It’s the day after Labor Day in the US and that means just about everyone is back to school now. The question is: how quickly can you learn to recognize all your new students and match the right face to the correct name?
Every teacher has a special trick for getting student names right, even if that trick is simple repetition. Or, if you’re like me, you just start making up nicknames for your students based on some quirk or trait they’ve displayed in the first few days of classes. I just had to remind myself to pick a nickname everyone would be happy to live with, to make sure no one was offended, and to avoid any possibility that the new moniker would result in a student being bullied. I guess I got good at it. By my third year in the classroom, students were desperate to earn a coveted nickname created my Mr. S.
So what’s your trick for learning student names? You know the drill. Share your ideas and opinions in the comments section and let your voice be heard!