Remembering Names

[bros]

Make your own name cards for the students that are propped up on their desks until you remember their names

[bison]

Side note, as someone who visits many different classrooms, I LOVE teachers who have some kind of work (or even just decorative) display up that includes pictures of the kids. I always study them on there! It helps when returning to the classroom at a later date as well, because then I can refresh my memory. I meet a lot of kiddos!

I also find that doing attendance and looking at each child before you mark them down is very helpful if your master teacher is okay with that. It can be a bit of a time waster in the long run, but useful at first. I rarely get to do attendance though, so I usually just look students in the eye and say their name when I meet them. It does help. Creating the desk cards that were suggested might help you if the students don't already have name tags on there.

[KateL]

A seating chart is a must for me, since I have to learn about 150 names every year teaching high school. The first few weeks, whenever I call on a student, I look at the seating chart to find his or her name. I quickly memorize the names of the students who volunteer answers all the time. Second, whenever the students are taking a test or doing quiet seat work, I take a few minutes to study the seating chart, associating names with faces. I usually have all 150 names down by the end of the 2nd week.

[Missy]

When I get my class list, I pull out the yearbook from the year before and start working on the names of students who were at our school in the year prior.

[yellowdaisies]

I think I am pretty good at remembering names, but for me I have to see the names written out so I can picture the name in my head to go with the face. When I meet someone (kid or adult) with an unusual name, I will ask them how it is spelled. Until I can see it in writing in my head, I can't remember it.

With my own class, I saw most of the students' photos ahead of time on their placement cards, and I studied those. They were really surprised when I called them by name on the first day! Other than that, I just repeat their name back to them, like others have said. "Hi, Bob, I'm happy you're in our class!" or something like that.