Tuesday, September 04, 2007

A Plethora of Alexanders

In my younger days, I found it easy to learn the names of all the students in my classes in the first week or two, but I find that it is getting more difficult as I get older. In my early years of teaching, I would know student names in a class of < 50 students within a week, and in classes up to 150 in a few weeks. [I have a colleague - who reads this blog - who learns the names of all students, even in classes with hundreds of students, but even in my youth I maxed out at 150].

Now it takes me a few weeks to learn 20-30 names. I think it is important to learn student names, and I am embarrassed if I don't know all the names in a class of < 30 after a couple of weeks.

I don't work any less hard at it than I ever have -- before and after the first classes, I study the enrollment lists and student photographs (though most students, especially seniors, do NOT look anything like their official photos). This certainly helps, but I don't really learn all the names until I have handed back 1 or 2 assignments.

It also helps that students tend to sit in the same seats each time. The fact that there are certain very common names is both a help and a hindrance to learning names. For example, this year there are four (4!) Alexanders in a class of about 20 students. This makes it difficult for the name Alexander to correspond to a particular face in my memory, but it increases my chances of being right if I call a random male student Alexander.

12 comments:

KC said...

I am right there with you! I teach classes of 60 to 90 law students. I try to learn all their names and every year it gets harder and harder. What works best for me is to make small flashcards of the student ID photos (fortunately my students are largely grown when they get to law school) with names at the bottom where I can cover them with my fingers. I seem to retain more names this way and, while they don't stick long, they are easily refreshed. Another advantage to this method is I can greet students by name in the hallway, out of their usual seats.

I really enjoy your blog.

Ψ*Ψ said...

Facebook-stalking was the only way I was able to keep track of who was who in my workshop last year. (Sadly, there were only eight students. I'm pretty bad with names.)

Kristin said...

Last year, out of a class of 18 students, I had 5 Daniels! That definitely made it easier to learn first names, although I never did figure out who went by Dan, Danny, or Daniel.

I'm impressed that anyone can learn so many names in such a short time. I'm proud of myself if I manage to learn all their names by the end of the semester, and that's in a class of 20-30 students. I do wish I had access to the students pictures - that would make it a little easier (I know I could just take their pictures, but that always seemed kinda creepy to me.)

Dr. Bad Ass said...

It's Amandas for me, this year.

Granted, I usually only have from 25-30 students in my classes, but what really helps me is to have my students make little table tents with their names on them. They bring them to the first few weeks of class, which helps me know their names and they get to know each others' names also.

Notorious Ph.D. said...

I once TA'd for a class of 90 in which seven of the students were named Jeff. By the end of the day, I simply announced that, until I learned their names, I'd be calling everyone Jeff, since that would give me an almost 10% chance of being right.

I could have upped that percentage significantly that year by addressing all the female students as "Sara."

Anonymous said...

I once had a tutor who after 6-8 weeks of weekly hour-long tutorials in a group of 5 students still didn't know who was who when handing back assignments... After that experience I was always surprised when lecturers knew who I was, but this has reassured me that's normal, that most people do make some effort!

Anonymous said...

I usually manage to learn all my students names for classes less than 100. Unfortunately, once the semester ends, the next 100 pushes all those hard won names right out of my head. When I see former students, I am always embarrassed that I no longer know their names.

Anonymous said...

wasn't it the guys who wrote Freakonomics who pointed out that names become trendy during certain years. so every so often, you would expect to get a number of people with the same name. for example, lots of people started naming their babies Britney after britney spears hit the pop scene (don't know if that is the case these days.) in the future maybe you will encounter a couple of parises. !!!

ScienceMama said...

One thing I did when teaching a class of about 40, was that on day one I took the students in groups of 4, asked them to write their names on the Whiteboard and took a picture of the group (so I would have a current picture of them with their name). It took about 20 minutes of class time to get all the students' pictures, but it was well worth it because I was able to learn their names quickly, and I had a cheat sheet whenever I needed it...

Yvette said...

In my (all girls) middle school class of 30-odd students, I remember there were 4 Sarahs, and two of them were "Sarah H"es. No end to confusion.

usagibrian said...

PHD orientation starts Monday, and as I always tell them, "I realize that each of you is an individual, unique creation of the universe, and to me, you're all numbers. Please learn your ID number at the earliest opportunity." Joy of being the Registrar (and lousy with names).

Rebecca said...

I find that I get lots of Jessicas & Jesses. I also have several Sams this semester (both male and female).