Use Team Maker for your next group assignment
February 18, 2010
BY BILL FERRIS
Dividing your class into teams is an activity fraught with peril. Friends cluster together, shy kids awkwardly ask if they can join a group, and all that jostling can eat up several minutes. You could pick teams yourself, but doing so makes things too complicated — you have to put Little Johnny and Little Suzie in separate teams or they’ll goof off the entire class period. Type-A Bobby will want to do all the work himself, and Steve and Vanessa will let him, so you’ve got to split them up. See? Nothing but headaches. If only you could turn this process over to random chance.
See what I did there? I set a problem to make you wonder if there was a solution. And there is. Team Maker randomly generates teams for your class’ group projects. All you have to do is enter the names of your students, pick how many teams you want, then Team Maker spits out team rosters. Letting Dame Fortuna pick the teams for you gives you back the brain space you need to actually teach the group activity you were trying to do.
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