Last week I got my evaluations (TCEs) from last semester. I first took a look at some reports online, but never having seen them before, it was difficult to interpret the numbers. On Thursday, though, my TEAD met with each of us individually during our preceptorship time to discuss our results. She said mine were really good! (especially, she said, considering this was my first time teaching composition). She told me to just pat myself on the back because they were great scores. That was really nice to hear! On Friday, I went to the English office to read the handwritten comments the students wrote (online, I can only access the results of the multiple choice type questions). Of course, the comments were really interesting. Most of them were pretty positive (like "this class was a pleasant surprise" or "the teacher was always willing to help") but it's funny how the couple of negative ones stick in my mind (I had one student who gave me the lowest scores possible all the way through the multiple choice questions and wrote some harsh comments, too). The TCEs are anonymous, but I know who some of the comments came from (I know their handwriting, or their major), and I'm pretty sure I know who the disgruntled one was. I guess that doesn't really matter, but it was interesting to see what some particular students said. In the end, I'm glad DR met with me to explain the TCEs and assure me that they were really good overall, otherwise even those few negative comments could be really discouraging. On the other hand, I know I can't please everyone (and it's not my job, either). One student wrote how all the workshopping was the best part of the class, while another said, "too much workshopping!" Ultimately, the results have to be taken with a grain of salt. And I guess a few complaints like that (or "the grading was really hard") actually mean I was doing things right. Hopefully, having good TCEs will help me get a summer job with the writing program...
Other than that, the weekend went by really fast (as always). Mark played a concert with SASO on Sunday (he's got another one next Sunday, too). I did some reading for my classes and the usual chores, and that's about it. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for the final projects in two of my classes, but I didn't come up with any brilliant ideas over the weekend (Although I dreamed last night that I had dozens of ideas, which I was writing on little slips of paper so I could draw one out of a hat, or something. Of course, I don't remember what any of those ideas were.). Hopefully I'll make some progress this week, because I can already tell the end of the semester will be really crazy, and my only defense is to get a head start.
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