This difference and subject-theoretical study comprises selected reconstructions of ethnographic observations of so-called practices of ‘getting to know each other’ in new fifth-grade classes at secondary schools in Germany. In line with the theoretical-methodological proposal to consider the function of temporality constructions more explicitly, the reconstructions focus on how knowledge about individual students is produced in the mode of remembering and expecting them and their behaviour. In addition, the reconstructions show how they are recursively positioned as temporally differentiated subjects. Step by step, the realisation of the normative-pedagogical differentiation practices of ‘getting to know each other’ and their powerful effects are described. In this way, the study provides in-depth empirical insights into the pedagogical practice of ‘getting to know each other’ and discusses the sometimes precarious conditions and ambivalences that arise in the process.