Tuesday, June 12, 2012

It pays off

I read my students' teaching evaluations this week, and they were mostly as I expected: a lot of them whined about having to keep with readings, attend class, etc.  Students at Ghosttown U. tend to be  unaccustomed to doing these things, and it hacks them off.  As I expected, there was no love lost between my worst class and me: we pretty much despised each other.  However, since I am going to a new university, and these evaluations count toward nothing, I can toss them over my shoulder – or, actually, into a folder in my archived computer files – and say What. The. Fuck. Ever.

However, I got kind of a charge out of reading my evaluations for my seminar course.  Half the class said that my course was 'difficult' compared to other courses they had taken thus far at Ghosttown U.  A full third of them said that it was 'very difficult' compared to their other courses.  I take pride in that.  I mean, it's also kind of appalling, since I was teaching a 300-level seminar intended for pseudology majors, but for my own part, I take pride.

Very few students in that course offered any comments other than responses to the standard online survey.  The ones that did, though, all rated me as "Superior."  Best of all, in my opinion, was one student who responded to the question

What do you want other students to know about your experience in this class?

with

"Hard work, but it pays off."

That's goddamn right, kids.

:D

2 comments:

  1. That's a mighty fine comment!

    I always love reading student evals. I find them a fascinating genre. Even the ones who complain are entertaining.

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  2. Nice! I once had someone tell me that if you never have a student complain bitterly in the evals, you aren't doing things right. (However, I'm not taking my most recent set of evals to mean that I'm doing anything right...yikes.) It's nice to see that every once and again, you get a student who recognizes and appreciates what you're trying to do. Let's hear it for Dr. K.!

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