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Got my teaching evals today. I usually wait a few weeks before reading them b/c I get so attached that harsh evals can be hurtful to read too soon. BUT...since I have barely done any work for 11 days & I won't be teaching next semester, I decided to read my evals today (1/n)
The thing about teaching evals is: there is no winning. Even though I am generally a popular teacher & plenty of students say positive things, it's hard to shake the negative comments. Here is what I aim to do: 1) listen to constructive feedback (pos & neg) 2) learn 3) grow (2/n)
Practically, here is what I do: 1) pick one negative comment that I hated & try to think about whether I can learn anything from it 2) Pick two positive comments that I loved -->let them sink in-->then think about whether I can do more of whatever those comments articulated (3/n)
Here is (part) of a neg comment: "the course seems to be more of a propaganda about the evils that are inherent of American democracy...I enjoyed the course but was very concerned by the extreme bias of the course material & professor." I get a variant of this EVERY time (4/n)
I put material from conservatives on the syllabus + I often bring up cons perspectives (& while I do not make them into straw men, I also do not pretend to agree with them) + I present oodles & oodles of social science research that goes beyond lib/con divides. It's never enough.
Moving on, here is a positive comment I enjoyed: "I wish there were more professors like Michener at Cornell. Heartbroken that she is the first professor of color I've had during my time at Cornell. Give her tenure." Can't disagree with that last part, now can I?
Things I learned from evals today: 1) my power point slides are bland (I was not trying to make them exciting) but I guess I could 2) students do not like it when I go over course logistics in lecture 3) most students enjoy "nontraditional" assignments like podcasts & interviews
