Online Stopwatch

I love the variety of cute timers and stopwatches at online-stopwatch.com. Since I use them during nearly every lesson, I thought I'd write a post about them.

When you first arrive at the website, you see this:

Click to enlarge

From here, you can use this tool to either count up or count down.

Stopwatch {Counting Up}

If you need a stopwatch, click the green arrow at the top of the screen. The display changes to this:

 

I always change the stopwatch to a full-screen display and put it on the Promethean board so that students can clearly see it.

To start, click the green button. It will turn to a blue "pause" button that you can click at any time. When paused, you can either continue timing to reset the stopwatch.

I use this when the class's investigation requires a stopwatch; we all just watch this screen together. We can also time how long it takes us to clean up and turn that into a competition to beat our record time. :)

Count Down

The other neat option about this site is the count down timer. If you go back to the home screen and click "count down," you see this display:

Click the numbers to set the time, click set," and then click "start." When the timer goes off, it rings, a bit like a telephone.

If you want to get a little cuter with your count downs, check out the table underneath the timer. It looks like this:

Click to enlarge

If you click on "Classroom Timers," you can see all of your options on one page. Here's what they look like:

You set them just like you set the "standard" timer on the front page, but these all do something different. For instance, the rocket ship on the candle has a long cord that is "lit" when you start the timer. The fire slowly inches its way toward the rocket as time counts down. When it reaches zero, the rocket launches into outer space and plays some fire works.

I'll put a timer on during an investigation {if I don't already have something I need to display on the Promethean} so that students are aware of how much time they have left to work. I find that when I use these timers, the students are extra aware of their time constraints because they love looking up at the picture to see the action.

If you wanted to be sure you could access these tools even without an Internet connection, online-stopwatch gives you the ability to download the timers directly to your computer. Learn more about that by clicking here. 

Random Team Selector

When I posted about Instant Classroom, I mentioned that it can generate random teams or groups for you. But if you're looking for a more mobile version, this iOS app might be just what you're looking for... It's called Random Team Selector.

It's made by the same company that made Random Name Selector, so the look and feel of this app is very similar to the name app.

Be aware that there are plenty of ads in this app, and they're a little annoying.

Two themes are free: the jungle theme that you see above, and a metal theme. You can unlock the other themes by upgrading, which also gets rid of the ads. I'm not interested in upgrading, so I didn't even check the price... sorry!

Here's the jungle theme in action:

Click the blue button to start the generation and the orange button to generate a new name

Here's the metal theme in action:

Divide students into 2, 4, or 8 groups

Key Features

• You can create as many groups as you want, and each group can have as many members as you want. You do have to type all the names in manually, though; there is no import feature.
• Names are displayed in random order and divided evening between the groups. For instance, Student A would go to Group 1, Student B would go to Group 2, Student C to Group 3, etc. 
• There's an alert that tells you when your students will not divide evenly into the groups, but you do have the option to press forward, anyway.  
• You have the ability to switch a name "off," which means that it will not be selected for any group.

Verdict: I like that this is a free app and that it does what it says it will do. If I didn't already have a random name selector that I liked, I would probably use this app in class. 

Random Name Selector app

I've talked before about tools to help you pick random students' names. {The first was Instant Classroom, and the second was Stick Pick.} Today's post will be about a free iOS app called Random Name Selector.

I haven't played with it for very long, so I don't know everything about it yet, but I wanted to be sure I offered a free iOS name-picking app {since Stick Pick costs a couple dollars}.

Be aware that there are plenty of ads in this app, and they're mildly annoying.

Two themes are free: the top hat and spotlight that you see above, and a jungle theme. You can unlock the other themes by upgrading, which also gets rid of the ads. I'm not interested in upgrading, so I didn't even check the price... sorry!

Here's the top hat and spotlight theme in action:

Click the blue question mark button to generate your first name

Click the orange arrow button to generate a new name

Here's the jungle theme in action:

Click the blue question mark button to generate your first name

Click the orange arrow button to generate a new name

 Key Features

• You can create as many groups as you want, and each group can have as many members as you want. You do have to type all the names in manually, though; there is no import feature.
• You can choose whether names can be repeated up to 3 times, or if they can only be picked once per rotation.
• You can switch names "off," which means they won't be picked. This would come in handy for absent students. 

Verdict: I like that this is a free app and that it does what it says it will do. If I didn't already have a random name selector that I liked, I would use this app in class.