Classroom Wheel

Why twenty-four sample names are already loaded

Most tools ask you to build something before you can see whether it works. This one skips that step. Twenty-four sample names are already on the wheel. The very first spin shows you exactly how it behaves, how fast it lands, how the labels look, before you have typed a single real name. Clear the samples and paste your own register over the top once you are happy with how it works.

What a digital wheel replaces

The lolly-stick jar is the classic low-tech version of this same idea: a name gets pulled at random, and the fairness comes from nobody controlling which stick comes out. It also has real problems. A stick gets lost under a desk. A stick for an absent student still sits in the jar. Restocking it after a term means rewriting names by hand. A digital wheel keeps the same fairness mechanic without any of the physical upkeep.

Handling absences without breaking the fairness

Delete any absent student from the wheel at the start of the lesson, before the first spin. A wheel that can still land on someone who is not in the room either wastes a spin or forces an awkward re-spin mid-lesson. Removing absentees takes a few seconds and keeps every subsequent spin meaningful for the students who are actually present.

Bringing in your real register quickly

Typing thirty names by hand is exactly the kind of friction that stops a teacher from bothering on a busy morning. The Import menu pulls a register directly from a CSV file, an Excel spreadsheet or a Google Sheet instead. A class list that already exists somewhere else lands on the wheel in seconds rather than minutes.

Using colour to organise table groups

Beyond picking one name at a time, colour each student by their table group using the swatch next to their name on the list. A wheel with four colours mixed together shows you at a glance whether recent spins have favoured one table over the others. That is useful whenever the goal is a spread of answers across the room, not just one fair pick.

Beyond calling on students

The same list works for more than answering questions: assign classroom jobs, decide reading order for a shared text, or pick who lines up first at the door. For a version built specifically around fair calling and cold-call fairness, see the Random Student Picker, which uses the identical mechanic aimed at that one task.