There is one thing that I try to steer away from in the classroom, and that is asking students to raise their hand so I can pick on one student to answer a question. This is one of the top reasons I like my students working in cooperative teams. There are times when choosing just one student at a time to talk and/or answer a question is appropriate, but I like being able to randomly pick a student. It not only prevents me from picking on the same student over and over again, it requires all students to be listening. When students know that their name will be randomly picked they tend to pay a bit more attention. :)
Of course, there is an Apple app for that! It is called
Stick Pick. I bought the app for my iPhone, but I can also use it on my iPad, I just enlarge it. Stick Pick randomly picks student names. Once the app has chosen a name you can decide whether you want to place the stick back into the can to be drawn again or mark as used so the student will not be called on again until all names have been picked.
Another feature of the app is that it contains over 140 question stems. The question stems are based on Bloom's Taxonomy. The app allows for you to differentiate the question stems for each student based on their needs and ability levels.
This app even allows for tracking formative assessment. With an easy touch of the screen you can rate your students' responses, retrieve a summary of each student's results, and even send an e-mail containing the results.
I have to say I am thoroughly impressed with
Stick Pick, and it was definitely worth the $2.99 I paid for it.
