As the school year winds to a close, I’ve asked my students to evaluate my class as their final assignment. It is part of my reflection process. I realize not every student will love every aspect of this English course, but it is valuable to find out from their perspective what is working and what isn’t.

Ultimately, I want my students to pursue life-long learning, but I have to model a desire to continue learning as well. I try to demonstrate through my own daily actions that I want to continue growing and improving my practice as a teacher. Evaluations are a great way to collect information.

4 Responses

  1. I might have to give this another try. I say “another” because I did it a few years ago and found the results were less helpful than pen and paper evaluations. Students took unfortunate license with the anonymity of being online and some of them vented frustrations in offensive ways. I think there’s something about writing it by hand, even if their names aren’t on the evaluation, that keeps it a bit more civil – maybe they figure I know their handwriting, and in many cases I do.

    • Hi David,

      I can understand your point about pen and paper. It might draw out a more thoughtful and respectful response. There are definitely students who don’t enjoy certain aspects of the class. For example, most students complain about annotations. I understand their perspective and their frustration. Annotations adds time to their reading and for many interrupts their “flow” until they become second nature. I have to take their comments about annotations with a grain of salt because I know that it is a critical skill if they plan to take the SAT or go to college.

      I keep the form anonymous to encourage an honest response. Sometimes they are kind and complimentary and other times they are not. What I have learned is that my classes are diverse and for every kid who dislikes one thing there is another student who loves it. We cannot please everyone all of the time.

      I’d suggest giving it another shot! I also love having a digital copy of their responses I can reference in the future as I lesson plan.

      Take care.

      Catlin

  2. Catlin,

    I believe it was you who sent me the 10 Tech Tools to Teach the Common Core Standards. With your permission I would like to include it in my wikispaces website.

    Kira

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