Name That Husky!!!

As a faculty, we commit to trying to know all students in the building and try to do as much community building as we can so that our students know each other better.  

This Friday, I am going head-to-head against our principal and a history teacher - who has a reputation for knowing the most students on faculty - in "Name That Husky."  We're going to go around the school during lunch and each person will have to name 10 students, chosen by the other teachers.  Right now, I know 372 of our 405 students by name, many by first and last names.  The 33 who I don't know include three sets of identical twins (I can correctly identify the other three sets of identical twins) and also include kids whose names I sometimes know and sometimes confuse.  To that end, I've been going into other classes during my prep to quiz myself on the students.  It's been pretty fun since many are reviewing for finals and I can talk to them about what they are studying.  I had a few kids ask me for help on their history essays and some ask me where the arabs live, in Palestine or Israel.  Most of the kids whose name I don't know, don't know my name either, so we get to meet each other a bit.  And today, so many kids got excited that I remembered their name from earlier in the week.  They are really cute.  Now, when kids see me on campus, they excitedly ask me, "What's my name?"

Next Friday, the students have a chance to compete to see who knows the most students.  I'm helping plan that and in the meantime, giving my mentees practice quizzes during our 1o minutes together each day.  My kids don't really stand a chance as they have made no effort to know the freshmen.  But I will work on it with them so at least they know a few more.