Random Group Generator and Student Selector

This year I decided that I didn’t want to assign lab groups for my students, but rather, I would random assign them into pairs or groups depending on the activity. As one to try to do most things digitally, I wanted something better than Popsicle sticks. I came across a few sites that did what I wanted.

 The first is Random Group Creator. It’s a very basic page, but it does the job. You can choose the maximum size or the group or the maxim number of groups that you want. Then you just paste in a list of names (one per line) and click submit. While the site looks like it gives you an option to save and load lists, that feature doesn’t seem to work. I would keep a word or excel file with the names in it that you can copy and paste from each time you want to use that list. 

 The next is another simple one called Random Team Generator. You paste in the list of names and choose how many groups you want. Press the refresh button and your groups will be made for you.

Group Maker Tool is another generator and its part of the Super Teacher Tools site. What I like about

this one is that you create a sort of makeshift account, but all of your student names are saved there and you don’t need to copy and paste them into a site each time. If you do have the student names in a list, you can copy and paste them into the bulk upload section to add them in all at one. If not, you can type in the names one by one. Once you do that all of your student names are in the systems and you can use this list to not only make groups, but it can also be used as a random picker and a seating chart generator. The group maker allows you to choose how many in a group or how many groups you want. 

Team Maker is another really simple generator. Once again you will need to paste in a list of names. You then choose some team names (you don’t have to use them, but there are there if you want). Then you choose the number of teams you want, press Generate Teams and you groups are made! If you like the groups that are made you can download the list as a CSV file (a type of file that opens in Excel). 

 The last option I have for you is Random Student Generator. This one requires you to type in the names (you can’t copy and paste from a list), but then you can save that list. Once your list is in you can use that list to randomly select a student as well arrange students into a number of different size groups. The one downside to this site is that it can only save one class list. If you have more than one list, you’ll have to pay for their upgraded version (and it’s expensive and not worth it).