An Easy Way To Add Urgency + Focus: Explode Something

There's nothing like a deadline to focus our attention.  How many of us have become incredibly efficient at 3:00am, the night before a paper was due in our college English class? How many athletes have pushed themselves beyond what they thought possible in the last seconds of a close game?

You can create 'mini-deadlines' in your class for students that will help them focus and work efficiently for small bursts -- just use a timer.  This is an excellent way to set clear boundaries around many classroom tasks -- transitions, journal writes, group work, etc.

Why go electronic?  After all, teachers have used egg timers and stopwatches effectively to organize time in their classroom for years.  But the advantage of a timer on your computer is that you can project it large enough so all students can see it and know exactly where they stand.  They can monitor their own progress.

You can use any of the 3 SMART Notebook timers that are already on your computer.

The Firecracker:  I dare you to time yourself with this tool; this one definitely creates a sense of urgency, even though it's only a digital explosion.  You type in the number of seconds you want the fuse to burn, and then touch the end of the fuse.  It will burn and shrink until the time is up, and then the whole firecracker explodes....boom!  Use this for tasks that students have to complete quickly, but which don't require a lot of thinking (like switching seats, getting materials out, getting into groups).

The Standard Timer ("Timer 2"): This one is simple: set it, start it, and watch it count down.  When it finishes, it beeps.  No frills. 

The Deluxe Timer ("Timer 1"): With this timer, you can count up or count down, and you can choose different actions for when the time runs out -- like jumping to another Notebook page, or setting off an alarm.

How to get them:  Go to your Gallery Tab in Notebook, and search for "firecracker," for the firecracker, or "timer" for the standard timers. You'll find them under Interactive and Multimedia.  Just drag them to your Notebook page.  Here is a Notebook file that has them already embedded for you.

Don't want to use Notebook?  Here's another option:  You can also try using an online timer, like one of the varieties available at Online Stopwatch.  Just go to the site, choose the style of timer you'd like, set your time, and then click to show it full-screen.




Special thanks to Kate Salter, for highlighting the importance and usefulness of these tools!  Her excellent work with teachers at our school is what prompted this entry.