TBers, A reminder that our first Teaching Breakfast get together of the semester is tomorrow (September 3) at 8 am outside Starbucks. Hope to see you then. The posting below is from a discussion on knowing students versus knowing students' names. Thought it would be interesting as we start the semester. I apologize in advance if this post causes some discomfort. In some ways, it carries my own discomfort. Today, computer face recognition software in rampant use can "know" a person's name by capturing an image of his or her face in a crowd on the street. Yet neither the computer nor the people operating the computer know nor care about the person. Many of the name recognition games and aids that we use lead to matching a name and face, but the implication that it leads to caring or knowing the person can be an illusion wherein lies little substance. Knowing a person is also a two-way street. The student must "show up" if he or she wants to be known. We cannot put the status of knowing students all on the faculty member. Maybe the best we can do is to facilitate opportunities. I submit that faculty who actively engage in coaching and sponsoring of student clubs likely know many students better than do their counterparts who memorize students in ways so that they can call on them in class by name. Yet, only those students who also reach out by becoming active in a student academic club are included. Still working with students in co-curricular clubs, despite the imperfections, constitutes one way of knowing students, rather than just knowing their names. I greatly appreciate Mike Dabney's advice on striving to meet with every student at least once. That indeed separates knowing names from knowing students. A wonderful late colleague in Ohio used to require each student to come to his office to go over their tests. He did not just hand the tests back; the students had to come to the office to see their grades and then engage with how they did and why. It was an act of immense work and dedication, but I guarantee that at the end of a course those students could distinguish being known and having their learning cared about from someone who just had learned their name. Knowledge surveys given at the start of a class can disclose how each individual feels about their confidence relative to the course content and learning objectives. So can some measures of self-efficacy or self-assessed approaches to learning http://www.selfdeterminationtheory.org/questionnaires/ Other efforts I've seen have included use of journals or assignments that included queries designed to elicit personal reflection in ways that only an individual can supply. To employ these assignments successfully, we need to acknowledge these students' reflections in our responses and feedback. People need to feel heard and respected for their disclosures. Others like Paul Corrigan are exploring interactive engagement with individual students through online environments as a way to begin to now students. My sense is that we have developed a number of good ways to facilitate an instructor's knowing students names, but when confronted with how to actually know our students, most currently find harder to respond to. That is not surprising. There's a lot more to the latter, and it addresses faculty involvement in student development outside of the classroom. As developers, I believe that we increase the quality of education when we champion teaching environments, practices, and support actions that catalyze knowing students. It is good to have multiple tools and suggestions for faculty in how they can begin to know their students beyond learning their names. Ed Nuhfer 7147 Overbrook Drive Niwot, CO 80503 Personal cell 208 241 5029 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Hope the first week is going well. Chilton Chilton Reynolds Teaching, Learning and Technology Center, Milne Library SUNY Oneonta, Oneonta NY 13820 Email: [log in to unmask] Phone: 607-436-2673 Blog: http://ctlaltpause.blogspot.com