Building a Virtual Community Starts with Names

The first time I had a telehealth appointment this summer, I didn’t have high hopes. Wouldn’t discussing personal details with my doctor through a computer screen feel awkward? And wouldn’t hearing her responses feel clinical and cold? The discomfort I planned to feel ahead of time created hesitancy to keep my appointment. I was wrong – in fact, I’ve grown fond of these virtual appointments. The interaction is more intimate. The entire time I’m talking with the nursing staff or the doctor, we are eye to eye, completely focused on one another. The banter, the discussions, the next steps are all there, clear as day, and I am thankful that we have this option right now. 

The same can be true for your classes. If everyone’s technology is working correctly (and I realize that’s a big “if”) and your students are ready and willing to dive in, it’s possible to create meaningful interactions with them. It’s not ideal, but learning can occur anywhere, right? Meeting benchmarks and improving skills are important, of course, but it’s the joy we find in our classroom community that drives us to keep going. The inside jokes, the routines, the expectations, the relationships between teacher and student, as well as those among students -- these are all vital parts of a successful classroom. Is it possible to create this community online? You may not have high hopes, or you may have just medium hopes, but let’s give it a shot. It’s the feeling of being part of something bigger that will keep our students ready and willing to dive in.

Get to know your students as quickly as you can.
Forming a community begins with learning everyone’s name. Some teachers boast that they learn everyone’s name by the end of the first week of school –- and that’s great. You may not be as quick, especially if you’re a middle or high school teacher who sees 150 students per day!

Why is learning your students’ names so important? Because everyone wants to be seen. To be heard. To be recognized and feel valuable. And, because it’s much easier to learn those names while you have those quick asides with your students walking around the room or waiting for class to begin, you have to get creative when your only interaction is online. Students feel isolated during remote learning, which is why quickly memorizing their names and learning a little bit about them is more important than ever. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

1. For a basic option, use Google Docs to create a grid. In each box, include a student’s photo and their name. Create one copy of this document with everyone’s name underneath their photo and one copy with just the photos so you can quiz yourself. Pull students’ pictures through your student information system, or take a screenshot during class.
2. The Name Shark iOS app is free. Download your students’ contact information and photos from your device (or Dropbox file), then play one of the app’s four memory games until you can match everyone’s name and face. There’s also room for recording information on each person. Name pronunciation? Preferred pronoun? Favorite author? Whatever creates a connection between you and the student, jot it down.
3. Google Slides is probably the best app for student collaboration, and there are two ways you can use it to not only learn your students’ names, but to learn more about who each student is –- straight from the source. The best part: you can immediately share this information with your class so they can get to know one another too. 
   • Eric Curts created a Google Slides template on his Control Alt Achieve website (bookmark it!) that you can share with students to personalize as they wish. Give them free rein over content and design, or ask them to divide the slide into categories you choose. Try to be playful in your topics -– they’ve all answered questions about their favorite movie (does anyone have one favorite movie?), their hobbies or the amount of brothers and sisters they have. Ask for favorite Netflix binges, who they look up to, five songs they’d put on a playlist for their parents, a proud moment, their favorite family member, who they’d trade places with for a week –- anything you think would help to create connections between students.
   • Alice Keeler is the president of how to use the Google suite of apps for classroom use. (Again, bookmark it!) With her Google Slides: Add Your Rostertutorial, she’ll take you through creating a Google Slides template to push out to students with their names already on a slide, which reduces confusion and keeps slides in the order you choose. You’ll have a blank slide in between for students to include fun information (see above).
4. Flipgrid is a tool that’s become a staple with many teachers over the past few years because it’s so versatile! It’s a great choice for learning names because the video format allows you to hear the student pronounce their name –- no guessing, fumbling, or worse, saying, “Sorry, your name is really complicated!” While they’re at it, consider asking them to give the origin of their name and why they love it or why they don’t. It’s an easy way to ask a simple question but get an insightful answer.

Time spent getting to know students’ names is never time wasted. Model for your students that learning one another’s names is a building block when it comes to being a good communicator, which is an important life skill. Our hope for them is that they can be part of healthy communities for their entire lives. Make your classroom one of them. 

Amy Raemont
Former Copywriter, Content Marketing
Follett School Solutions

Amy Raemont spent 12 years in the classroom as a high school English and journalism teacher, and five years as an instructional technology coach. She’s a Google Certified Educator and Google Certified Trainer. Her love of technology started in eighth grade when she received her first computer, a Radio Shack TRS-80.