Today, I was particularly caught by our discussion about Names.
For 5 months before I went to grad school, I was substitute teaching in the "inner city" districts of Harrisburg and Lancaster, PA. Even though these cities are smaller, the schools I worked in were not much different than those here in Philadelphia or any other large city in the country--it was poorly funded, resources were limited, students came from difficult economic living situations, school climate was strained. I had already had two years of ESOL-pull out teaching in Harrisburg, so I was prepare to roll with the punches of kids who really made you earn their respect. Not every substituting position was rewarding, but I knew from the start that the best way to maintain discipline and stay on track as a lowly substitute teacher was to connect with the kids as quick as I could.
Given my experience with my own name and identity, I knew that kids, especially the little ones, really appreciated it if you took the time to learn their names. So I challenged myself to learn every child's name by heart before 10 am. At first I did this on my own (without the student's knowledge) and I saw right away what a difference it made when instead of saying "hey, stop hitting your friend," I could say, "Jamir, stop hitting Keisha." After the first few classrooms of playing this game with myself, I realized it would be fun to let the kids in on it. I remember a particular class of first graders in Lancaster who laughed and thought there was no possible way I could remember all 22 of their unique, complicated, phonetically spelled, 4 syllable names in just 2 hours. At ten o'clock, the kids did not hesitate to remind me of my challenge and they all covered their name tags. I got 22 correct and for the rest of the day, they were mine. We got every activity on the teacher's plans done and even had time to go outside and play.
Learning to pronounce a kid's name and remembering it seems like such a trivial thing, but to a kid it's the primary source of their identity. The youngest ones are just learning to write it and the older ones have learned the stories of where it comes from. For many--not all--it is the first source of pride. Learning to pronounce a complicated non-American-English or an African-American name shows that you care enough to take the time and that you're interested and invested in the student from the moment they walk through that classroom door--even if it's not yours.
Even now as a classroom teacher, I still memorize each student's name by 10 o'clock. I love to see the surprised looks on their faces when I attach their name to the praise or reprimand I am giving out which always says, "man, this lady knows my name already?!" It shows the kids that I'm immediately engaged and it encourages them to be so too!
That's great, do you have any tips on how to do that so quickly?
ReplyDeleteI went to a seminar once about how to learn people's names quickly and the presenter said that one way to do this is to ask the person their name, and think of a word that rhymes or reminds you of their name and make a picture of that in your mind. He said that he was able to remember over 100 names in one day by doing this. I actually tried it a few times and it worked (however, that year I had some pretty easy names to remember...I'll have to try it when I have some more unique names:)
ReplyDelete