Random Student Picker

Why use a random name picker in class?

When the same hands go up every time, the rest of the room can drift off. Cold calling with a wheel keeps everyone ready, and nobody can say the teacher picks favorites. Put the class roster wheel on the projector or smartboard so students see the spin: the suspense does half the work of getting them to listen.

It’s made for teachers, tutors and anyone who runs a room: quiz questions, reading aloud, choosing who presents first, or handing out jobs.

How to use the random student picker

• Make a roster. Name the class, like “Period 3”, and paste or type one student per line. Keep as many rosters as you teach classes and switch between them.
• Mark who’s absent. Students marked absent leave today’s wheel but stay on the roster for next time.
• Spin. Press Spin, tap the wheel, or press Space. The student it lands on is called and leaves the wheel.
• Play in rounds. Keep spinning until everyone has had a turn. Then a new round puts the whole class back on the wheel.

Track answers, or just pick

With Track answers on, the pop-up asks Right or Wrong after each question. Results shows a scoreboard with every student’s right and wrong answers, which keeps adding up across lessons until you press Reset scores.

With it off, the wheel just picks students: press Done and spin again, and the button in Results is Start new round. Switch whenever you like; scores and who has been called are kept.

Is it fair?

Yes. Each spin uses your browser’s cryptographic random numbers, and every student on the wheel has the same chance. Once called, a student leaves the wheel, so everyone gets a turn before anyone repeats, and the quiet ones can’t be missed.

If a student isn’t ready, press Skip for now: they go back on the wheel and can come up again later in the round.

Student names stay private

Your rosters stay in this browser, on this device. With Pro, they save to your account and follow you between devices, from your laptop at home to the classroom computer. Student names are never sent to analytics, and rosters saved to your account are removed from the browser when you log out.

Ideas for class

• Review questions at the end of a lesson, with Track answers on.
• Who reads the next paragraph, or solves the next problem on the board.
• The order of presentations, or who goes first in a game.
• Classroom jobs for the week.

Need groups instead? The Random Team Generator splits the class into teams. For a quick class vote, try the Yes or No Wheel.