Dr. Angela Dalhoe on Name Tents

Nameless students often feel just that: nameless. As best demonstrated by the internet, anonymity often leads to inattentiveness, unaccountability, and an unhealthy amount of time spent viewing cat pictures. Dr. Angela Dalhoe, Department of Special Education, shares how she utilizes name tents to amp up participation and interact with her students more personally:

For all of my classes I have my students create name tents. I think these are particularly useful for large classes: when you have 50 students in a classroom, it’s really hard to keep track of who is participating and who is present. With the name tents, attendance becomes really easy: I keep them up front and let the students pick them up at the beginning of class. Any leftover names are obviously not present. This serves as a constant reminder that attendance is important and consistently monitored. Additionally, the name tents allow me to call on my students by name, which is really important for relationship-building and community-building.

Interviewed by: Jon Pumper