new resource: random-nator
In Building Thinking Classrooms, Peter Liljedahl makes the stance that for group tasks, groups of 3 works best, and random groups of 3 work even better.
I’ve been through my fair share of different strategies for making these groups of 3: a normal deck of cards, a fancy fun deck of cards, and a random number generator.
What I landed on, thanks to the help of one of my colleagues, is what my AP coined the “Random-Nator”.
It’s an excel spreadsheet that uses a bunch of fancy formulas to randomize your classes into groups of 3. I’ve attached it here.
If those of who see this want a detailed description of all the tools, I will happily give it to you. But download it, try it out, and let your random groups go crazy.