Boy did I get a lot of responses on my request for ways to learn students
names (which is great)! I also got a lot of requests to pass along any ideas I
received. Thanks to everyone who supplied these good ideas.
Shannon Minner
smm2p@mtsu.edu
Murfreesboro, TN
Name Tags =96 Have teachers pass them out before they come.
----------------
Have students design their own shelf markers. Part of the design should
include their names. Attach bar codes on them and have them laminated. When
students are ready to select books, they pick up the own shelf markers (these
can also be used to label their seats) and bring the markers up when checking
out books. You scan the barcodes and read out their names as you try to
remember their faces. Keep each class separate of course. After several
weeks you will have learned who many of the kids are.
I have students use the markers the entire year, afterwhich they get to take
them home.
-------------------
I'm wrestling with the same idea. I am thinking about buying lanyards
(Oriental Trading Co.) and hanging laminated nametags on them, maybe from 3 x
5 cards with a hole in the bottom. I will write names on both sides of the
paper because they always flip over.
I was hoping the kids could pick out their own on their way into the room.
I was toying with the idea of pasting a copy of their barcode on their card,
too.
I was also thinking of keeping aside those lanyards for discipline problems
that I had to follow up on.
----------------
Try some sort of a seating chart for wherever they are going to be seated...it
will help trememdously with learning names and since everyone will have a
specific place to sit each time it saves some (not all) of the hassles of
having the students come in each time. I also have individual shelf markers
for each student, which has their name and barcode on it so I am distributing
these each time when it is ok for a student to check out books. This really
helps in learning names.
---------------
I use shelf markers with their photos and barcodes. For students who are
returning, I 'add' the current year's photo. For incoming Kindergarten
students, I quickly take digital camera photos of them on the first day (they
love to smile for the camera) and then I can associate the name with their
face. I look at them each week before the kids come in, and somehow the names
are learned!
Have children decorate personal shelf markers that you have premade out of ak
tag. I write their names and class code with black marker on one side and they
decorate the other. Then I laminate them. They get passed out each class at
borrowing time which helps in learning names. The first time I meet them I ask
them their favorite book and ice cream flavor. I also tell them mine. I write
this down next to their name on the class list along with a brief description
(blonde, freckles).
----------------
Usually our teachers already have the little name necklaces or stickers on the
children (especially K-2) when they send them in for their checkouts or
classes for a while at the beginning of the year.
----------------
I make a library card for every student using 3x5 notecards. Their printed
barcode label is at the top, which includes their printed name. Using a
Sharpie marker, I write their first name in big letters at the bottom. I file
the cards on the checkout desk in a shoebox by the teacher's name.
When a class is due in the library, I spread that classes' cards on a table
near the checkout desk. The student must locate THEIR card and present it to
me at the checkout desk to be scanned. The first six weeks I always read the
name on the card out loud - it double checks that the student has the correct
card, and it gives me a chance to learn faces and names!
I make cards for all grades, but I only write the names with Sharpie on the
PK-2. It also makes checkout very fast - scan the card, scan the books, and
send them on!
-----------------
Photograph the kids individually or in groups, and label the photos. (This is
so easy if you have access to a digital camera.) Keep them with your class
roster and other information with that class, and look over them during the
week if you see students just once a week. I found it very helpful, and the
kids always love having their picture taken.
----------------
I think what helps the most is taking roll every single class, and as you say
each name look up and attach it to a face and then use their names while they
are in the library. It takes a while to learn the new students, but having a
system helps. This actually helps more than name tags as it forces you to
really learn their names. I would say that it took me at least three years
after I started at this school to learn the names, it is worth the effort!
---------------
We have one class of Kindergarten students who I have for 45 minutes prep/
week. The teacher makes name tags for them. I use them for about the first
month. Handing them out and trying to connect the name to the face helps be
learn their names. I also take photos of them. Usually in groups of four or
five. This spring I found the photos I had taken of the graduating grade 6
class. They were fun to put up. Wish I had found them earlier.
---------------
I live by class lists. I have them when I meet with the students and do a
rollcall for the first few weeks. A good goal is to learn 4 new names per
class each week. Fortunately I only have to learn about 125 a year now -
kindergarten and new students. I see classes every week - which helps. I
tried name tags but found that I depended on them and never learned the kids'
names. I also tell the students that it is okay to correct me if I call them
the wrong name - which I do regularly!
I find that I learn kids names pretty quickly when they come up to check out.
(We're automated and I check their name when they type in their PIN number to
make sure they have the correct one.)
------------------
Classroom teachers generally have nametags that they use with their students
the first days of school; I just ask the teachers-and the kids-to wear them
the first month for me. I have the kids remind the teachers after the first
week.
We play the 'cover the nametag game' for a bit each time they come in. Though
I don't learn them all, I learn the ones I need most (ones that need to be
more watched, ones that ask about books often)
So:
1)study the class lists a bit
2) have use teacher nametags as long as possible
2) work at the checkout desk a bit to learn names each week.
--------------------
I haven't done this, but I've heard of teachers that video tape their students
as they come in (with them pronouncing their own name), and then taking the
video tape home and learning their names overnight. It's a good way to keep
control, because they aren't exepecting you to remember their name and it's a
nice use of technology! Also, if you have Follett (and probably some others do
too), you have a place for student pictures and if you carried over info. from
last year it may still have pictures.
--------------------
I have a very brief conversation with each child the first time I see them
each year. I look
directly at each child and ask if I know their siblings or parents ( this
won't help you this year, but maybe next.) Sometimes I ask if they have a pet
and what the pet's name is. Anything that will spark some recognition with
that child. (clothing discussions work too) The children like the
individual attention and you'll be surprised at how much you remember. Each
time you see them you can follow up with a few students. Of course there's
always a couple of kids that you just never remember their names.
--------------------
I ask the school secretary for class pictures and kept them in a binder and I
pulled them out each time a class would come. I'd tae "role" and try to learn
names for five kids from each class. It was easy to "quiz myself" with the
binder during the week. Then, I'd always refresh my memory by taking a look at
the pictures before the group came the next time. Until I get this year's
class picture I'll work from last year's. I also plan on being at the library
entrance in the morning to greet kids as they pass by. (I don't have duty, I
just think it's a nice PR thing for the library).
-------------------
The way I learned most names was through interacting with the kids during
checkout at the
computer. Seeing the name and the kid together helped make the kink. During
instructional interactions I didn't always call by name just use a generic
term. You could have kids begin their question or response by saying their
name to get you going.
-------------------
First of all get class lists, probably from the secretary of the school. Ask
teachers if they would have the kids wear name tags at least for the first
month of school. (why should you have to do all the work) There are a number
of name learning games, but I find those rather confusing and in the end just
rely on plain old memory. Try to learn about five first names a class. I
usually give a little spiel about how easy it is for them to know my name but
it will take me longer to learn all of yours and I need your help. At the
start of each class I go through five names, raise their hands, and I really
try to remember those. If I don't this is where they happily come in and help
me.
I took digital pictures of the class, printed out a large picture and labeled
the students' names. Then, when I couldn't put a name to the face, I looked at
the picture. (It helped a lot with report cards - even by the first quarter, I
had gotten to know most of the students but couldn't always remember their
names. When I came to a students' name on the report card roster for whom I
couldn't place a face, I again referred to the pictures.)
----------------
I took one sheet of construction paper per class. Use the same color for each
class in a grade. (Makes it easier to find sheet quickly!). Hopefully the
office has individual black and white pictures for the students from last
year. I put the class list in the upper right hand corner, the class name (1A,
etc) and a picture of the teacher on the top. Then take your bw pics and put
them in rows in alphabetical order by last name. Hopefully the name is already
printed underneath each picture. If not, put it on somehow. Take this sheet
with you each time the class comes in. Try to learn 3 or 4 names per week. The
first week focus on the ones who look "different"--maybe not politically
correct but it helps--the one with glasses, the one with red hair, the rowdy
one. I always dismiss the students by name, with my sheet in hand as an extra
reinforcement until I know them all.
------------------
One technique that works for me is to hand out their book cards yourself
rather than asking your aide (if you're lucky enough to have one) to do that.
This helps to put the names and faces together. The person I did my internship
with at a K-2 school had name cards that she put on tables and the students
brought their name cards with them to the storytime corner. This seemed to
work pretty well.
-------------------
I've used name tags (they forget to bring them back, or give them back to me
for the next time) The K students had their names on their shelfmarkers,
(ones that I had them create) along with their barcode labels that we would
scan. It served as a way for me to reinforce their names for me. I explain to
the students that their names are a very important part of their identity.
However, I have a good memory for where the books are located in the library,
and maybe even for what kinds of books you like, but a horrible memory for
names. Please do not be insulted if I do not remember your name. Just remind
me what it is.
-------------------
Use photos with names attached on a clipboard. Memorize names and faces from
previous year's yearbooks. Match siblings. Learn what books kids like to read.
Ask the teacher to pass out name tags before they come to the library. Me?...I
gave up and I did all of the above.
-------------------
Give the name tags, on strings for around their necks (they last longer that
way), to the teachers and they distribute them as a way of lining up the kids
to come to library. Then they will come in with them on. That's what I do with
my kindergarteners. They wear them for several weeks. I make up all kinds of
crazy games where I have to go around and say their names at the beginning of
each class while they cover their names.
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