TimerPlanClassroom timer
Classroom timer
0:00
Ends at —
Space starts and pauses · R resets · the display turns amber under a minute and red under ten seconds, so it reads across a room with the sound off
One thing a month worth timing
MonthlyOne thing a month worth measuring or capping with a clock — a payroll trap, a nap length, a meeting that never gets added up. Two sentences and the tool.
Try also
What makes a timer readable across a room?
The TimerPlan classroom timer is built for the back row: full-screen digits on a dark field, and a colour that changes before the sound does — amber under a minute, red under ten seconds. In a room with thirty people in it the alarm is usually the least useful part of a timer, because it competes with everything else happening; a colour change is read by everyone who happens to glance up, and ignored by nobody.
It runs on any screen the room can already see — an interactive whiteboard, a projector, a spare monitor — with no login, no install and no advertising in the full-screen view.
Because the countdown is worked out from the clock rather than counted in ticks, a browser left running on a school machine all morning is still exact in the afternoon, and switching tabs to show something else does not cost it a second.
Lengths that come up in a lesson, and what they are usually for:
| Length | Typical use |
|---|---|
| 30 seconds | Think-pair-share, first turn |
| 1 minute | Tidy-up, transition between activities |
| 2–3 minutes | Pair discussion with a question on the board |
| 5 minutes | Independent written task, starter or exit ticket |
| 10–15 minutes | Group work with a product at the end |
| 20 minutes | Reading, extended writing, carousel station |
The timer accepts anything typed as 5m, 90s or 5:30, and the address bar keeps it — so a
bookmark called “5 min task” opens this page already set, and adding &auto=1 starts it on opening,
which saves a click in front of a class.
For several timed stations in sequence, the rotation planner in time plans holds the whole carousel. For a cycle of work and rest, use the pomodoro timer. To end at a fixed moment — the bell, the end of a lesson — the countdown timer counts to a time of day instead, and the full screen clock is what to leave up between activities.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work on an interactive whiteboard or a projector?
Yes — it is an ordinary web page in full screen, so anything that shows a browser shows this. The full-screen view has no advertising, no chrome and no controls once it starts, which matters on a board where a stray tap can otherwise open something you did not intend. Pressing escape returns to the page.
Can it run without any sound?
That is what the colour thresholds are for. School machines are often muted at the system level or connected to a projector with no speakers, so a timer that depends on a chime is a timer nobody hears; amber at one minute and red at ten seconds carry the same information visually. If sound is available, the alarm sounds too — the two are not exclusive.
How long should group work get?
Short enough that the timer is the reason they start. For pair talk, thirty to sixty seconds is usually right and is the interval teachers most often set too long; for a written task, five to ten minutes with the timer visible produces noticeably more work than the same task untimed. The preset buttons here are weighted towards the short end for exactly that reason.
Can I set up a rotation of stations rather than one length?
The station rotation planner under time plans does that: named phases with their own lengths, in order, so a carousel of five stations is one plan rather than five separate timers. This page is deliberately the simple case — one length, one big display, nothing to configure in front of a class.
Will the screen go to sleep in the middle of a lesson?
Not while the timer is running. The page asks the browser to hold the display awake for as long as a countdown is going and lets go the moment it stops, which is what keeps a projector from dropping to a screensaver in the quiet minute before the end of a task.
How this works
Sources:
Small things that matter in a room
Colour before sound. Everyone sees amber; only some people hear a chime over thirty conversations.
Nothing on screen but the number. No advertising, no menus and no branding in the full-screen view — a board is a shared surface, not a page.
No account, ever. Nothing about a class needs to be typed into a site, so nothing here asks.