Name Wheel

How to use it

Type or paste your students' names into the box, one per line. The list is saved in this browser on this device, so it is still there next lesson. If you have already typed your class into the Team Maker, press Use my Team Maker class list to copy it across.

Press Spin, click the wheel, or tab to it and press Space or Enter. The wheel spins for a few seconds and slows to a stop, and the name under the pointer is shown in large type. Every slice has exactly the same chance of being picked, so this random name picker is fair to everyone on the list.

Turn on Remove picked names and each winner comes off the wheel when you spin again, so nobody is picked twice until everyone has had a turn. The names appear in a Picked so far list, and Reset puts them all back. Tick sound adds a soft click as each slice passes the pointer. Use the full-screen button to show the wheel on the projector.

Ways to use a wheel of names in the classroom

When students know the wheel decides who answers, everyone stays ready, not only the hands that always go up. Random picking also takes the guesswork and the arguments out of whose turn it is, which makes it easier for quieter students to take part. Because the wheel is visible to the whole class, students can see the choice is fair.

You do not have to spin the wheel with names. Put anything on it, one per line:

• Fair turn-taking: who reads next, who shares first, who chooses the game.
• Random classroom jobs: line leader, door holder, plant waterer, tech helper.
• Review questions or topics: spin to choose what the class practises next.
• Brain-break choices: stretch, dance, Simon says, a quick drawing challenge.
• Story starters, prizes or partner tasks for centres.

Free to use, no account needed. It runs in your browser: nothing you type, and no sound from your microphone, is sent to Fieldbook.