New school year... New names !

I have been teaching for the last 10 years of my professional life, and eventhough I used to spend more than 4 hours in the same classroom with the same students, sometimes it get hard to remember each one of their names. 

If you can't remember their names, it does not mean that you are bad teacher, but considering that one time I had thirty first graders, it can be kind of hard to make the face-name connection.

If you are like me and you have a lot of students in one classroom, or change classrooms all over the day (that is even hard to remember 30+ names of  2+ classes) I have some tricks that you can use to remember them:

1.  During the first day greet each student at the door, ask for their name, and at the same time check for it on your roster sheet, look back and forth between the name and their face.

2. Have students make name tags, using heavy black or blue markers to write their names on the tag; Students keep their name tags and use them during the rest of the week.

3. Use a seating chart for the first 3 classes, that can help you to learn the students name more quickly.

4. Use photos, if you are used to used the technology in your classroom there are lots of apps that can help to keep your classroom in order, in most of them you can add photos to your roster sheet, making the face-name connection easier.

5. After each assignment, practice their names as you personally return the papers.

I know, that you'll forget some during the first weeks, but by the end of the month you may even know their full name.

Which are your name remembering tricks?

#education #teaching #tips #classroommanagement