Student #106745: You Greeted Me By Name

All of my classes are being held live synchronously over Zoom this semester. One day I said to my MATH 120 (math for elementary teaching) students that I noticed they all showed up to class every day.  This wasn't necessarily true of my other classes.  Then I commented that I thought this was remarkable, especially considering the class is on M, W and F from 4:15 - 5:15 PM.  (Yes, it is a struggle to want to attend class on a Friday at that time.)  I also told them that I noticed that many of them kept their web cameras on.  

What happened next made me realize that connections can happen in a virtual environment.  They told me that I am one of the few teachers that greets them by name when they come to class.  I hadn't really thought of it before.  I use the waiting room and click on student names to admit the students into class. Their name is displayed which makes it very easy for me to say "Hello, NAME. Welcome to class."  Or on a Friday, "Happy Friday, NAME. I hope you have some plans to relax this weekend." Or to a specific student, "Hi, NAME.  Did you get to go for a bike ride today?" And on our last day of class, "Welcome to the final class of the semester, NAME."

If knowing my students - what motivates them, their view of math, how they evaluate their own learning - matters to me, then it makes sense that I should start by learning their names.  Learning names is not my strong suit, and in a face-to-face classroom, I seat students alphabetically by first name with a seating chart to help me learn their names a bit more quickly and easily. Luckily, I teach at a small college and with maximum class sizes of 25, it is a bit easier to learn student names and learn a bit about the students themselves.

You may think that calling students by name is trivial, but my students told me it matters. This makes sense. Our names are closely tied to our identity.  If we are called a name we don't want to be called, we often correct the individual.  For example, I go by my middle name and not my first name. I will change my Zoom name to Leigh, if I notice Zoom has me logged in with my first name, Sidney.  

Names are important not just in life, but in remembering those who are no longer with us.  I encourage you to either watch poet Billy Collins read "The Names", which was dedicated to the victims of 9/11 or read the NY Times online article called "Those We've Lost", a series designed to put the names and faces to the victims of COVID-19.  Understanding thousands of lives lost in both of these tragedies has a different impact on you when you hear, read and think about the indivdual names of the people impacted and their families.

Thank you to my students for helping me to remember that names do matter.  If I see you on campus at some point and I don't recognize you, please greet me by name.