I have a confession to make, sometimes I struggle to keep track of time in my classroom or during a PD Session. The classroom clock just does not get it done for me and my students on some days.
A few years ago, someone showed me how to embed a timer in a Google Slide presentation. This has become a staple in my classroom. I now embed a YouTube Video in the corner of the objective slide or with instructions for student centered work when I know that I want a visible countdown. There are several huge advantages that go along with helping me keep track of the time.
Students like to know when an activity should be finished. This helps them stay on pace.
Students who often finish early have a tendency to continue working/exploring when the timer is on the screen. If a student is absent and I share the slide deck with them, they have an idea how long they should explore different activities and concepts.
Here is a quick overview of process to set up a timer in a deck. This document also has additional details. Create a slide presentation or open an existing presentation.Add or update your content.Choose the slide that will display the timer. (Typically for me, this is my objectives or instructions for the activity.) Open the “Insert Menu” and click on Video.If you have preselected a YouTube countdown timer, you can paste the url. I typically just use the search feature and search for a countdown timer with the length of time to find one that works. Highlight the one you want and click “Select”. Some of these will have animations and sound. You can choose to turn off the sound in the video settings once it is inserted in the slide deck.
Resize the YouTube video and drag to an open location on the slide and you are ready to go.
If you right click on the video you can open up the options for the video. I typically use the mute option because I don’t typically want the sound. Its easier for me to do this when I create the deck then it is to deal with when presenting.
When you want to start the timer, just start the presentation and click on the play button in presentation when you reach the slide with the timer.
You can put in any length of a timer and then drag it to the start time you desire if you are using different countdowns during a class. Click here to explore a few sample timer slides.
If you are looking for more details, this document has additional details and links to some sample agenda slides with countdown timers.
If you are looking for additional options for timers and clocks, please explore this post.
