And The Hat says....

Having students work in partners that aren't just friends is always a challenge. I know some people who use partner menus or other ways of setting them up so that everyone has the chance to work with everyone else. My only problem with those is that they get filled out at the beginning of the year, or the beginning of the term and undoubtedly, (at least one) someone misplaces there's.

Another headache for me is deciding on order for presentations or sharing. I've used Popsicle sticks in the past, but with more than one group of kids, this gets time consuming as the sticks are constantly getting switched out when the next class comes in. The same comes when you have something cool to do and need to pick a person. You don't want to hear, "Pick me, pick me!" "I was first!" "No, I want it."

Add all of that to the fact that I'm trying to use less "stuff" and more technology in my classroom, I have stumbled upon......THE HAT!

I love this little program. It pulls names either singly or in pairs. It includes fun animation that shows the name or names that have been chosen. The kids love it, even my 6th graders who are too cool for anything! You can add names and then save them. That way, if you have multiple classes, you can pull them up easily when you switch classes.    The best part is, the Hat is a free download here!

Pulling singly:




Pulling pairs:

This is what the main list part looks like: