Decide Now App

I found a cute app in The App Store that I wanted to share with you. It's called Decide Now.

Please ignore my gray chevron phone background.

The Decide Now app costs $0.99. I normally don't buy apps, but I got an iTunes gift card this summer when I upgraded my laptop, so I'm being a little bit more lenient about The App Store for now. :)

Anyway.

The description of the app shows that it was probably intended more for deciding where to eat or where to go on vacation, but I thought it could be fun to use it for educational purposes.

When you open the app, you'll see the pre-made decision wheels, and you can create your own. I chose that option, since none of the pre-made wheels were education-related.

I've been using Class Dojo with my littles, and they loooove it. But I've wondered: What is going to happen when the thrill of getting those Dojo points is just not enough anymore? I thought I'd probably have to add rewards for certain point levels sooner or later. And just as I suspected, I had a 1st grade friend ask something like, "so... What can we DO with the points? Do we get a prize at the end of the year or something?" Ugh.

I was thinking that maybe I could let the kid with the highest amount of Dojo points in each class spin the decision wheel at the end of the month.

I added as many free rewards as I could think of {although I'm going to hit up Google and Pinterest to find some more options as soon as I'm finished writing this post}, and then I added rewards that won't cost me much at all -- a fun, new pencil, the opportunity to draw with my "special pens" for one class period, etc.

You can change the color of your wheel to match your preferences:

Click "save" to have the app construct the wheel for you:

I have a "magic wand" {i.e. folded metal stick} that I bang against the table when I need to get attention. The kids are ALWAYS asking to wave it, so I threw that in as a reward.

The student can click on the green center button to spin the wheel. The wheels spins with some sound effects and highlights the option it lands on, so it's easy to tell which prize is selected.

There is an option to share via e-mail and Twitter,

but I honestly think it's not even worth your time. When I tested it by e-mailing to myself, all I saw was a picture of the reward wheel with the caption, "I'm about to spin the wheel!" {I thought that maybe I could embed the decision wheel into an e-mail or a blog post, so I'm bummed to report that that is NOT the case.}

That's it.

The app isn't anything particularly fancy, but for $0.99, you might have one other fun tool for your classroom.

Here are my ideas for use:

• Dojo Points: highest point person gets to spend for a reward
• Mystery Walker: use it to pick a kid to watch while your class is walking in the hallway. If that student is well-behaved, he/she gets something special {or you can make it a whole class reward}. 
• Mystery Student: use it to pick a kid to watch while your students are working independently. If the student is well-behaved, he/she gets something special {or you can make it a whole class reward}.
• Brain Breaks: list potential Brain Breaks and let the wheel decide which one you do.
• Random Student Picker: insert student names and spin the wheel when you need to pick a student randomly. 
• Buddy Picker: Spin the wheel in pairs of two to pick partners. 
• Math Station: Create a wheel with a variety of numbers. The student must spin the wheel to get the first number of the math problem. If you're working on addition, the student can automatically write a plus sign. If you're working on subtraction, the student can write a minus sign... You get the picture. Spin the wheel again to get the second number, then complete the equation on the paper. 
• Writing Prompt: List a bunch of nouns in the wheel. If a kid having some writer's block, have him/her spin the wheel. Whatever noun pops up has to be the subject of the kid's writing.

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. 

Instant Classroom

If you've ever been to Super Teacher Tools, you might have noticed a section called "Instant Classroom."

Via

I love it and wanted to share it with you today!

Instant Classroom has 3 cool options:

1. Make a seating chart
2. Generate a name randomly
3. Generate random groups

I've never used the seating chart generator, so I don't know how well it works or if it's worth your time. I have, however, used the name and group generators, and I can't get enough of them.

You create an account for FREE and type in your students' names once. {I recommend bookmarking the login page you get after you sign up. It makes it much faster and easier to quickly see your class lists.}The program saves the class list so you never have to type in the kids' names again. I see over 20 classes a week, and I was able to create separate classes for all of them without problem. As far as I know, there is no limit to the number of classes you can create.

Here's a look at some of my classes:

The blacked out portions are the homeroom teachers' names

{I also like how it tells me how many students are in each class. That's such a simple but useful bit of info!}

Under the "tools" section, you can click the desk icon to generate a seating chart, the question mark to generate a student's name randomly, and people silhouette to generate groups. You can also edit or delete the class list at any time, and you can add pictures to each of the students' names.

Here's some more information about the tools I use:


Generate a name randomly

Remember in the "olden" days when teachers used to create a Popsicle stick with each kid's name on it, and she would randomly draw out a stick when she needed to pick a kid? This name generator reminds me of a virtual version of that. I like it because it's with you all the time, as long as you have an internet connection.

Anyway, to use it, just click on the question mark icon on your home screen. You see this:

The first time I used this, I explained to the kids that I typed their names into the computer, and the computer was going to be responsible for picking people. The kids totally went with it, no questions asked. They knew they were unable to get mad at me for not picking them because this is all the computer's doing. That was a beautiful thing. :)

From there, click the arrow on the right to scroll to a new name. It appears pretty simply and is large enough for the students to read:

Continue clicking the right arrow to get more names, one at a time. Clicking the left arrow lets you scroll to the previous slide. Once you reach the end of the class list, you can start over and re-randomize their names by clicking the "return to groups" button at the bottom of the display and then clicking the question mark icon again.


Generate random groups 

A lot of teachers at my school group their students by ability, but in the Science Lab, that's not usually necessary. Sometimes I just want to group students quickly and evenly.

If I click on the silhouette icon, I see a screen like this:

You can choose how many people you want in each group -- from two people each to ten people each.

And don't worry if you have an uneven number of students. Instant Classroom will recognize that and ask if you want to put them in a group by themselves or distribute them to another group.