It’s nearly a new term, and with it there will be lots of new students. If you know your memory is terrible when it comes to remembering names, or you’re teaching your first class of 30 students and you’re worried about how you’ll learn them all, here are 10 tips to help you remember.
1. Initial Review: Read through your students’ names before your first class to make sure you can pronounce them all correctly and they are familiar before you meet everyone.
2. Name Game: On day one ask your students to introduce themselves with their name and see if they can come up with 3 interesting facts about themselves.
3. Name then Answer: Ask pupils to say their name before they answer a question. This will also help other pupils become more aware of who is who in the class.
4. Repeat, Repeat: When you know them, use your students’ names frequently during your conversation to ingrain it into your memory.
5. Little Known Fact: Ask your students to share a “little known fact” about themselves and write this fact down on information sheets – you can use these to help remind you who is who.
6. Meet and Greet: Every morning greet your students by name as they enter the classroom.
7. Register Duty: When calling out the register, have the child repeat their name back to you rather than just saying ‘here.’
8. Visual Reminder: Try and create a visual association between the student’s name and their face e.g. if the student’s name is Oliver, you could visualise Oliver Twist asking ‘please sir can I have some more.’
9. Rhyme Time: It might help to link a sound, letter or rhyme in the name to an aspect of the child that is distinctive e.g. if you have a student called Sam who is quiet in class, you could think of ‘quiet as a lamb’.
10. Repetition Games: Play fun name games e.g. You move around the class with the first student saying: “I’m Ann” and the second student saying “I’m Sam and that’s Ann,” etc.