What is in a name?

There is a certain power in knowing and calling a person by their name. Today made this even more clear to me. I had to take Ms. Ungricht's English class as she was at a field trip. I haven't been able to teach Enlish all year so I was kind of excited, no really I was. We read "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, one of my faves. Anyhow, before class started I peered at the seating chart and got a few names memorized so I could call on students as I only know a handful of kids in the class. I needed to shock and surprise and that is just what I did.

I called on a girl to give an answer by name, who was literally shocked I knew her name. After picking her jaw off the floor she said, "How do you know my name?" I said, "Well most people, like yourself only use 8% of their brain, I use 13%." No one in the class knew what to say about that. I had the effect I wanted. Being Jr. High kids they wanted to test this, luckily the girl who wanted to test it most was another name I had memorized. "I said your name is Kariell and I know everyone in the room's name." This about brought the house down. Kariell was stunned, even more so I pronounced her name correctly(Ms. Ungricht had told me about her before in warning, I figured this would give me the upper hand and it did.) Students everywhere were asking me what their names were and watching to see if was looking at the seating chart. I had to keep up the mystique.

I decided to go with the whole 13% brain thing and say that it would take me a minute, but that each kid would mentally send me a vibe and I would know their names. Kariell asked if I knew her last name, I did not, so I said, "Just keep sending me the vibe and I will be able to get it." I then wrote on a post-it to the TA who had the seating chart in hand "Please position the seating chart so I can see it." I winked at her and she subtley moved it in view. I had to be careful because the kids were now watching me like a hawk. They were doing silent reading, I got up, had a little glance and caught her last name without anyone noticing. I proceeded to walk around right in front of her, I stopped, for dramatics I snapped my fingers and pointed at her, "Its Hanson." For what seemed three minutes she was stunned staring at me in disbelief. She blamed her friend across the room who happened to be in the bathroom at the time. I added "That's the power of the using 13%, I can just go on vibes."

Needless to say the class went great, all the kids were stupified, I don't know whether they really bought the vibe thing or not, but all were impressed I knew their names. It was pretty cool and I got a kick out of the whole experience.