But not me. I am HORRIBLE at learning names. I have to meet someone a bunch of times, have long conversations, connect, before I can remember their names. I also don't know names/singers of songs, actors in TV shows/movies. No one in their right mind would want me on their trivia team. Unless its about Disney, lol. Or school supplies.
One It's so hard for me to learn names in our 47 minute period with 20-36 students a period, 5 periods a day. In the past, I have done assigned seats from day one, taken pictures of the group tables, and photoshopped their names over the top so that I could "study". This year our gradebook has photos from last year, so I decided to try something new. I made myself flashcards using an app on my iphone :) I put in the photo and the student name, and in the next 2,5 weeks I'm going to try to learn as many names as I can!
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In the interest of getting to know students and letting them get to know me, I'm working on a couple of ideas of how I can do that while still teaching math. First, I've been reading the book "Creating Cultures of Thinking" and I really liked one of the ideas shared about "What's Your Other Story?". Students will obviously know me as their math teacher, but I'd like to be able to share some things from my "other story". I love Disney, I went to "Twitter Math Camp", I'm a new aunt, I have two daughters, I struggle with learning names!, etc. I'm also interested in hearing about their "other story". Maybe a bulletin board? First homework assignment?
One of my favorite activities in the past was an assignment for parents/guardians called "A million words or less". I asked them to write about things they would like to share about their child, both in an out of school (but please stick to a million words or less). I loved the responses I got over the years, but I didn't hear back from everyone and I want to find a way to INCLUDE my students as well.
One of my favorite activities in the past was an assignment for parents/guardians called "A million words or less". I asked them to write about things they would like to share about their child, both in an out of school (but please stick to a million words or less). I loved the responses I got over the years, but I didn't hear back from everyone and I want to find a way to INCLUDE my students as well.
How do you get to know your students?
Oh man... names are the bane of my existence! I struggle with names so much and I hate it :( I'm looking forward to the comments, hoping that someone has some great ideas to share with you!
ReplyDeleteGlad it's not just me! Flashcards are helping I think!
DeleteDude, I just realized in the past couple of years that I've been getting Phil Collins and Paul Simon confused because they are both white guys with minimal hair whose names start with P.
ReplyDeleteI did a math about me quiz once on the first day (idea stolen from someone else) had ten Qs and a answer bank and questions were like year I graduated high school, number of countries I been to, number of siblings/children/dogs, etc. then they had to come up with their own special number and say why
Also name tents help!!
Sounds fun! Thanks for mailing my lanyard btw!
DeleteA friend in college once told me that if you repeat someone's name 3 times in your first conversation with them, then you're more likely to remember it in the future. Unfortunately that won't work with 120+ students.
ReplyDeleteSlightly on topic (but also slightly off topic), my father-in-law (John Nicodemus, whom you know!), used to call all of his students by their last names (Mr. Smith and Ms. Miller, etc.). I think I'm going to try that this year because it'll be a sign of respect that they'll be more likely to reciprocate to me (I've been called "Newman" by my students these past 5 years instead of "Mr. Newman". Of course, that was HS students). Another upside is you can't mess up if you get siblings from different years confused! The downside to this is if students don't include their last names on papers, then you've got to remember twice as many names!
And yeah, assigned seats from day one. When they change seats, I always mess up their names, though. Even if it's after 9 weeks!!
I remember your fil used to do that- it always seemed like a good fit for him- I tried it one year and just didn't work for me. Would have been great for siblings or for years when I had three students with the same first name in class!
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