; powers (exponent 0–10), square roots (exact only) and factorials (0! to 10!) are optional, and at least one of + − × ÷ must stay on. Choose the difficulty — Easy (4 tiles, targets 10–50), Medium (5 tiles, one larger number, targets 40–150) or Hard (6 tiles, two larger numbers, targets 100–500) — 1–10 rounds, 30 s, 1, 1½ or 2 minutes a round, and whether the unique and speed bonuses, sounds and celebrations are on. A sample puzzle shows what your choices give. Each puzzle is checked to have several solutions before it is dealt; the solutions stay on your device until the round ends. Playing: students tap tiles and operations (or type: 1–8 for tiles, + − * / ( ) ^ r ! , Backspace, Enter) — the live value shows as they build — and Submit; they can submit again to improve before time runs out. Each student sees only their own answer; you see who has answered, never what. You can add +15 s or End round early. Scoring: hitting the target scores 10, plus up to 20 for complexity (more different operations, more steps, ×/÷, brackets that matter, advanced operations, more tiles — trivial moves like ×1 don’t count), +5 for a way nobody else found, and up to +3 for speed; a near miss within 4 scores 1–4 with no bonuses. After each round every screen shows the leaderboard with each student’s points broken down, and the ways the class found (if nobody hit it, a way is revealed); Show another way reveals more. At the end the final standings, podium and round-by-round chart stay up until you Dismiss them; Play again, New game and Add result to board (a picture of the standings) are there too. Without a live session you can play on your own. Only your device deals puzzles and scores answers, so a late, repeated or tampered answer is simply refused.
Puzzles from Puzzle SolversOn puzzlesolvers.netlify.app, the Sudoku, Killer Sudoku, Calcudoku, Futoshiki, Kakuro, Hitori, Nurikabe, Pearl Path (Masyu), Number Snake and Magic Sum games have a ✏️ Send to Slate button beside Send to Solver. It opens the puzzle in Slate on a fresh whiteboard (or the one you are on, if it is empty): the grid, cages, clues and given numbers, drawn crisply with the puzzle’s rule written above it. The puzzle is locked, so it never moves and the eraser never touches it — the pen is ready in blue, so your working stands apart from the printed numbers; write candidates, circle, highlight and erase as on any board. It saves, prints and exports with the lesson. If Slate is already open — say you are teaching a live session — the puzzle goes to that tab as a new board, your class sees it straight away, and the extra tab tells you it can be closed. Only the puzzle is sent, never the answer or anything you had filled in, and it travels in the link itself (nothing goes to a server). For each student to solve their own copy, put a Spot Question region over it. Hex Number Snake is not drawn in Slate.
Still live?Once a session starts the panel tucks itself away and the Collab button beats with a green pulse for as long as you are connected — amber while a student’s link is reconnecting. A number on the button counts students waiting to be let in and questions waiting for you; tap it to open the panel.
Part of the Slate guide — or read the whole guide on one page.