Resources for Educators

Teaching Tip

From the Teacher’s Aide Newsletter

2014 April

Countdown for Activities

One of the distracting parts of classroom activities is calling out the time left before the learners need to complete their tasks (e.g., “You have 5 minutes left,” “30 seconds left to finish.”). Instead, consider using a countdown timer that is projected onto a screen. It’s handy for learners to look up whenever they want and see exactly how much time is left, instead of looking at their watches or phones, or waiting to hear you announce the time left.

Go to the Google search bar and type in “set timer” followed by an amount of time (e.g., “set timer 3 minutes”). A timer is displayed and an alarm beeps when the time is up. There are other online timers, such as Online Timer and Teachit Timer (which also offers a choice of alarm sounds).