A classroom timer has one job: let a whole room see how much time is left without anyone having to ask. This one is built for a projector, an interactive whiteboard or a shared tablet.
What makes this timer suitable for a classroom
- A shrinking disk. Many classroom timers show a coloured wedge that gets smaller as time passes. Pupils who find digits harder to judge can see at a glance how much of the time has gone. Switch between Disk, Ring and Digits under the timer.
- Large full-screen display. Press Full screen and the disk fills the board. Press Esc or the Exit button to come back.
- Warnings. At two minutes left the display turns amber with a message; at thirty seconds it turns red. Pupils get a chance to finish without a surprise.
- A clear end sound. Choose from beep, chime, bell, arcade, digital or gentle. Press Test sound while the room is quiet to check the volume through your speakers.
- No account and no installation. Open the page and press Start. Nothing is recorded about your class, and the page does not need any pupil information.
- Links per activity. The share link under More options opens the exact timer you have set, ready to start. Put it on a class page or a lesson slide.
Tips for using a timer in lessons
- Say what "done" looks like before you start the clock, so the time is about the task and not about working out what to do.
- Use shorter times than you think. It is easy to extend a task by a minute; it is hard to recover from one that was far too long.
- Pair with a routine. A tidy-up timer works best when pupils know what is expected in those five minutes.
- Let pupils run it. Giving a timekeeper role to a pupil, with the screen visible, builds ownership of the pace.
- Check the sound beforehand. Some classroom computers mute audio by default or have the speakers off.
Using it on a projector or interactive whiteboard
Open this page in a browser on the classroom computer and keep the tab open. If the computer goes to sleep, the timer cannot ring, so turn off screen sleep or tick Keep screen on under More options. School networks sometimes block audio or fullscreen; test it before the lesson. Where fullscreen is blocked, the page falls back to a full-window view.
For specific lengths, see the 3 minute, 5 minute, 10 minute and 20 minute timers. For tests, use the exam timer.
Activity ideas and suggested times
| Activity | Try | Why a visible timer helps |
|---|---|---|
| Starter or retrieval quiz | 3 minutes | Pupils know the clock is running as soon as they sit down |
| Think-pair-share | 2 minutes | Both partners can see how long they each have |
| Silent reading | 10 minutes | No need for the teacher to watch the clock |
| Group task | 15 minutes | The warnings give groups a chance to wrap up |
| Tidy-up and pack-away | 5 minutes | A countdown replaces repeated reminders |
| Transitions between activities | 1 minute | Makes the expected speed of the change clear |
Each link opens this timer already running, with a label shown above the digits. Bookmark the ones you use, or save them as links on a class page.