The Importance of Learning your students' names

One of the most important activities or tasks we have as teachers when getting started with a class is learning our students' names.

Knowing and using students' names helps to establish better communication and a less formal atmosphere in the class. Students immediately feel as if they belong to the class, and shows an interest in our students as individuals as well as we begin building relationships.

Some good techniques we can use to learn our student's names in a less formal and structured way are the use of introductory games, charts, seating strategies, etc. The primordial objective of using different strategies and games is to make these activities meaningful for both the teacher and students as well as we  reduce the feelings of anonymity and isolation in the class.

Introducing each other to the class

Introduce yourself to the class and ask students to introduce themselves in pairs for  about 2 or 3 minutes. As they interview each other and discover something that "no one can forget" you go around the room monitoring the activity and learning something from what you hear.  After that, you can ask some students to tell the class something  interesting or outstanding from their classmates. 
This activity can be used for groups of students who apparently know each other very well or for new groups of students. There is always something new to learn!

Students "Passports" 

 

Have students prepare a "Passport" for your class. Students glue a snapshot on a note card for the teacher. Besides their snapshot, we can  ask students to write a variety of information to help us get to know the student--likes and dislikes, background, and goals are especially helpful memory hints.

The nickname note card

Ask students to write the name they prefer to be called in class on a note card. Below their name they are asked to write thing which will make them memorable--favorite movie or music group, favorite quote or place they'd most like to visit. Pick the note cards and give each student the note card of a different person; then, ask them to find the person whose card they've got in their hands.  When the activity finishes, pick the note cards for your own learning purpose.

Making learning names memorable

Use students' names as often as possible. Greet students by name when they come into class, make a short comment using student names as you pass back homework ("You did a nice job on this, Mark."), call on students by name and acknowledge comments with names.

Another good advice for learning students' names is to take some time to learn the correct pronunciation and spelling of our students’ names, if we start misspelling or making incorrect use of their names, we may lead to increase insecurity and discomfort in them. Remember that if we want them to be interested in our lessons, we have to show interest in them too.

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