Crafty tips in the classroom: Name cards

I am terrible at remembering names. I'd list it as one of my biggest weaknesses. Superman has his Kryptonite and I have the inability for names to stay in my head. It is quite terrible. Usually I forget a person's name whilst they're still introducing themselves.

Now think on that as I tell you I'm a teacher and in London I was a guide leader. Yup. I regularly have groups of 30 children or so under my command. Have you ever tried to control a group of children when you don't know their names? It leaves you powerless. So I'm always up for new strategies to help me memorise names.

When I was teaching in India earlier this year I had an even bigger problem when trying to remember names. Indian names are hard. And long. My brain refused to co-operate. But luckily I was struck with inspiration. I cut some drawing paper I had into cards, handed them out to my students and had them make themselves name cards. Then I made them wave the cards in the air whenever they wanted to answer/ask a question.

Inspired idea. They loved making the cards. This was my grade 4 class and as they have such regimented school day they adore anything creative they get to do. I was impressed at how different all the cards were. Here is a selection of them:

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A new love: Washi Tape

I've been reading a lot recently on the blogosphere about washi tape. This is a Japanese masking tape that comes in amazing colours and patterns. It's usually made of natural fibres like bamboo, bark, rice and hemp. Although I lived in Japan for a year I don't remember seeing any of this tape. Maybe it's new? Or perhaps I just wasn't paying the proper attention.

I think I first properly became aware of washi tape on Kimono Reincarnate's blog and Clairabellemakes. Clairabelles makes in particular has a really interesting tutorial on making your own version of this tape.

I decided it was high time I buy some of my own to play with. I Googled around and finally settled on washitapes.co.uk. They seemed to have decent prices with tape starting at £2.00 a roll, they sell some Japanese brands and they post from the U.K. For me that was a big must as I may not have time in my current abode to wait for international shipping to arrive.

I have to say I was more than pleased. The tape arrived very promptly. And it's so pretty.

Of course then I had to think of something to do with my new tape. I have a collection of small pots for my beads so decided to try decorating them with this tape:

I think that works very nicely. I'm sure there'll be more posts on this topic as I play with my new tape. What next I wonder? What projects have you found for your washi tape?