Classroom norms are important. They help students know what to expect, how to participate, and how to work together. But let's be honest: repeating the same expectations, rules, and procedures throughout the school year can sometimes feel a little…boring, and it can make you sound more like a parent than a teacher.

What if your classroom norms could be something students interact with, rather than simply rules posted on the wall or written in a hand-out? That's the potential of Makey Makey!

A Makey Makey project can transform your week of introducing nuts-and-bolts classroom routines into an interactive experience. Ditch telling students what to do; instead create opportunities for them to touch, choose, move, collaborate, respond, and reflect.

Here are five Makey Makey projects that can help spice up the introduction to your classroom norms and routines this school year.

#1 Exit Tickets: Useful Classroom Data For Everyone

An exit ticket is a classic teaching tactic: before students leave the classroom, they reflect on what they learned, what they understand, or what questions they still have. They quickly write their responses on a sticky note or card and then turn them in on the way out. If you're lucky, you have time for a quick look at the notes and then...recycled them all? What if you and your students could have fun with the collected data? 

Makey Makey can turn that otherwise mundane exercise into an activity students look forward to, and as their teacher, you can use it to improve your practice.

In the Makey Your Own Exit Ticket, Data Tracker, or Voting Machine project, students interact with Makey Makey inputs connected to a Scratch project. Each switch can represent a different response, such as:

• "I totally get it!"

• "I think I'm good."

• "I still have questions."

• "I need more practice."

The responses can then be counted and displayed as an information graphic. The original project was designed to help teachers collect informal feedback about student understanding and to track other kinds of classroom data.

How could we hack this into an exit ticket?

Think beyond academic reflection. You could create an interactive check-in for students such as:

How did today's group work go?

🟢 We worked really well together
🟡 We needed a few reminders
🔴 We need to try a different strategy

Or:

How ready are you for independent work?

🟢 I'm ready
🟡 I have a question
🔴 I need help getting started

The important part is consistency. Put the interactive exit ticket in the same location and use it as part of your regular classroom transitions. You can use a Scratch program, or use our Counter App and map the shapes to different questions. Share the data with your students the next day! A great tip is to create transparent pockets for each switch to hold the written answers. That way you can quickly swap out the question and the answers each day!

Over time, students learn that reflection isn't something that happens only to appease the teacher. It's part of how your classroom works. Because the data is collected digitally, you can use the responses to notice patterns and decide when your lesson needs a revision. Explore the Exit Ticket project  now!

#2 Classroom Expectations Poster: Turn “The Rules” Into an Experience

Most classrooms have some version of an expectations poster.

• Be kind.

• Be respectful.

• Listen to others.

• Take care of our tools.

• Participate.

These are important messages. But what if students could interact with them and move the learning opportunity up Bloom’s Taxonomy?

The Makey Makey Interactive Poster is a great example of how students or teachers can create posters that trigger sounds, images, or other digital content. The project combines physical computing with user interface design and gives students a chance to think about how someone interacts with their creation.

How could we hack this into a Norms Poster?

Instead of making a poster that simply says: "Be Respectful," create a slap switch that students can press to hear a short audio reminder and maybe even see a reinforcing image using the Interactive Poster App.

For example:

LISTEN

Touch the word and hear a student say: "When someone else is talking, I give them my full attention." At the same time, the digital poster shows an image of students listening to their teacher read a book.

COLLABORATE

Touch the word and hear: "I share ideas and make room for other people's ideas." And it displays an image of two students working together on a puzzle.

TAKE RISKS

Touch the word and hear: "It's okay if my first idea doesn't work. I can revise it." And it shows a GIF of Tony Stark in his shop. 

You could even have students create their own interactive expectations posters for a little extra student buy-in. This changes the nature of classroom norms. Students aren't just receiving rules from the teacher; they're designing an experience that communicates the kind of classroom community they want to co-create. Since the poster app can be updated, you can revisit your norms throughout the year.

At the beginning of the year, students might create the poster together. Later, they could redesign it based on what they've learned about working together.

That's a classroom norm becoming a living classroom artifact!

Explore the Interactive Poster project →

#3 Replace Your "Sticks of Doom" with the Makey Makey Dice App

Every teacher has a strategy for choosing who gets called on. Maybe it's a random name generator, or just the first hand you see. Maybe it's popsicle sticks with students' names on them…. We’ve heard those called "Sticks of Doom."

Random selection can be useful because it encourages students to stay engaged and makes participation feel more equitable. But the routine doesn't have to feel like a source of anxiety.

Try turning random selection into an interactive classroom practice with the Makey Makey Dice App.

Connect a Makey Makey to a big button or to any inventive switch from our How-To guides and to the SPACE pad on your Makey Makey. Now use it to trigger a digital dice roll. Have a lot of students? Not a problem; our Dice App lets you combine multiple dice into a single roll!

How could this hack the “sticks of doom”?

Use the dice as part of your participation routine.

For example:

1. Ask a question.

2. Give everyone some quiet time to think.

3. Students discuss their ideas with a partner.

4. Roll the dice to choose a student (with assigned numbers) or a group to share.

You can also use the randomizer for classroom jobs:

• Materials Manager

• Recorder

• Cleanup Crew

• Technology Helper

Use it when students are tasked with making a low-stakes choice. The key is to establish it as an invitation to participate – and a chance to create and use their own inventions in your classroom.

Even the responsibility for physically triggering the dice roll could be cast as a student job. Each day, a different student can be the "Dice Master" responsible for starting the selection process. A familiar classroom procedure becomes a tiny moment of invention and play.

Try the Makey Makey Dice App →

#4 Team Quiz With the Buzzer App: Visible Collaboration

Classroom norms aren't only about individual behavior. Some of the most important norms are concerned with how students work together in teams.

A team quiz similar to the TV gameshow "Family Feud" is a great place to practice these skills. The Makey Makey Buzzer App turns a Makey Makey into a game-show-style buzz-in system. Students can build their own physical buzzers, and the app determines who buzzed in first.

Our documentation of this Makey Makey project includes several ways to build buzzers – including colorful foil buttons, hand-shaped cross switches, and sturdier cardboard stomp switches.

How could we hack a test review?

Instead of making the goal simply to buzz in with the "right answers," make the goal to practice good team participation. For example, establish a collaborative lifeline rule before the game begins: The person who buzzes buzzes in first doesn't instantly answer. They have 15 seconds to consult their team before giving the response on behalf of their team.

Now the buzzer isn't just a way to make content review more exciting. It's a tool for making collaboration visible and giving students a reason to practice good classroom habits while reviewing the content from their studies. Sooo much more fun than a pop quiz!

When students build their own buzzers, the activity includes an added layer of learning about circuits, conductivity, switches, and interaction design.

Explore the Buzzer App project →

#5 Warm-Up Timer: Give Students Ownership of the Start

The first few minutes of class can set the tone for everything that follows. But warm-up activities can easily turn mundane and come off as inauthentic. Students end up waiting around for the teacher and skip the activity altogether. 

A physical Makey Makey controller can make the beginning of class more interactive. The Makey Makey Timer App gives you a simple way to incorporate a timer into your routine.

How could this support classroom norms?

Create a physical "Start Class" button. When students enter the room, an assigned student has the job of starting the timer using an invented Makey Makey button (a great way to motivate your habitually tardy students). The timer becomes the signal that work time has begun.

You can build on this concept by using Scratch to display the required tasks to be completed in a given amount of time, or even choreograph a series of consecutive tasks to be accomplished over the course of several timed intervals. 

The bigger idea is that the timer isn't just counting down. It becomes a consistent cue that helps students transition from one activity to another while you're taking roll, prepping materials, or dealing with individual students.

That's exactly what a good classroom norm should accomplish: self managed students who are actively engaged in forming and enacting productive class routines!

Try the Makey Makey Timer App →

Create Classroom Norms That Students Can Own

Classroom norms work best when they become habits. But habits aren't created by putting a list of expectations on a wall and hoping students remember them. Students need opportunities to own the behaviors, reflect on them, and understand why they matter. Habits are what we do when nobody is looking; your students are no different!

That's what makes these Makey Makey projects especially useful. When students build and use their own tools in your classroom, they personally own the content and have invested in it, no matter the subject!

Have students design the switches. Create the signs. Record the audio. Choose the questions. Build the buzzers. Decide which classroom norms matter most to everyone (including you). When students are a part of the process of setting classroom routines, they become more than “teacher's rules.” They become part of a healthy classroom culture.

Ready to make your classroom norms more engaging? Pick one routine, grab a Makey Makey, and start inventing.