Use an Online Stopwatch to Time Activities
Timing is key... right?
Sometimes students - and teachers - forget all about the time, though. It helps to have some kind of tool, like an egg timer, to tell everyone with finality, "Time's up!"
With the online stopwatch, you can do this in a new, hi-tech way.
I was looking for something similar to Online Stopwatch that I could embed into a power point presentation. The idea was that I'd lecture for a bit, tell the students to do a Think Pair Share, and have a three minute countdown on the screen to signal when time was up.
I finally stumbled on Online Stopwatch, and although it wasn't exactly what I was looking for... it's pretty cool.
The site basically consists of a flash movie that you can use as a stopwatch or a countdown clock. When it first opens up, you can choose which option you want to use.
I'm more interested in the countdown aspect, so we'll take a look at that. If you click the "Count Down" side of the flash movie, it'll bring up a keypad to enter in a time. Enter in a time (like 1:00), hit start, and then hit start again to watch it count down...
And when it's done, it beeps!
If you use a projecter in class, this could be great for timed activities. It'll project a full-size count down clock on the screen so that students know exactly how much time is left. You could also use the stop watch feature to time things - like a game maybe.
If you don't have a projecter, you could still use this with just a regular computer monitor. The full-size flash movie is pretty big - so it'd be easier for a student to see than a simple little egg timer.
There's nothing revolutionary about a stopwatch or an egg timer. But it's cool when you can project it on a big screen.
Add A Comment
Matt Skoss left this on February 28, 2008, 6:47 am
Fantastic resource, which gives teachers lots of creative ways to use students' performance as a way of generating interest, motivation etc in the classroom.
Would be good to have a downloadable version to reduce the reliance of being connected to the web.
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