tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post7129978741570571966..comments2024-02-28T18:29:41.120-08:00Comments on Not of General Interest: Student evaluations: unrequited love?undinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-30841949967740273692010-07-16T19:58:37.013-07:002010-07-16T19:58:37.013-07:00I have my husband read the stupid evals.
I'...I have my husband read the stupid evals. <br /><br />I'm stuck teaching a very difficult required class to first semester students. A very important class that they need to know the material for, but one that is not the most popular. There's a combination of fear, hatred, and incorrectly believing that math isn't useful.<br /><br />I do my duty. At first I wanted to save everybody. Now I only bother saving the ones who want to be saved. If they fail, they get to take the class again the next year from the other professor who teaches it. I also told my senior faculty that if they didn't explain what a PITA it is to teach that class during my annual reviews I was going to refuse to teach it (or quit).<br /><br />The more I teach the more jaded I get, and the more I treat my students like high schoolers and the less like adults. Last semester I had to confiscate a blackberry in class. But that kid gave me good reviews...nicolehttp://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-89055860315932284242010-07-05T18:26:44.210-07:002010-07-05T18:26:44.210-07:00Historiann, that's how I feel about it, too: i...Historiann, that's how I feel about it, too: if the student didn't like flying dinos, why not sign up for introductory basketweaving like everybody else? That's a great point about teaching for yourself: ultimately, if we aren't enjoying it and entertained by what we're doing, they won't be, either.undinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-3477322907954244302010-07-05T09:39:07.001-07:002010-07-05T09:39:07.001-07:00You have to teach for yourself. That's the on...You have to teach for yourself. That's the only way you'll be able to keep rolling out of bed to do it again for 20, 30, or more years. Teach your course on flying dinos because it's interesting to YOU, and the students will (most of them) respond to your energy, enthusiasm, and engagement.<br /><br />Those who don't, well: why would any a$$wipe volunteer to take a course on flying dinos if they don't really dig flying dinos? Students should be better curators of their college careers. And if they aren't that's not your fault, it's theirs.Historiannhttp://historiann.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-25019476717256757122010-07-01T13:03:23.860-07:002010-07-01T13:03:23.860-07:00Annieem, "try desperately" is the key. I...Annieem, "try desperately" is the key. I think I'm trying to convince myself that all the time I lavished on teaching last semester wasn't a mistake. <br /><br />ianqui, your comment is making me go back and see what the ratio is. <br /><br />Profacero, that point about abuse--yes. I don't feel abused, exactly, but maybe I do, else why would I write about it? <br /><br />Moria, that's it exactly--why do we see evals in that negative light? Maybe time + distance = objectivity. <br /><br />tenthmedieval, that's a good strategy. I have to remember that the majority said that they learned a lot and not let the comments of a few distort the class for next time.undinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-78688770583542592852010-07-01T08:18:37.425-07:002010-07-01T08:18:37.425-07:00I have a defence mechanism that goes like this: (i...I have a defence mechanism that goes like this: (i) if the kids knew how the course should go they wouldn't be on it, (ii) their reactions are as much or more about them as they are about my teaching. Therefore I act statistically, dismiss the outliers as `having issues' and only if there's something that repeatedly comes up (and there is, sometimes, because I'm not so very experienced at this) do I start taking it seriously and plot to improve it or eliminate it next time. After all, teaching to the few vocal voices risks losing the silent majority.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-45921424826685232972010-06-30T19:42:58.821-07:002010-06-30T19:42:58.821-07:00I got my very first set this past term. I read the...I got my very first set this past term. I read them avidly and immediately. I was on my way to drinks with the fellow who fills, among other profly roles, that of teaching mentor, and who had read them in advance of me. I must have had a kind of stark sullen glare about me, and I gestured at nothing with the pile of evals, and said, "God, I should <i>not</i> have read these right now." He boggled. "But they were <i>excellent</i>," he exclaimed, "some of the very best." <br /><br />Shows what difference twelve years can make. I re-read them recently, and found that he was right – they're full of quirks and oddities, and a few complaints, but on the whole, the kiddos liked me and liked how I taught. So why did the initial reading make me feel like a failure as a teacher, a scholar, and a person? <br /><br />I think this is a metaphysical mystery. There may be rational ways to approach it (your commenters have good suggestions), but I think I'd rather just let it lie.moriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12390704103460109691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-54624463712766658262010-06-30T16:41:38.719-07:002010-06-30T16:41:38.719-07:00P.S. So to speak to point: I don't mind unrequ...P.S. So to speak to point: I don't mind unrequited love, as I don't expect love ... but I also don't expect abuse, and I object to it.Professor Zerohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04909063513731044826noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-51916341615888645002010-06-30T16:38:52.655-07:002010-06-30T16:38:52.655-07:00...Not read evaluations! People tell me "oh, ......Not read evaluations! People tell me "oh, but I have to, because I have to defend myself..." but technically, so do I. Sometimes I have to but by then there are so many and they were so long ago.<br /><br />I do give anonymous polls on aspects of classes I want feedback on, and ask students what they think, and I get good information from this -- much more interesting than what I get on student evaluations which has included in recent history:<br /><br />"Behaved like a genius"<br />"Cool chica"<br />"Irritating laugh"<br />"Go back to Mexico"<br />"Socialist bitch"<br />"Great ass"<br />"Flighty, wouldn't say what would be on tests except that we were responsible for everything that had been in bold, and that we were expected to use, and not just recite information, this is no help, have a study guide"<br />and on, and on.<br /><br />Reading through that kind of stuff,<br />figuring out what it might mean, etc., etc., just isn't good for me or my work. I know that some of the more offensive of these comments are what some members of any audience will be thinking, but having to deal with it in writing while I'm preparing classes for another semester is just lame.Professor Zerohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04909063513731044826noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-35339639459683768492010-06-30T11:43:24.261-07:002010-06-30T11:43:24.261-07:00I try my hardest to approach it this way: Students...I try my hardest to approach it this way: Students are not necessarily in college because of their love of learning. In some cases, their parents make them, and in some cases, they do understand that college will help them advance in the world. I teach an esoteric topic (albeit one that half the students think will be more relevant to their lives than it actually will be, in many cases), so if I get 10 students out of a class of 50 that love the topic (and like me), I feel like I've succeeded. The fact that those 10 students did love the class suggests that I can't be all bad.Ianquihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03268223727887685830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-65695909834261961642010-06-30T11:32:16.546-07:002010-06-30T11:32:16.546-07:00Advice that I give to myself and others, but that ...Advice that I give to myself and others, but that I still can't quite assimilate:<br /><br />As long as most of the comments recognize all that I put into the course, and reflect their own engagement and learning, then I try, desperately, to not take to heart those few students who were not engaged, who feel they did not learn anything, who responded with hostility to my own passion for the subject. Because, as a student, I'm sure I had terms where I too self absorbed to learn, to engage, to care.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com