Almost half of the educators I polled on Twitter this weekend said they don't use randomizers. A randomizer is a name picker. Teachers use it to call on students, randomly put together project and discussion groups or even to assign class jobs. What about rubrics? How consistent are you in using a written rubric All. The. Time? Chances are, if these two practices are not your norms, your favoritism is adversely affecting your students. We all play favorites: There is that one student you send on errands because you know she can get the job done. There is the student who gets a little extra love when you grade because he's having a hard time with his parent's divorce. There is also the student who is likely to walk the circle during recess more often than any other student because once she's on your radar, she's locked in. Randomizers and rubrics do not solve for x=favoritism every time. But chances are, if you know it is your tendency to call on the kid who will know the answer so you can move your lesson along, using those kinds of tools means you are aware of the effects of playing favorites and actively working against doing it in your classroom. Listen to episode 38 for more strategies you can implement TODAY.

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