Today’s teacher tip (or how-to-make-kids-like-you-so-they-will-actually-listen-when-you-teach) is REMEMBER NAMES.
So you’re despairing, because you think you’re “bad with names”? Well, despair no more, my friends, because I’ve got six foolproof tricks to help you be more intentional in making a name stick to a face, every time. Say goodbye to the days of embarrassing brain blocks and crestfallen kids who realize you forgot their name. Happily, remembering names is also one of Dale Carnegie’s tools for winning friends and influencing people, which is essentially what you’re trying to do as a teacher.
1. Repeat the name to yourself over and over in your mind while holding an image of their face in your mind’s eye.
2. Find a catchy word that rhymes with their name and/or relates somehow to the student.
For example, I really like the banana-bana-fo-fana method. Some names that can be tricky are those that begin with the letter X. But when repeated as Xander-bander-fo-fander-fee-fie-fo-mander…XANDER it’s rendered completely memorable. Bam!
3. Find out how it’s spelled
This is particularly helpful with names from other countries besides the one you’re from. An Indian name, for example, is Aditya. You may feel overwhelmed by strange vowels clipped together with hard consonants, but when spelled you can suddenly find all the sounds. This method of remembering names became infinitely more helpful to me after I started learning another language and had to get acquainted with the IPA phonetic alphabet symbols.
4. Try to establish three things to hang the name on
What I mean by that is this: determine three things about the student that stick out at you, that you know you’ll remember, and that your brain already has a pathway to.
Suppose you are chatting with Cassie, and you happen to really enjoy HoHos. Then you notice one poking out of Cassie’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lunchbox, and you love the ninja turtles! That’s two. Now you need a third thing, and happily, Cassie wears red sneakers: red is your favorite color. Now when you think of HoHos, TMNT, and the color red, Cassie’s name is also hanging there in your language locker, ready for deployment.
5. Quit being a name snob
I don’t care if you think names ending in -qua or -dra like Shaniqua and Rashandra are ghetto, or that names that switch out “e”s and “a”s for “y”s like Bostyn and Haydyn are vain and trendy, or even if you think names like Banjo and Radioscience are ridiculous, or that Britney and David are overused.
Here’s the thing. Names are like seasons and tides. They come in waves and cycles, and guess what. Once upon a time, there was a day when your name was considered ghetto, vain, overused, or ridiculous. So let’s not tear down Rashandra and Banjo. One of them could be the President someday, or a great musician, or an astronaut, and then their names will go down in history. Treat their name with respect and dignity now, and they’ll thank you for it big time later.
6. Tell yourself you’re good at remembering names, and then cling to the memory of the happy face of the person whose name you remembered. It’s the simplest way to make someone’s day.
Friends, I hear people say “I’m bad with names” all the time. I’ve got bad and good news for those people. The bad news is you’re bad with names, because you keep telling yourself you’re bad with names. The good news is you can start telling yourself you’re good with names.
Start today.
You can be good with names. You really can, but it takes hard mental work and practice. The sooner you get started the sooner you’ll see the results. You can go from total brain fart to everyone’s favorite person, because you put in the effort and intention to make their names stick.
Got anymore suggestions on how to help make a name stick to a face? Post them in the comments so we can all up our name game!
the transient tutor 
