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Peabody TeachFor teachers and grown-ups

Train to the station timer

A free animated classroom timer: a train crossing the map to its station, and it pulls in at the platform exactly at zero. Any length, counting down or up, with the clock a small chip in the corner.

5:00

Keys: Space start or pause · R reset · ← → 30 seconds · 1 8 the presets · S next scene · U count up or down · C move or hide the clock · M sound · H hear the sound · F full screen

How to use it

  1. Press Start, or Space. The picture is the time: a train crossing the map to its station, and it pulls in at the platform exactly at zero.
  2. It opens at 5 minutes. Press a preset, or Custom to type a length such as 7:30; press U to count up to the time instead of down to zero.
  3. Press F to fill the screen, C to move or hide the clock chip, M for the sound and H to hear it first.

Ideas for class

  • Use it for lining up: the train arrives when the class should be at the door.
  • Put it on the board for the last five minutes of a lesson, so the end is an arrival.
  • Ask a child to say when the train is halfway: the map makes it easy to see.
  • Run it counting up while the track is laid sleeper by sleeper, for a build-up to something.
  • Use it with a class that finds an emptying picture hard: nothing here runs out, something turns up.

Related

Questions

Does the train really arrive on time?

It is at the platform the moment the clock reaches zero, because the whole picture is drawn from the time rather than from its own speed. Add thirty seconds mid-run and the train slides back to where that length puts it.

What does it do counting up?

It lays the track instead: fourteen sleepers go down one at a time, and the train pulls in when the last one is in place. That suits a job a class is working towards rather than one they are racing.

Will the train to the station timer keep the right time if I switch tabs?

Yes. The timer compares the clock when you pressed Start with the clock now, so a sleeping tab, a slow laptop or a dropped frame cannot make it drift, and the picture is drawn from the time rather than from its own speed.

Is it really free, and does it need an account?

Free, no account, no ads, and nothing about your class leaves the computer: the length, the picture and the direction live in the address after the # so you can bookmark or share them, and that part is never sent to us.

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