Tech Tip #45 My Screen is Sideways!!

tech tipsIn these 169 tech-centric situations, you get an overview of pedagogy—the tech topics most important to your teaching—as well as practical strategies to address most classroom tech situations, how to scaffold these to learning, and where they provide the subtext to daily tech-infused education.

Today’s tip: How to fix a tilted screen

Category: Problem-solving

Q: My screen is sideways 90 degrees. How do I fix that?

A: If you ever needed this, you’re going to bless me. I run a tech lab and there are always those pesky prodigies who want to outsmart me. They know if they push Ctrl+Alt+(down arrow), it’ll turn the screen upside down. The first time it happened, I was at a loss. That’s when a different pesky prodigy told me how to fix it:

Ctrl+Alt+(up arrow)

If you use Chromebooks, the following keyboard shortcut will rotate the screen 90 degrees:

Ctrl + Shift and Reload

Note: the keys must be pressed simultaneously.

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What’s your favorite tech tip in your classroom? Share it in the comments below.


Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

Author: Jacqui
Welcome to my virtual classroom. I've been a tech teacher for 15 years, but modern technology offers more to get my ideas across to students than at any time in my career. Drop in to my class wikis, classroom blog, our internet start pages. I'll answer your questions about how to teach tech, what to teach when, where the best virtual sites are. Need more--let's chat about issues of importance in tech ed. Want to see what I'm doing today? Click the gravatar and select the grade.

5 thoughts on “Tech Tip #45 My Screen is Sideways!!

  1. That’s a great tip, Jacqui. Thank you.
    Now I have a question for you. I know you have multiple screens, so it’s maybe not an issue for you. I wish to be able to view two different PDFs side by side on one screen to compare/edit. I’ve googled explanations but not been able to find a solution. I have a free Adobe reader. Is there a trick, or do I need to purchase the paid version? Thanks in advance.

    1. I have the free Adobe also and it doesn’t make it easy to show two side-by-side PDFs. You have to pull each into their own window and then resize.

      Easier is to open them in Chrome and drag each into their own window and then resize. Both are awkward, but I think do what you need.

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