What’s In A Name? Everything!
Everyone’s name has meaning. Blogger Amy Rivers says, “names provide us [with] an opportunity to show love and acceptance of our fellow humans. Calling a person by the name they’ve chosen provides us a chance to acknowledge their person-ness, their humanity.”
Growing up with a uniquely spelled or pronounced first name can be challenging. I’ve often experienced the discomfort and embarrassment of having my name mispronounced or misspelled. A particularly memorable instance occurred when I was presenting for a university program and they misprinted my name as ‘Shelaugh’ My dear friend and fellow ADE, Kevin humorously noted that I would not be laughing. He was right!
Our names are a significant part of our identity. They were given to us by caring adults who thought long and hard about what they would name their precious child or chosen by ourselves to represent the person we have become. We must honour those names by saying them correctly.
One way that I honour my students’ names is by having them create a short video the first week of school where we ask them to introduce themselves to the Grade 7 teaching team. Check out my lesson and PDF planning sheet and try it with your class!
Attach up to 5 files which will be available for other members to download.