I'm Ryan Kent, a middle school art and science teacher. Like every teacher, I've spent more of my day than I'd like saying "OK, let's bring the volume down please." I wanted something that let my students see the noise level for themselves, without me stopping the lesson or posting a timer that takes over the whole screen. Nothing I found worked the way a real classroom works, so I built ChatterBox.

ChatterBox is a free Chrome extension that adds a small noise meter to the edge of whatever you're already projecting: your slides, a video, a Google Doc. It listens to the room and shows the volume as it rises and falls. Green means good, yellow means getting loud, red means it's time to reset. Your students can see it, and you don't have to say a word.