Good Day · app.gooddayconsole.com

Everything you need, and nothing you don't

Start with the first page. Ignore the rest until you want it.

1 · Your first five minutes

One thing to do today. The rest can wait until October.

Open app.gooddayconsole.com. You'll see a sample day already in place so nothing is blank.

1. Put your name on it. Tap the pencil next to the title at the top, and type your name and grade.
2. Make the schedule yours. In Today's schedule, tap a block's name to change its title, start time and length. Tap + Add for a new one, and ⋯ → Edit → Delete for one you don't need.
3. Start your first block. Tap Start. That's the whole tool.

2 · The daily loop

Dashboard → Start a block → Timer → Log an interruption → Stop → Rate it → Next block.

This is the spine of the whole app. Five taps carry a whole day.

Start a block

Each row in Today's schedule has a Start button. The block you're most likely to want next is the green one. Tap it and the timer begins.

If that block has slides — or you've set a daily deck — Start takes you straight into Present mode. You can turn that off in Settings → Auto-open slides on Start.

The timer

The countdown runs to when the block was planned to end — its start time plus its length. A 45-minute Math lesson starting at 8:30 counts down to 9:15, whatever time you actually pressed Start.

If you've left a gap after it, that gap stays a gap. The countdown won't reach into it, because the fifteen minutes between Math and Reading Groups is a transition, not extra Math. And it never runs past the start of the next thing, so a block can't count into something that's already due.

While a block runs, a bar across the top of every screen keeps the countdown, the time it ends, and what's coming next in front of you — along with Pause, +Time, Present, Next and Stop.

Log an interruption

Six chips sit under the countdown: Behavior · Question · Tech · Colleague · Bathroom · Other. One tap logs it and flashes green. That's a one-second job, which is the point — you can do it while still talking.

If you want to say more, 📝 Note asks for the kind first, then lets you type a line and add tags. In Present mode the number keys 1–6 do the same as the chips.

Stop, and say how it went

Tap Stop and you get one question: How did it go? Tap a number from 1 to 5 and Save. That's the whole thing — about two seconds.

• More details… adds energy, stress, a note, something a student said, and tags.
• Skip closes the block without rating it.
• Resume block puts you back — for when Stop was a mistake.
• Keys: 1–5 to rate, Enter to save, Esc to skip.

Next block

Use Next ▸ in the top bar to rate the block you're finishing and roll straight into the following one. Good Day asks Start Math Lesson? before it begins — Enter for yes, Esc for not yet.

Running over

Running past a planned time is ordinary classroom life, and Good Day treats it that way. The card turns gold, never red, and tells you plainly how far past you are — 3:09 over — rather than flashing an alarm at you. The block still saves exactly as normal when you stop it.

If the day is drifting, Good Day may offer to trim an upcoming block by the minutes you're behind. Take it or dismiss it.

3 · Setting up your class

Twenty minutes on a quiet afternoon, once.

Everything here lives behind the ☰ menu at the top right, which lists every single thing the app can do with a line explaining each one. Tap the ☆ beside anything to keep it on your dashboard.

Roster

☰ → Manage the roster. Add children one at a time with an optional birthday and colour, or tap Bulk Import and paste your whole class one name per line. There's a CSV upload too.

Birthdays show up as a greeting on the dashboard on the day.

More than one class

☰ → Switch or add a class. Each class keeps its own roster, jobs, teams and groups. The active class is what the spinner, the groups maker, jobs and the scoreboard all use. You can also set a block to switch class automatically when it starts, in that block's editor.

Jobs

☰ → Assign classroom jobs. Thirteen jobs come ready to go — Line Leader, Door Holder, Paper Passer and so on. Pick a child for each, add your own, delete what you don't use. Anyone marked absent is skipped.

Rules

☰ → Edit the rules to word them and pick a colour each. ☰ → Show the class rules (or R in Present mode) puts them up big on the projector.

The schedule, and templates

On the dashboard, tap a block's name to change its title, start time and length right there. The ⋯ button gives you Skip, Restart and the full editor, where you'll find:

• Timed — untimed blocks (lunch, specials) get a tick-off circle instead of a timer.
• Anchored — a locked time that catch-up suggestions will never move.
• A slides link, a start slide number, a class, tags, a colour, and notes that appear in sub plans.

Good Day flags gaps in your day (+ 15 min unscheduled at 8:15 AM) and warns you if two blocks overlap.

☰ → Save a schedule template lets you save today as your Monday (or any weekday) so it loads itself on future Mondays, or as a named template for special days. It'll also copy yesterday or duplicate last week.

Holidays

☰ → Mark holidays & days off. Anything within a fortnight shows as a countdown on the dashboard, and the day itself gets a banner.

Building another day

The ← and → arrows beside the date move you to any other day, where you can build the schedule ahead of time. Today brings you back.

4 · Teaching a lesson

Present mode, and the small things that live around it.

Daily slides

Paste one link into Daily Slides on the dashboard and every block without its own deck uses it. One big deck for the whole day is the easiest way to run this.

A block can also have its own link, or a start slide number so it jumps to the right page of the daily deck and remembers its place separately.

Present mode

▶ Present goes fullscreen. Along the top is every block in your day — tap one to switch to it, and to start its timer.

• The timer panel shows the countdown, and an analog clock face with the time the block ends — useful if your class is learning to tell the time. It tucks away until you point at it, and opens by itself in the last few minutes.
• ⤢ moves it: four corners, or a bar across the top or bottom. There's an opacity slider for bright rooms.
• ⧉ Pop out timer floats the countdown above other windows, for when you leave the app entirely.
• 🔗 opens another deck, a saved web link, or any address, over the top of your slide. Save the sites you use often and they're one tap away.
• Space pauses, R shows the rules, W opens the widgets, Esc closes whatever's on top.

Hiding the screen

Press P anywhere in the app — or tap Hide screen in Present mode — and the whole screen is covered instantly. It says so, so a covered screen never looks like a broken one.

Press P again, press Esc, or click anywhere to bring it back.

This covers your laptop too. If your board mirrors your screen — which is how most rooms are set up — the laptop is the board, so there's nothing else it could do. Think of P as "everyone look away" rather than a way to read something privately.

For the times you do need to write something the room shouldn't see, that's already handled: the rating screen after a block is covered on its own, and 📝 Note in Present mode takes your note on a covered screen.

Transition timers

☰ → Start a transition timer. A short countdown for lining up, cleaning up or switching — 30 seconds, 1 minute, 90 seconds, 2 minutes, or your own. It runs alongside the block timer without disturbing it, and chimes at the end.

Quick tools

Fold open Quick tools on the dashboard for a standalone countdown (1–20 minutes) and seven widgets:

• 🎡 Spin — a name wheel that won't pick the same child twice until everyone's had a turn, and skips anyone absent.
• 👥 Groups — split the class into 2–6 random groups.
• 🎤 Noise — a noise meter using the laptop mic, reading Whisper / Quiet / Talking / Too loud. It only listens while the widget is open.
• 🪙 Flip, 🎨 Color, 🎲 Dice, 🔢 Number — the everyday decision-makers.

Soundboard underneath has chimes and effects for attention-getters.

5 · Points and groups

Rewards the room can see.

Class points

The green 🎉 button sits in the corner of every screen. Click for +1 and a chime. Right-click takes one back. Press and hold for a second to reset the day, with a confirmation.

Points are counted per day, and every one shows up in that day's recap with the block it happened in.

Teams

☰ → Build your teams. Name them yourself, or take the offered Tables 1–4 and adjust. Add children to each — it'll tell you who isn't on a team yet.

☰ → Show the team scoreboard puts the week up on the projector in big colour. Tap a team to give a point, tap − to take one back. Totals cover Monday to Friday.

Centers and stations

☰ → Set up groups & stations. Make your groups, then the stations they move through. A station can be:

• Rotating — takes a different group each turn.
• Pinned — always hosts the same group, which is what you want for your own table.

Pick how many minutes each rotation lasts and tap Start Rotations. A board appears showing which group is where, with a countdown and the clock time of the next switch. It advances by itself and chimes each time. Pause, +2 min, Next and End are all there, and it runs happily inside a normal block timer.

You need at least one group with children in it before it will start.

6 · Recording the day

All of it optional. All of it two taps.

Attendance

Tap the Attendance chip and tap whoever's out. Their name goes red, and they're skipped by the name spinner, jobs and rotations. All present clears it.

Checklists

Morning and End of day chips open your own checklists — ten and six starter items are already there. Tap Edit to make them yours. They clear themselves overnight.

Announcements

The Announcements line at the top of the dashboard holds one note for the day — Picture day is Thursday. It belongs to that date, so it goes away on its own.

Student notes

☰ → Log a student note. Pick a child, type a line, Add. It's timestamped, kept with that day, and appears in the recap and in sub plans.

Journal

☰ → Write in the journal. You get one reflection prompt at a time — 🔀 New prompt shuffles, 🎤 Dictate takes it by voice. Save as many as you like. It's yours; nobody else sees it.

7 · Looking back

Three views, in increasing order of how much time you have.

Day recap

☰ → Recap today. The whole day on a page: how many blocks, minutes taught, points given, interruptions, average rating; who was out; every block with when it ran and how it compared to plan; your notes; and a version written for a newsletter that you can copy straight out.

Week

☰ → Review the week. Monday to Friday side by side, with arrows to earlier weeks. 📋 Copy for AI copies the week as text you can paste into a chatbot if you'd like a second opinion on your patterns.

Data

☰ → Dig into the data. Totals and averages, plus CSV and a full JSON backup. Worth doing once a term — Settings → Data has the same buttons.

8 · When you're out

The thing you'll be most glad of at 6am on a sick day.

☰ → Build sub plans turns the day into a page a substitute can actually work from: who's out, the full schedule with your notes and slide links, your rules, the job list, the roster, and any notes on individual children.

• 🖨 Print / Save as PDF — paper, or a PDF through your browser's print dialog.
• ⬇ Download as HTML — one self-contained file to attach to an email. It opens on any computer with no app and no internet.
• 📋 Copy for email — plain text for the body of a message.

9 · Signing in — optional

You never have to. Really.

Every feature in this guide works signed out, offline, forever. There is no account to make, nothing expires, and nothing is held back.

Signing in with Google adds exactly one thing: your stuff appears on your other devices. If you use a laptop at school and a tablet at home, that's what it's for. If you use one laptop, you can ignore the Sign In button all year.

What syncs when you're signed in:

• Settings — your name, grade, chime and reminder choices.
• Roster — students, classes, teams and center groups.
• Classroom setup — jobs, rules, holidays, both checklists, and your schedule templates.
• Each day's record — the schedule, block logs, interruptions, attendance, notes, journal, class and team points, checklist ticks, the day's slides link and announcement.

A few things stay on the device you set them on either way, because they're about that screen rather than about you: where the Present timer sits and how faded it is, your saved web links, and which shortcuts you've pinned to the dashboard.

10 · Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? anywhere to see this list inside the app.

11 · Installing it, and working offline

So there's no address to type each morning.

Good Day can install itself as an app on your laptop or tablet. It then opens in its own window with no browser bar around it.

• A blue Install banner appears on the dashboard when your browser supports it.
• Or ☰ → Install Good Day as an app, at the bottom of the menu.
• Or Settings → Install. On Safari it's Add to Home Screen; on others look for an install icon in the address bar.

It works with no internet either way. The whole app is stored on your device. If the school wifi drops mid-lesson the timer keeps running, points keep counting and everything keeps saving. The only part that needs a connection is Google Slides loading inside Present mode, since those live on Google's servers.

12 · If something looks odd

Short list. You'll probably never need it.

• A slide area is blank. The deck needs to be shared as Anyone with the link in Google Slides. Some websites also refuse to open inside another page — there's an Open in a tab ↗ button for those.
• The countdown is shorter than the block's length. You started late, and the timer watches the clock rather than the moment you pressed Start — so the rest of the day stays where it is. The "ends" time in the top bar is always the moment it's aiming at.
• A block was still running when the app closed. Good Day offers to resume it when you come back, with how long it's been going. Resume or discard — either keeps the day honest.
• You want today's logs gone. Settings → Reset Today clears today's logs, points, notes and attendance, and leaves your schedule and setup alone.
• You want to start over completely. Settings → Factory Reset. It asks you to type RESET first, because it doesn't come back.
• Something's wrong or missing. The 💬 Got feedback? bar at the bottom of the dashboard logs it, so you don't have to remember it until the end of the day.

Good Day exists to help you survive a chaotic classroom day — not to be another thing to keep up with. If you only ever tap Start and Stop, it's doing its job.

Have a good first day.