Teachers often call on students - to answer a question, to take a turn, to be a monitor, to do a chore, and for many other reaons.
Some teachers use popsicle sticks to choose students, but there are problems with this method. If sticks are removed as students are chosen, there's no chance they'll be chosen again, so they might not try to get chosen. Also there are many reasons to call on students, but usually only one set of sticks, so the teacher can't make sure all students are chosen for all reasons.
As a classroom teacher, I imagined having an app on my phone which could quickly choose a random student. It would keep track of which students were chosen for which purposes, so over time all students would be chosen for all purposes. Students already chosen could be chosen again, but they'd have a reduced chance until all students were chosen for that purpose.
My school used Google Workspace for Education, so I decided to make my app using Google Apps Script, and store data in a Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Please feel free to try this live example of the app and the underlying spreadsheet! As you choose students, the app should only occasionally choose a student that's already been chosen.
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The actual app can have multiple sheets - if you create more sheets you can choose between them with a drop-down menu in the app, for example, line leader, end of line, lunch crates, lunch tables, and reading corner.
Our school hosted a Google conference, which included a Demo Slam - a competition for demonstrating new tools. I entered the competition and my random student app won! The Google people actually asked me if I was interested in helping international schools use Google Apps Script better. I'm not sure if that was an actual job offer, but I said I was happy being a classroom teacher!
