Tales from the Classroom III: Evaluations
Posted on October 12, 2003 @ 8:04 am
On Friday, I asked for a mid-term evaluation from the students in both of my classes in an attempt to gauge whether or not they’re finding our weekly discussion sections helpful. Now, having taught for a few semesters now, I’ve been conditioned not to expect too much in terms of useful feedback from these evaluations. Students tend to keep their positive comments vague with statements like “Jess is a good teacher” and “I really like this class.” On the other hand, when the students actually criticize of the class, their feedback isn’t typically all that constructive. For instance, any class that takes place before 10:00AM is guaranteed to have at least three or four students who note on their evaluations that the class “sucks” because it’s too early. Still, even if evaluations don’t always provide instructors with particularly useful feedback, they’re definitely worth conducting for their entertainment value alone. After all, when a student writes in an evaluation that “Jess is really funny in a sarcastic way–like Han Solo in Star Wars,” how can you not justify doing them again the following semester?
That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of useful feedback I received from Friday’s evaluations. The comments were positive for the most part, but many of my students offered rather insightful tips on how I might use the chalkboard better, get students who don’t like to talk more involved, and bring more current events into our discussions. Plus, several students commented that they liked the new haircut I got the previous day, so that’s probably a good thing.
My absolute all-time favorite evaluation, however, came during my first semester as a teaching assistant at Virginia Tech. “Jess is a great first-time teacher,” this anonymous student opined, “but I wish that he wouldn’t pace back and forth in front of the class like an angry caged bobcat while he teaches.” I think I’ll have that put on my business cards one of these days: professor of political science/angry caged bobcat. Maybe after I have tenure.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, previous tales from the classroom are archived here and here.
Posted by Jess | Filed Under Tales from the Classroom |
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Your “new” haircut looks like every other haircut you’ve gotten over the last 15 years or so, doesn’t it?
Congrats on the positive feedback, btw.
Good point. I probably should have said “recent haircut.”