Classroom name picker — random student selector
Pick a random student from a class roster — for cold-call questions, group rotations, or any time you would otherwise scan the room for whose turn it is. Paste the student names one per line, tap Pick, and the result names one. "Classroom name picker" / "classroom random name picker" / "random student picker" all land here. You're teaching a class of twenty-eight ninth-graders and want to call on a random student for each math problem. Paste the roster into Plinkr at the start of class, tap Pick, the screen shows a name. Walk to the board and call them. For round two, remove the just-picked name from the input list and tap Pick again. Repeat through the period without the same student getting picked twice. No spinning-wheel animation that takes longer than the question. No login, no "add to my class roster" account creation — the names live in the URL only and disappear when you close the tab. For teachers with a fixed roster, paste once at the start of the year, bookmark the URL, and the same setup loads every class period.
Frequently asked questions
Can it avoid picking the same student twice in a row?
Today the picker draws independently each tap — the same student can be picked twice in consecutive draws. Workaround: remove the just-picked name from the input list before tapping again. The URL state updates as you edit, so the picker honors the live list rather than the original one.
Can the whole class see the same picker on their own devices?
Yes. The roster lives in the URL, so a teacher who pastes the link onto the projected screen and into the class chat lets every student open the same picker on their phone. Each tap is local to whoever taps; multiple students tapping at once produces independent picks, which can defeat the point if the goal is one shared pick.
Will it work on Google Classroom or a school-managed Chromebook?
Yes. Plinkr is a plain web page that loads in any browser including school-managed Chromebooks. There is no app to install, no software to provision. As long as the school content filter allows plinkr.app, the picker works on any device a student signs into. No login is required from the student side.
Is there an exclusion list for students who shouldn't be picked?
Today, exclusion is manual: leave excluded names out of the input list, or remove them before the first pick. The picker only knows what is in the input field at the moment of the tap. For a student who is absent or shouldn't be cold-called for any reason, just do not paste their name into the list at the start of class.
More ways to use the Random Picker:
← Random Picker overview