I went from bad to worse- Sturniolo to Reichmuth so I've never had an easy-to-pronounce Smith or Jones name- and I must admit I was always jealous of that as a quiet people pleaser who would just say, "That's fine," no matter how someone pronounced it! This podcast makes me feel super guilty about Jaroslav Delapadraha from elementary school. Students always laughed when teachers came to his name on the roster! I am sure I misspelled it- but that was how it sounded! It was very humiliating but I remember Jaroslav was always a good sport about it- or at least appeared to be. I remember students would repeat the wrong way the teachers would say it- which is horrible! Unfortunately, he was a nice kid who I guess came to expect that his name would not be pronounced correctly.
I'm not sure I am a calibrator yet- but I do try to master every student's name. I must admit- I may perform a bit of a sideshow- by breaking the name down phonetically on the board to refer to- I honestly didn't think about that being so bad. I make a genuine effort- but I now know to be more private about it. Just this year I had a new student named Thushaniga in my class. Two-s-on-i-kah. It took me a few days to get it! But, I didn't give up! I always put in my sub plans the phonetic spelling of the more difficult names.
I think is it incredibly important to pronounce students' names correctly. We use books in the beginning of the year to talk about how we got our names and why they are so important- The Name Jar and Chrysanthemum and I try to have students share how they would like their names pronounced.
What I still wonder about is the student who says their name is Nana (like the end of banana) but when Mom came for a conference she pronounced it Nonna. I mentioned it but the child still insists Nana so I respect that.
Additionally, a student who is in 4th grade whose name was spelled incorrectly in Power School - labeled wrong on everything- and he never said anything until I noticed. How does THAT happen? It definitely makes me more cognizant of cherishing the students' identities! The least I can do is try to pronounce the name correctly!
I'm not sure I am a calibrator yet- but I do try to master every student's name. I must admit- I may perform a bit of a sideshow- by breaking the name down phonetically on the board to refer to- I honestly didn't think about that being so bad. I make a genuine effort- but I now know to be more private about it. Just this year I had a new student named Thushaniga in my class. Two-s-on-i-kah. It took me a few days to get it! But, I didn't give up! I always put in my sub plans the phonetic spelling of the more difficult names.
I think is it incredibly important to pronounce students' names correctly. We use books in the beginning of the year to talk about how we got our names and why they are so important- The Name Jar and Chrysanthemum and I try to have students share how they would like their names pronounced.
What I still wonder about is the student who says their name is Nana (like the end of banana) but when Mom came for a conference she pronounced it Nonna. I mentioned it but the child still insists Nana so I respect that.
Additionally, a student who is in 4th grade whose name was spelled incorrectly in Power School - labeled wrong on everything- and he never said anything until I noticed. How does THAT happen? It definitely makes me more cognizant of cherishing the students' identities! The least I can do is try to pronounce the name correctly!