Me (to 6th grader I don’t know): So what’s your name?
6th Grader: Most teachers just call me Lala.
Me: Is that what your mother calls you? Teach me to say it.
6th Grader: It’s [redacted African name].
Me (clumsily): [her name]
6th Grader: [her name]
Me (correctly this time): [her name]
6th Grader: (lights up)
It’s so important to try to say everyone’s names correctly! Like, my Chinese or Vietnamese or Arab or Pashto or [insert other non-European language here] is definitely nonexistent, but I will always try to say the name correctly.
It can make a world of difference in your relationship with the student. My first year the biggest Trouble Kid in the school was behaving for me and nobody else, and it turned out I was the only one saying his name correctly.
little art tip: the position of the ears on a human does a lot to communicate the angle of the head—whether it’s tilted forward or back.
tilted back with the chin forward, the ears are going to look lower down, closer to the mouth; tilted forward with the chin tucked, the ears look higher up & more in line with the eyes.
Sorry I’m not hijacking, but this is a really good tip if people don’t know this. Like it does look really strange at first, but it is more realistic than drawing them in the centre of the side plane of the head. So it looks like this;;;
