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Don’t Wake Sensei is a free classroom noise monitor that works like a game. Put it on your board, and Sensei meditates in his dojo while the room stays calm. Keep the noise under the quiet line and the whole class earns karate belts together, from white to black. Get too loud and Sensei wakes up with a gentle gong.
SaveFree printable
Free Calm Breathing Cards
6 picture breathing cards (smell the flower, bumblebee breath, snake breath and more) for your calm corner. Teach one a day.
Free download. You will also get a couple of follow-up emails with classroom ideas. Unsubscribe anytime.
How it works
- Open it on your board or laptop. It runs in the browser, so there is nothing to install.
- Set the quiet line. Slide it to suit your room, or let the dojo listen for a few seconds and set itself.
- Earn belts together. Every two minutes the class stays under the line, they move up a belt. You choose the time.
- A gentle reset. If the room stays loud for a few seconds, Sensei wakes and belt progress resets. No buzzers, no shouting.
- Optional focus timer. Add a 5 to 30 minute countdown for independent work.
Made for real classrooms
- Works for K to 5th grade, and older classes love the black belt night dojo.
- The microphone only senses noise level. Nothing is recorded, saved or sent anywhere.
- Once it has loaded, it keeps working if the wifi drops.
- Free to use with your class, every day.
I built Sensei for my own classroom because I wanted a calm way to bring the volume down without being the one doing the shushing. Children get invested in earning the next belt surprisingly fast.
Questions teachers ask
Is Don’t Wake Sensei really free?
Yes. Sign up with your email and you get the link for free. There is nothing to pay and nothing to install.
Does it record my class?
No. It uses the microphone only to measure how loud the room is, the same way a noise meter does. No sound is saved or sent anywhere.
What devices does it work on?
Any laptop, Chromebook or interactive whiteboard computer with a modern browser and a microphone. It also works on tablets.
Can I change how strict it is?
Yes. You can move the quiet line, change the microphone sensitivity, set how long it takes to earn a belt and choose how forgiving it is with short bursts of noise.