Chromebook Prank Guide for Teachers

You spend a lot of time at school. Why not have a little fun! Here are 5 tricks and funny things that you can do with your students, staff, or administrator. Most of them will require briefly accessing someone's Chromebook (without them knowing). You can also make friends with your IT director and apply some of these tricks through the Google Admin Console.

1. Google Gravity

Google Gravity is a spoof Google homepage that “falls to pieces” as soon as you move the mouse. Ask your IT administrator to configure your students Chromebooks to automatically load the Google Gravity page any time students click the home button in Chrome.

Set up this prank by going to Chrome Settings > Appearance > and changing the default home page to the link below.

Google Gravity Link: http://mrdoob.com/projects/chromeexperiments/google-gravity/ 

2. Cenafy

Cenify and Surprise Cena are Chrome Extensions that will add excitement to someone’s life. When installed, a picture of pro wrestler JOHN CENA accompanied by his theme song will randomly appear on your screen. It only happens every few minutes making this an even better extension! This is a great prank to play on your principal. It will take them all day to figure out why JOHN CENA has taken over their computer!

Install Cenify and Surprise Cena from the Chrome Web Store.

Bonus: head over to the Chrome web store and read through the 500+ reviews for the Cenify extension. They are hilarious!

3. Fun with Wallpaper

The Google Admin Console has the ability to push out wall paper to the Chromebooks managed by your district. This provides all sorts of entertaining possibilities!

• Broken Screen - find an image of a shattered computer screen and push it out to all of your students. They will freak out when they think (for a second) that their screen has shattered!
• iPad - Install a wall paper on your Chromebooks that looks like an iPad home screen.
• Staff Watching - take a series of funny pictures featuring teachers and staff members and use them as student wallpaper. 

To push wall paper to your Chromebooks sign into the Google Admin Console and visit Device Management > Chrome >  User Settings > General

4.  NOPE

NOPE is a Chrome Extension that provides an instant exit. 

Click on the NOPE extension if you are stuck in a never ending conversation. NOPE will call your phone, giving you an instant out. Even better, when NOPE calls, you will receive an automated series of instructions that you act out (“place your hand to your mouth and gasp slightly”, say “Oh no, I’m sorry to hear that!”, etc). 

On April 1, you can fake all kinds of important phone conversations in front of your students or staff.  

You can install NOPE from the Chrome Webstore

5.  April 1 Prank Toolkit

This is my personal favorite. 

April First Prank Toolkit is another Chrome Extension. This one is super sneaky. You can install it at any time, but configure it so that it only works on April 1. Options include turning images upside down on websites, hiding the mouse cursor, making text blurry, or rendering everything in black and white. 

You can install the April 1 Prank Toolkit here.  

Got another fun prank? Leave me a comment!