Cool Timer
17 07 2006Last year I was working in a school where pace in the lesson was an issue, so we thoughty getting a timer that could be projected onto the whiteboad and then play an alarm when the time was up. We both hunted around and couldnt find anything free, there was a nice flash timer within SMART notebook but that was no good as they school didn’t have any SMARTboards.
At last months subject leader update in Shropshire John Holmes from Rhyn Park school mentioned ‘Cool Timer‘ which was a free countdown timer that he had used to keep the pace in his lessons.
It has taken me to this morning to download it and try it myself, having done so I would recommend it to everyone who would like to keep track on the various actvities that are going on in their lessons.
I have used the cool timer extensively over the past few weeks - many thanks to John for suggesting it!!!
I heartily recommend you spend 1/2 hr or so googling for comedy WAV sounds - I downloaded a stack of Tex Avery ones - and use these instead of the default klaxon sound.
This means the kids really take notice of the timer. They WANT to have a time limit for each activity and this has increased productivity and sharpened up my lesson planning. All because they can’t wait to find out what whacky sound the timer will make when the deadline arrives!
Thanks for the comment Jude - have you got the website you found teh sounds on so that I don’t have to waste any time googling????
Great Timer!!
Always looking for items like this for teachers to improve the pace of their lessons. Easiteach from RM has some nice timers but of course they are not free