All Those Students’ Names to Learn . . .
January 21, 2019
As new courses begin, there’s another batch of students and lots of new names to learn. A few among us manage to learn names with, what appears to rest of us, considerable ease. Others have developed surefire methods that work for them but not anyone else. Learning all those new names is a daunting task for most teachers.
My university provides a “photo roster” for each of our classes. I model the concept of “generation” (attempting to solve a problem before you know the answer) to learn names. Starting in 1 corner of the class and working through (rather than alphabetical order), I guess each student’s name from their picture. You’d be surprised how often I’m wrong, but this method forces me to learn names!