Using SelectorTools with Multiple Classes

SelectorTools is Kagan's software for selecting students in the classroom. It is designed to use with a digital whiteboard or a digital projector so the whole class can see who is selected. The basic concept is to keep everyone in the classroom actively involved because any student may be randomly picked at any time to respond, or share their team’s answer. In SelectorTools, there are 14 different selection tools. One of the 14 tools is the Name Selector. The Name Selector allows you to pick one student in the class at a time by name. You can choose how to select your students from a handful of selection algorithms: randomly, no repeat random (no student will be selected again until everyone else has had a turn), by the sequence you entered their names, A to Z, or Z to A.

Many teachers teach more than one class and we often get the question: “What do I do if I have many classes?” Great question! In the Instruction Manual packaged with the software there is a description of how to use SelectorTools with multiple classes. The method described there works perfectly fine, but there’s an easier way to use the Name Selector with multiple classes. We’ll walk you through it step-by-step so using the Name Selector with multiple classes is a snap.

Basic Overview
SelectorTools comes with a text file called “class_list.txt.” That file is where you type in the names of your students. SelectorTools imports the names you type into that file to use for the Name Selector. The problem is, there was no easy way to tell SelectorTools which class to use — until now. In the instructions below, we’ll show you how to make multiple copies of SelectorTools, each dedicated to one of your classes, so all you have to do is open the right copy to get the correct class.

	Create a new folder on your desktop and name it “SelectorTools.”
	Put your SelectorTools CD-ROM into your computer.
	Drag the “SelectorTools_PC” or “SelectorTools_Mac” folder off the CD-ROM and into the new SelectorTools folder you created on your desktop.
	Eject your CD-ROM.
	Open your SelectorTools folder and duplicate the SelectorTools_Mac or SelectorTools_PC folder so you have as many copies as you have classes. For example, if you have 3 classes, duplicate the folder twice so you end up with 3 copies total.
	Rename each folder, replacing the words after the underscore with the name of your class.
	Go into each folder and rename the SelectorTools Software to match the name of your class.
	Open the class_list.txt file for your first class and enter the names of your students in that class. The file must begin with “&classList=” and there should be a comma between each name with no spaces.
	Repeat Step 8 for each class, so the class_list.txt file for each class has the students’ names for that class. DO NOT rename the “class_list.txt” because SelectorTools is looking for that file with that name.
	You’ve done it! Now, when Period 1 comes in, you simply open SelectorTools for “Period 1”. Click on the Name Selector and your ready to pick students by name.