Changing My ''teaching'' Name?

[Halo_n_Horns]

I still cannot decide which folder to put this question into... so i will put it under general for now.



This is an unusual question, but hopefully someone will be able to help... I want to be a teacher when I have finished university... but I really hate my family name (my surname) and students would call me Miss ******.

Do you think it would be possible for me to change my family name just for when I am teaching so to speak? Because my passport and things would have my real name (wouldn't want to lose it totally) but when I am working in the school I would really like to use a different last name/surname, something which I have always liked. It is just something I am quite funny about...



Would this be allowed? Does anyone have any opinions on this? Am I being really, really stupid?

[Michie]

I don't know how much I can help but maybe you could tell your students to call you Miss (First name) or Miss (middle name)

If you are a more modern and if it's okay in this day and age for students to refer to their teachers by their first name, maybe that works.....??



I dunno. The situation struck me since my cousin, about a year ago, decided she doesn't like her first name and now refers to herself by her middle name...and asks everyone do the same (though I always forget). It's not the same as changing your last name though...





(my cousin, btw is 29 and is a teacher as well. but first name changes doesn't really affect what her students will address her as...from what I know, she's still Miss (last name) in her classroom.

[Wheretogo]

It can be done. When you get on at a school ask if its okay for you to be called Miss (first name or middle name). Just tell them why, and ASK before you do it.



Some teachers have done it, and its not a big deal.

[turtbub]

I think you can ask your students to call you whatever you want!



Clear it with the head of the school you're working for, of course, explain that you'd rather be called something other than Miss *Your Last Name*. I think they should understand for sure.

[FranklinF]

yeah i think that if it were something that could be strewn into a joke with the students it would be fine... that or you could have them call you Miss A. or B. or what ever letter your last name is, we did that with our psych teacher in H.S. his name was long so Mr. C. was easier to say

[CanadaCraig]

Hi Halo_n_Horns!!



I hope you're OK.



I appreciate how you feel and why you might want to use a different name. But I KNOW that as a teacher you will have an opportunity to impress upon your students the importance of self-acceptance. [which I feel will be the most important 'lesson' you could ever teach] No doubt - many of your future students will also have last names that have caused them to deal with ridicule and name-calling, etc. You could - therefore - consider your last name an 'opportunity' to impress upon your students [especially those with unusual last names] the importance of 'being OK' with self and to embrace and 'own' [if you will] their last name. Besides - our 'name' is what we make of it. And sometimes - if we become exceptional human beings - having an unusual last name can become an asset.



Just something to consider.



GREAT BIG HUG

Craig!!