Let’s be honest about one thing, education can be boring at times. While getting an education is a necessary and very beneficial part of life – it also can be tedious, time consuming and downright irritating. One big complaint about many classrooms is boredom. Lots of kids experience boredom at school and it can be a frustrating experience for them at times. One way that teachers can alleviate the monotony of every day learning is by including the use of timers.
Why Are Timers Needed in the Classroom?
Teachers often use timers as a means to control a classroom’s structure and movement. Students are usually given timers to transition between centers, areas or to remind them that they need to move on to the next task. The reality is that time can slip away from classrooms very easily. When this happens, it can cause the classroom to quickly to descend into chaos. It also helps to throw teachers off tasks and for academics to suffer. Many websites state that timers are the most important piece of equipment in the classroom. Timers won’t solve all classroom management issues, but they certainly help.
Traditional Timers for the Classroom Are Still Entertaining
Traditional timing devices such as the wind-up timers or a sand glass are still used in the modern classroom environment. In the old, old days before electricity and commercial mechanical devices, people used sand glasses of varying sizes to keep track of time. Then in the not so distant past (the early 20th century) Thomas Norman Hicks decided to create a wind-up clock and it worked. Wind-up clocks are used in a lot of American classrooms to keep teachers and students on task. Sand glasses are still around but teachers use them primarily as a fun alternative to keeping time. These nifty time keeping devices are often used to teach kids about how regular people kept time in the past.
Online Timers
The internet is a great tool and piece of equipment. Educators can log onto a website that features an online timer and pull up a wide variety of timing games. One type can mimic an explosion when time runs out. Another type can sing a sweet melody that kids want to hear. Another timer game could show rocket ships blasting out into outer space. Another timer can showcase animals making a bunch of different sounds. The point is that some websites have a wide variety of timers that provide a virtually unlimited selection of timer fun. There are many websites that provide fun classroom timers for educators to use their classroom.
Electronic Timers
Teachers now use electronic timers. They are usually digital and can be set to sound an alarm when time is used up for a task or project. Electronic timers come in a variety of sizes and they can also have different type of buzzards or bells. Children usually respond well to electronic timers. Especially, if they make an entertaining buzzing sound. Some teachers can even download ring tones of popular music on the more sophisticated electronic music timers. The electric timer is one of the best fun electric timers on the market.
