Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Names are INCREDIBLY important
So I got a tweet from one of my favorite Elementary Directors, and she referred to a blog that I had not seen -- Teaching as a Dynamic Activity. The entire blog is good and well worth your time. I particularly liked the turning our boxes into trampolines, on yesterday's blog. The original blog that caught my eye -- and she referred me to -- was on the topic of learning the names of students and how important that is. Jerrid's strategy in this case was using a "flip" camera or the like. Seven minutes became powerful. Great resource, great idea!! Thanks for sharing resources and ideas!
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I was a Principal until a year ago and I made it a point to know as many individual student’s names as possible. I used every opportunity and technique possible to connect a name to a face. One example is picturing nickels where Nicole’s glasses were to make a visual connection to her name. When a student would say, “Are you the Principal?”, I would ask, “Are you the student, Carlos?” He was shocked at first, but later made sure to know my name because he counted on my knowing his. Knowing their names is an invaluable, personal connection, but I admit that with 1260 kids at my school, they were sometimes “Sweetie” or “Honey”!
ReplyDeleteThe same affect can be had on adults too! I often run into Dr. Miller at Starbucks while visiting with a fellow RUSD teacher friend. Upon visiting my Pachappa Elementary School site last year, he recognized me from Starbucks and asked my name. Now, having the Superintendent know you by name is not so intimidating! :)
ReplyDeleteOne way that I get to know my students' by name is to tell them that, if they come to me, shake my hand and say, "Hello, my name is...." and do this 10 times, by the 10th time, I will be able to tell them their name. It works so well that by the 5th or 6th time, I'm able to tell them their name before they say it.
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