Making My Day Better

Jun 16, 2011 10:46


This was one of my student evaluations from my Roman history course this quarter:
I think I've figured out how to lecture, finally. )

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Comments 13

ladybird97 June 16 2011, 17:56:41 UTC
WOW. Oh my gosh. That is incredible. That's one to laminate, save, and take out whenever you're having a bad day.

Yes, you're doing the right thing. Very very much.

*hug*

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orichalcum June 16 2011, 18:21:54 UTC
Yeah. What makes me so happy about this one is that it isn't a generic "Ori is great." This eval says that what I was trying to do worked - the anecdotes, and the broader themes, and making them feel like they actually learned something. I have my own teaching style now, and at least for some students, it is effective.

Of course, it is worth noting that the 1/3rd of students who rarely attended class don't seem to have put down comments on the evaluation, so maybe it doesn't work well for everyone.

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retsuko June 16 2011, 18:46:13 UTC
Well... Yeah. Of course. :)

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orichalcum June 16 2011, 19:31:09 UTC
:) Well, it's been a gradual process; I am such a better teacher now than I was when I got my Ph.D.

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karakara98 June 16 2011, 19:11:01 UTC
Brava! Can I take your course :)

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orichalcum June 16 2011, 19:30:16 UTC
I think sometimes, once I'm more firmly established, of doing a set of podcasts w/accompanying images, which, as long as I'm in MI, is probably about as close as you'll get.

The problem of course would then be how to convince my actual students to keep showing up.

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kenjari June 16 2011, 19:21:30 UTC
Yay! And now I want to take your course, too.

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thistleingrey June 16 2011, 21:31:13 UTC
Awesome. One for the tenure file, definitely--so helpfully concrete and specific, too. (Both for your feedback purposes and for the file. heh.) Some of the time, students have these favorable, glad thoughts, and they say some of it verbally when meeting you in the corridor a year later but do not (or cannot?) put those thoughts onto the course eval sheet. And in this case, of course, there'd be no corridor a year later....

Yay.

Another friend posted about the murkiness of the eval process recently.

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jab2 June 16 2011, 22:55:45 UTC
in nothing helpful to ori (besides 'wow fantastic response!'), all i can say is how small the academic world is:

ori posted, thistleingrey-who-don't-think-i-know linked to a similar post, the linked person linked again to a post on gamification, which is by a guy i knew in grad school because he kept hitting unsuccessfully on one of my best friends that everyone thought i was dating....

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thistleingrey June 16 2011, 23:16:59 UTC
Yes, you and I have exchanged comments here a few times and that's it. How funny.

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orichalcum June 16 2011, 23:59:25 UTC
Indeed, the academic world is small. jab2, you do know tig's spouse, darkforge, through whom I originally met her.

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