Ah, classrooms of 10 years ago. Just a gentle waft of Hattie coming from studious corners of the staffroom, and the occasional glimpse of one of De Bono’s Thinking Hats somewhere on a noticeboard. Bloom was mentioned once in an Inset, but that was what flowers did, and we rightly ignored the eager teaching and learning lead who brought him up. And Rosenshine? Who was he, exactly?

As a relatively new teacher, I didn’t need research, evidence, proof or indeed validation that what I was doing in my “teaching space” was any good - for me or the outcomes of students. I was determined to enjoy myself, and what is more fun for a student than seeing your name on a carefully preloaded name generator?

Next to the animation on the PowerPoint slide and the unnecessary but tenuously linked YouTube clip, the random-name generator was the essential tool for the fresh-from-postgraduate-certificate-in-education newbie with a point to prove and an older generation to disquiet.

I imagine now the fear of the quieter or struggling students as the names flickered past the selection arrow/fruit machine screen/clacking dial (differentiation of generator for different key stages, naturally…), while they hoped desperately that it wouldn’t land on them. I recognise now the embarrassed, perhaps even humiliated, feeling they must have had as their name came up.

I missed all the horror because I wasn’t paying attention. I loved the name generator. I’d spend ages coming up with amusing and playful nicknames for students in the classes. Also, name generators appeared to be an absolute winner for the “questioning” box on the old lesson-observation checklist. Aiming for that illusory and ultimately one-off “outstanding”? Trot out a generator, crank the fun up to 11 and claim that students are both engaged and making progress.

What a waste of time, effort and good puns and wordplay based on student names. The random-name generator was, in all reality, just a fancier and more high-tech version of lollipop sticks, themselves worthy of being consigned to the “nice try, but no” bin.

Nowadays, I listen when the names of academics I once dismissed are spoken, and I pay attention to the teaching and learning leads bringing us stuff that we know probably will work. My classes are all the better for it.

Henry Sauntson is a newly qualified teacher and initial teacher training coordinator and professional tutor at City of Peterborough Academy

This article originally appeared in the 19 June 2020 issue under the headline “The fad that gave teaching a bad name”