What's in a Name?

What is the sweetest thing to a child's ear? Their own name. When my daughter was in nursery school, the school director once told the parents that we should make deposits into the children's "good feelings bank" on a daily basis. Obviously that is a fundamentally important idea since I have carted it around in my head now for over 20 years. How sweet it is to have someone say hi to you by name.

I have many students. Many. At Vista our whole school population is just over 300. In October I will add students from other schools in our string program, so I will have another 40-50 names to learn (or relearn!). I want to make a concerted effort to learn everyone's name and use it - look them in the eye, smile and make a connection.

In my music blog today, I posted about one way in which I am starting to work towards my goal, incorporating names into the curriculum. I know I may not get to 100%, but I am going to strive towards that.