Classroom Timer: run your lesson, phase by phase
Run your lesson, phase by phase.
A good chess lesson has a shape. It moves through recalling what was covered last time, learning something new, playing to put it into practice, and wrapping up before the class ends. Classroom Timer takes that shape out of a coach's head and puts it on the screen, so the whole room can see exactly where the lesson is and what comes next.
You build a class flow of recall, learning time, playing time and wrap-up, then run it live with a big projector-friendly timer your students can follow. Instead of a coach mentally tracking the clock while also teaching, the timer carries that load, counting down each phase and moving the class forward with it.
Classroom Timer is part of ByteChess, a set of classroom mini apps built for chess coaches and academy owners. It needs no student accounts, works offline once your flow is built, and is designed to be read clearly from across the room.
What is Classroom Timer
Classroom Timer is a lesson flow builder paired with a live countdown display. Rather than a single generic timer, it lets a coach lay out a class as a sequence of phases, each with its own name and length, and then run through that sequence live during the lesson instead of guessing when to move on.
The four phases most coaches start with are recall, learning time, playing time and wrap-up, matching how a typical chess lesson is actually structured. Each phase gets its own block of time, and the big display counts down clearly enough for students to track it themselves without needing the coach to announce every transition.
Because the flow lives on the coach's own dashboard, it is not a one-off setup either. A flow built for a Tuesday beginner batch can look completely different from one built for a Saturday tournament squad, and both stay saved and ready to run whenever that class meets again.
Where Classroom Timer shines in a live class
Coaches turn to the timer anywhere a lesson needs a clear sense of pace and phase.
- Standard weekly lessons: run the same recall, learning, playing, wrap-up flow every session
- Tournament prep sessions: give more playing time and less lecture time when that is the priority
- New batches: keep a visible structure while students are still learning how class is run
- Substitute coaches: hand off a lesson with the flow already built and ready to run
- Longer sessions: break an extended class into clear phases so energy does not flatten halfway through
Why coaches love it
Timing a lesson well is harder than it sounds. Without a visible countdown, phases quietly run long, playing time eats into wrap-up, and a lesson that felt well planned on paper ends up rushed at the end. A live, visible timer keeps every phase honest, including the coach's own sense of how long they have been talking.
It also changes how students experience the pace of a class. A countdown on the screen gives them a reason to focus during learning time and a reason to make the most of playing time, because they can see exactly how much of it is left. That visible structure does more to manage energy than a coach repeating how much time is remaining.
Building the flow once and reusing it removes almost all the live overhead. A coach sets up recall, learning time, playing time and wrap-up as their own class flow, and from then on running a lesson is a matter of starting the timer and teaching, not juggling a stopwatch on the side.
It also makes it much easier to protect the parts of a lesson that matter most. If playing time keeps getting squeezed out by a long explanation, giving it a visible, defended block on the timer is a simple way to make sure it actually happens every week.
How to use Classroom Timer
Open Classroom Timer
Launch the tool from your ByteChess mini apps dashboard while planning your next lesson.
Build your class flow
Add phases such as recall, learning time, playing time and wrap-up, and set a length for each one.
Adjust the flow to fit the lesson
Lengthen or shorten a phase depending on what this particular class needs more or less of.
Start the timer on the projector
Run your flow live on a big, projector-friendly display so the whole class can follow along.
Let the class move through each phase
Teach as normal while the timer counts down and moves the class from one phase to the next.
Reuse the flow next time
Keep your class flow ready to run again, adjusting phase lengths whenever the lesson calls for it.
Frequently asked questions
Does Classroom Timer need student accounts?
No. Students never log in or need an account. You build and run the class flow from the coach's screen, and students simply follow the display.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Classroom Timer is offline-first, so once your class flow is built it keeps running even if your venue's internet connection drops mid-class.
Is Classroom Timer free?
Classroom Timer is included with every ByteChess mini app for $9 per month, with a 7 day free trial. There is no separate charge for individual tools.
Can I use it on a projector?
Yes. The timer is built to run on a big, projector-friendly display so phases and the countdown stay readable from across the room.
Can I customize the phases?
Yes. Recall, learning time, playing time and wrap-up are a starting point, and you can rename phases or change their length to match how you actually run a lesson.
Can I reuse a class flow I have already built?
Yes. Once you have built your own class flow, it stays ready to run again, so you are not rebuilding your lesson structure from scratch every week.
Ready to try Classroom Timer in your next class?
Part of every ByteChess plan for $9 a month, with a 7 day free trial.
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