If it beeps, we discuss time management when taking such a break. During this time, we all, teacher included, stop working for a while and just visit. It s a judgment call as to when to use this strategy. If the students all seem rather out of sorts or if they just had a fire drill or there s some other situation that they all seem to want to talk about, take a vacation. We sometimes just share about our lives outside of school.
Students like to hear about their teacher s family, college days, hobbies, etc.
However, use the timer to get back to task. I ve found it to be detrimental to use timers and stop watches when you want children to be creative . It tends to stifle their creativity and they get so caught up in the time crunch that quality of work can suffer. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. You cannot sell this information.