Instant Classroom

When I first decided I was going to career change and become a Teacher I purchased an app for $4.99 that would pick a students name for me. Some blog somewhere told me it was a great app and I would use it all the time in my classroom. It's on my iPad that my son now downloads all his "fun" games on and I've used it a total of ZERO times in the classroom.

Enter Instant Classroom created by SuperTeacherTools.us. What I like about tool is that it's not an app. I don't have to have my iPad with me to use it. I can log in to it on my computer and show it on my screen easily. If I'm in another classroom then I don't have to remember to bring my iPad with me to use it. And...most of all...I can type names in while on a computer and not an iPad. :)

Instant Classroom has THREE tools that I use: Seating Chart Maker, Random Name Generator, and Group Maker. **Note: I only use the Group Maker when I'm not too particular with who are in the groups, typically for fun activities. The Group Maker does not take into account talkative students that shouldn't be together, levels of where students are, or things like that.**

Ok, now to what you're here for...how to use it. Go to: https://www.superteachertools.us/instantclassroom/newlevel.php

Create a Group Name and give your email. If the Group Name is available then you will create a password. You'll receive a notification with a link that you can refer back to if you forget the website to go to. When I started I used the Group Name "Trial" as I was trying it out, and I never went back to change it. ;)

When I use the link from the email to log in it always asks me for my password and then will bring you to a page with your groups.

I've never imported a group, but let's discuss creating one. Clicking on that option will bring up this screen where you can type in names for your class. For this example I used my sibling's names. You actually have up to 100 names you can enter for each group (you'll see my parents only had nine kids though).

Entering the names will now add a Group to your "My Groups" page and opens up the THREE options of what you can do. 

The first option, SEATING CHART MAKER, has the icon of desks and allows you to create desk arrangements for your room. You can easily print this (I include seating arrangement printouts in my Substitute Teacher Folder and the one with my online grade book has the students picture so I use that).  Simply click on the square and move it around however you want, the boxes do not twist/turn though.

The third option, GROUP MAKER, has the icon of silhouettes standing together. Again, I don't use this often as I'm typically particular in my group assignments to help with classroom management. But there are "fun days" that the make-up of groups don't really matter that I will allow this to choose groups. It's actually funny to see the students faces when they see this choose their groups. It's very simple, you either choose how many students go in each group or you choose how many groups for it to make. 

The groups will appear in boxes at the bottom of the screen. If I absolutely can't keep the groups then I typically make a joke and "accidentally" click the button again and let the groups change. Or...if the students hate the groups then I'll click it again but let them know no-matter-what, we are keeping the next groups. Once the students hated the groups the second time even more and that class they never chose to do that again.

That brings us to the main reason for this post...the Random Name Generator. Clicking on the icon will bring up the following picture.

Clicking on the arrow will bring up names in a random order. 

Names will appear instantly and will not repeat until all names have been used.

Clicking refresh will mix the names up and allow you to start fresh again.

A few tips that I've found:

1. If I'm letting this choose groups then I put it on the classroom screen. Students really do enjoy seeing the groups appear.
2. If I'm going through answers to work then I typically use either an iPad or I hide the screen from the students. This allows me to see the name that comes up before the students see it and I can decide if I want that student to answer it or not. If a name appears that I do not want to answer it then I simply hit the arrow again before I turn my iPad screen around to show the class.

Let me know how you like this or what you use that is similar. I know there are a TON of products out there similar to this so please share what you use.