Teaching Today publishes innovative teaching tips on a weekly basis. Written with the busy teacher in mind, each tip is concise, practical and easy to implement in the classroom right away. Topics covered in Teaching Today are classroom management, career development, high stakes testing, instruction and planning, parental involvement, reading in the content areas, using technology in the classroom, and portfolio development. Teaching Today also offers free weekly downloads that correspond to the tips. Our free downloads make implementing the teaching tips even easier. Teaching Today provides educational resources for teachers looking for everyday solutions to the challenges of the classroom.
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Teaching Today - This Week's Tips Teaching Today - This Week's Tips

This Week's Topic

Learning Students' Names
Memorizing the names of a room full of new students can be a daunting experience. Yet, it’s worth the effort. Students appreciate instructors who make the effort to remember their names. This week’s tips help you make the task easy.

This Week's Tips

Remembering Your Students' Names (Monday)
It is a humbling task to learn and remember the names of 20 or 40 students. Students tend to remember instructors who don’t remember students’ names as lacking motivation and being unable to inspire motivation in students. Use these tips to help remember names: Familiarize yourself with the names on the roster before class. Give a writing assignment and study the students for ways to associate names with faces.

Memorizing Your Students' Names (Tuesday)
Use students’ habits to help you memorize names. Students sit in the same seats class after class. Use the rows of seats to set up a framework in your mind. Look for identifying features that people in the first row have in common with their names. Do the same with the second row and so forth.

Learning Student Names Quickly (Wednesday)
Have students introduce themselves, and write an identifying tag beside their name. Try these tips for easy memorization, and check out the Download Depot for a memory reference sheet: Have students give their names and tell where they live and something about themselves. Listen carefully to how students speak and to what they say. Notice what comes to your mind about each student and jot down your thoughts beside the student’s name.

Download your free Memory Reference Sheet today!

Reinforcing Student Names in Your Memory (Thursday)
Memory experts agree that reinforcing the information you want to commit to memory is a necessary part of the memorization process. To reinforce the names of your students, follow these tips: Spend ten minutes after class going over the roster, saying aloud the name of each student, and reading any identifying tags you wrote next to each student's name. Close your eyes and “see” each student’s face as you say his or her name aloud.

Refreshing Your Memory (Friday)
Make up a seating chart and review it right before class. Write each student’s name on an index card. Arrange the index cards to match the students’ seating order in the first class. You can rearrange the index cards if students change seats. Try this tip: Read aloud each card in order, starting with either the first row across the room or the left aisle. Close your eyes and “see” the students as you read their names.



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