NAMES VS. NUMBERS

Hello teacher friends!

I don't have any news on that new position yet.  I thought it'd be less stressful than this, but hey-- life's never easy.  I was suppose to find out on Friday what they had decided, but now it's Sunday and I'm sitting here riddled with anxiety.  Hopefully I'll get a call tomorrow and I can breathe a sigh of relief either way.

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That being said-- I have been writing up prep lists and searching through Pinterest like crazy these past few days just in case I get the call.  I would rather have everything gathered and ready to deploy instead of having to rush around later on.  It's another case of using my waiting time wisely.

As I look through photos of class behavior charts, mailboxes and "where we are" boards, I've been noticing a trend.  Every kid in that classroom is assigned a number.  It has always been something that bothers me.  I understand that it's "easy" to give a student a number so that their notebooks, shelves, mailboxes, etc all relate to the same number.  It keeps teachers from having to re-do all the labeling in the classroom.

But let me tell you who else gets assigned a number.

Prisoners.

It might seem a bit harsh, but every time I see teachers talk about the kids getting assigned a number, this is all I can think about.  You're essentially taking away that student's name and replacing it with a generic number that the kid the year before had, and the kid the year after him will take on.  Their name is a strong part of their identity and taking that away to make life easier on you, the teacher, is not something I can do in my classroom.

While numbering may be helpful for organizing test papers and preserving anonymity to your assessment documents, I don't think it should take over that classroom.  

What's an extra couple of hours each summer spent on recreating new labels? 

Okay-- I feel better.  I am happy to get that written down somewhere.  This is something that has always bothered me and I just needed to vent a bit.  I'm back off to search through the freebies on Teacher Pay Teachers!

Thanks for reading!! xx