Getting to know students

We're at the end of the second full week of classes, and for the most part, I think I've got everyone's names memorized. That's about 120 names, so I don't feel bad that there are a few students who I have to think about when I call out their name, but overall, I think I've got them nailed. For some reason this semester has felt harder as far as remembering faces, and I'm at a bit of a loss.

I know one cause. In two of my classes, there are conflicting forces at work to make it easier/harder to remember names. I'm teaching two sections of a hybrid course, which means we meet half the time face to face and the other half online. The fact that I only see students once a week makes it a bit trickier to remember their faces because I've got a lot of time in between to forget who they are. On the other hand, some of the online meetings are through digital technologies (e.g. Google+) that incorporate a picture, which makes it easier to remember who they are. So it's a mixed effect of remembering/forgetting in this class.

But that doesn't explain why matching names to faces this semester has felt harder in the other classes as well. I really don't want to admit that maybe it's just age and/or exhaustion after a hectic Fall term, but it just might be.