New thing I have discovered this week - in class I was having the same students put their hand up constantly, and the less confident/interested students were avoiding participation. The solution? RANDOM NAME GENERATORS!
My partner (who is also a teacher) discovered "The Hat", which is an awesome random name generator.
You can create a list, save it for future use, and has an awesome animation of a name coming out of a hat with sound effects. It can also help you create truly random group allocations, and gives you opportunity to really mix up the classroom dynamics. His students love it!
If you have reliable internet access, this worked really well in class today, and keeps students on the edge of their chair. It is a simple website which is what makes it so great, and you can bookmark your lists, so it is ready to use whenever you need!