My Teaching Evals From Last Term

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So, at the end of each term, students get to evaluate you and your teaching style.... (im a bio grad student and i teach biology lab sections in college)

I just finished reading all of them and i just broke down and cried cause this was the first term i taught even since knowing about AS and blah blah... and even from their comments, i can just see myself do all these aspies things that they are picking up on w/o realizing what they are.

Amidst all the nice comments and abberant unhappy ones.... there was just an overwhelming number of "more facial expressions" "less monotone" "more enthusiasm".....

Everyone said I was friendly and nice.... They just all tacked on one of those random comments... To help me out? I know how to have fun in a class rooms and keep everyone on task at the same time-which is hard... I've had quite a bit of teaching experience for someone my age... with students ranging from grade school to college.... and i do make jokes and try to make things funny when I can... and I get better with every semester I teach. I guess I just look fake somehow.

But I was just shocked at how many of those comments there were. I'm a bit afraid to go back through the comments from my other semesters (prior to my AS discovery)...

I reminds me of when I called up every (kinda?) friend I've known and asked them what they thought of how I acted... they all had similar comments to make.

Any other teacher-types out there with some tips to make me more "animated"?

BE HAPPY! It sounds like you have some nice students!

You were friendly, nice, made them like you, kept their interest, and they were happy with what they learned! YOU DID YOUR JOB! That is more than most do!

Try to pepper your instruction with practical use, and things SHOULD be even better and maybe you'll seem more enthusiastic and MAYBE smile. If you can smile, even a grin, try to. I'm not sure in what way you speak in monotone, or how often. I assume it isn't THAT common, since you only recently found out. Maybe that will dissappear also if you get some more enjoyment.

Steve

I considered taking a lab teaching job this summer for a chemistry
class at a community college. I feel strongly that I could have done a good job.

Myself I like people who are not negative to be teachers. I murdered only one teacher in an evaluation. A young women lab instructor. Who knows maybe she had some social skills problems
or depression, etc. But I think I honestily evaluated her.

I would not worry about being animated and entertaining to the students. Just do not be mean. The fact that alot sstudents gave you good reviews means your doing good. How about you ask the biology department head how your reviews compare to others?

i'm not upset with their comments.... i'm a good teacher--i know the material--they woulda booted me otherwise lol...

it's just that when i found out about AS this summer, i said, my teaching is gonna be different... cause i do kinda remember some comments from prior semesters where they said i should me more enthusiastic and such... but i chalked it up to "teaching the 8am labs" or "being nervous about teaching a hard course".... but this time around, i had all afternoon labs (YAY) and it was the easist of all the bio courses... so it wasn't like i was unsure of my knowledge over the material... so my excuses are gone.

after finding out about AS... i just told myself i would make it a point not to do those things... but apparently the comments are still there. im not shy about being infront of large groups of people (took me a while to get there; but when you work with lil kids, you HAVE to get over it, lol)... and i really did try so hard to make it interesting/funny for them.

i guess that's the hardest thing for me... cause they get the impression that I'M NOT INTERESTED... and i just don't know HOW to change the way i act. cause that's kinda the most important thing: cause if you arent engaged and dont want to be there in the classroom... then they wont either...

i dunno where im goin with this. i guess the comments just smacked me in the face cause I THOUGHT i had a really good repoire with these students... i definitely did make the classrooms (i had 2 sections) laugh and the atmosphere was a lot better than other (scarier) classes i've had to teach.

i really thought there wouldnt be a single comment like that.

guess i just need a new face, voice, and sense of humor

Sedaka,

This has NOTHING to do the the repoire, etc.... They were just a little putoff by this. HEY, I've had "teachers" that were OVERLY enthusiastic! I'd rather have a good teacher that is a little disinterested.

Steve