Best Way to Remember Your Student’s Name

Remembering names is never easy. On an average school day, one sec­ondary teacher may have taught anywhere between 120 to 180 stu­dents, depending on school class sizes. Primary classes can be a little easier, as in most cases the students stay with one teacher throughout the year: but you may still be expected to be on first name terms with most of the children in the school.

So how on earth do you remember them all?

Seating plans can be very useful, as students will be seated in the same place every time you see them, but it can be tedious to have to keep referring to a diagram all the time.

A colleague of mine used to put little notes in her register such as:

• Smith, James Gordon   very small/ginger hair
•  Wilson, Rebecca Jane – lots of freckles/very noisy

However, she almost suffered disaster when one of her students hap­pened to be reading over her shoulder one day and asked her why she had written, ‘looks like Woody Allen’ next to his name. Apparently, the child had reminded her of theHollywooddirector. She had thought it was a relatively harmless comment. The child’s parents, however, did not fully agree!

Instead of writing notes, try to store that information in your own head, and practise naming the students silently when they enter your room or you see them in the corridor.

Some students will be more memorable than others – usually it is the. noisy, naughty ones you will remember the most! However, there are some students’ names you always forget, no matter how many times you teach them.

Sneaky ways to remember names:

•  Ask students to make name tags and put them at the front of their desks when they come into the class for the first two or three weeks.
•  Keep a close eye on who answers to which name when taking class registers – if in doubt, get students to raise their hand as well as calling ‘here’.
•  Take note of any defining features that might help you remem­ber a student.
•  Use a seating plan and stick to it until you have learned all the new names.
•  Stand at the door and greet each student as they come in to prac­tise names. Those students you forget will therefore be fre­quently offering their name.
•  Make sure you are the person to give books out for the first few weeks, to practice getting to know who’s who.
•  Look for clues surrounding the student, e.g. if their name is written on their exercise book or pencil case.
•  Repeat the name to yourself and connect the face to the name in your head. The next time you see the student you should be able to visualize their name more easily.
•  Students tend to stick to groups. Sometimes you can remember the group easier than the individual, and figure out who’s who by a process of elimination.
•  Link names to features or characteristics, e.g. Ginger James or Tall Paul. Sometimes you might be able to link names to celebri­ties: for years I thought of one girl as Posh Spice, simply because her name was Victoria Benson.

And finally, make sure you get the name right from the start.