- What do you Think?? REFLECT: Perhaps you have a name or you can recall a classmate with a difficult name to pronounce. Predictably, year after year, teachers butcher the same name. What was the outcome? Was it awkward, long-lasting, humiliating? What was the impact??
- Now What?? How might you become a “calibrator?” What steps will you take this school year to learn student names properly in your class? (avoid a side-show!)
My maiden name is Polish and definitely difficult but not nearly as difficult as the names some of my friends had growing up. Year after year, some of my friends became so exhausted trying to correct teachers/others who would say their name that they gave up and just "went along" with what was being said for their name. This always angered me because I truly believe everyone's names are specifically chosen for them by parents and even last names have meaning to ones culture/background. It's so important to get pronunciation correct as this is showing a basic sign of respect that "I value your name and want to make sure I am pronouncing it correctly to show you that respect you deserve."
One of the things I value most about myself is that I am a calibrator for my students and the people that I meet in my day to day life. Especially being an ENL teacher, I find it extremely important that I am able to pronounce my student's names correctly, and sometimes I'll even make them say it everyday multiple times a day until I make sure I get it right. I find that this automatically creates a bond with the student that, again, I respected them to make sure I pronounced their name correctly. It was also extremely important to me as a new teacher that kids provided the same respect for me and pronounced my maiden name correctly. I've also found that many students names (in other languages) have meaning to them and the students love to tell the story - this further creates more importance on the fact that we need to ensure we are calibrating ourselves to our students names!