I just finished my first class of "Physics for Elementary Education Majors". The maximum size for the class is 32 students and it is very interactive. I make it a point to learn student names as quickly as possible. This is something I am terrible at.
Should you memorize names? If it is a reasonable size class, I completely recommend it. Even in one short class, I noticed a difference in the atmosphere by knowing all their names. Here are my criteria for memorize or not:
- Class size less than 40
- Meets more than once a week
- Not just a plain lecture class
Well, those aren't really the criteria but rather things that I consider. I can not memorize a large lecture of 95 students. In those cases I purposely don't know anyone's name (to be fair).
Here are my tricks for learning names. I have students sitting at tables (in this class and in labs). As they are working on something, I go around and write down who is sitting where. Yes, this means that you have to actually ask each student what their names is (I hate that part). After I have a "seating chart" I just keep practicing while they are working. If a student talks to me, I make sure and use their name. I will look it up on the seating chart if I have to. This just takes a couple of class times of practice till I have them all (well, most of them) memorized. There are always a couple of students that I just can't get.
I have tried other things in the past. One year, I video taped everyone as they left and had them say their name to the camera. Awkward. Another year, I obtained all the student pictures from their administrative profiles (that was a lot of work). Then I used this to make a "quiz" webpage for myself. That worked pretty well, but it was a lot of effort. One year I tried name tags - that was a pain.
In conclusion, I always feel silly trying to learn names. Afterwards, I feel much better about it. It makes the class seem more friendly.
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A while ago, the second year undergraduate class contained two students who, though unrelated, looked virtually identical. One of them visited the student lounge early in the term (I was a graduate student), and we TAs learned his name. For the longest time, we were calling them both by the same name, unaware that they were two different people. They never corrected us.
When we discovered the mistake, we took to calling all the students, male and female alike, by the same name.
We expect our students to learn theories, concepts, definitions, etc. Why wouldn't we expect ourselves to learn their names? It's important to them and makes it much easier to manage the classroom. Some tips to help: http://www.delaneykirk.com/2007/08/httpwwwdelane-1.html