Comments on: The Audit II

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » The Sophomore Slump

dy/dan » Blog Archive » The Sophomore Slump — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 04:17:03 +0000

[…] mostly it’s because last year was such a good year. In my head, this year can only be as good as or worse than the last, the sophomore slump of my […]

By: dan

dan — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 18:31:41 +0000

Oh, that, no, that’s my summer cottage. My home isn’t nearly that modest.

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:40:15 +0000

Is that *your* house in the background?

If so, I’m teaching in the wrong area.

By: Brian Miller

Brian Miller — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:56:30 +0000

Congratulations on getting back such excellent evaluations. That is cause for celebration!!!
I would like to comment on people’s comments about the “outliers”. A response or two has said that they are “bitter” or angry, vengeful teens. Does that mean the students that put excellent responses are apple polishers? These two or three students had a gripe and it should be taken just as seriously as those that gave you high marks. There is an old saying about life. It goes something like “20% of people will like you, 20% of people will hate you, 60% don’t care about you either way one bit”.
Here is a true story. When I was doing the second of several pre-student teaching experiences during my juinor year of college, I was assaigned to a 5th grade classroom. My cooperating/mentor teacher called me up to welcome me ahead of time to her class and introduce herself. She told me “oh, and you don’t need to wear a tie”. Of course, being the 20 year old college guy that I was, I said, “woo-hoo!”. So, I never wore a tie. Not once. Well, the end of the year comes along and I am handed my evaluation. Under “professionalism” I get an unsatisfactory. The comments said, “never once wore a tie! Even though I told him he didn’t have to, I thought he would have taken a cue from the other male teachers”. Me and my college buddies said she was a bitch, and an angry bitter person who is probably beaten by her husband. My first job out of college I again, never wore a tie. My evaluation under the “professionalism” catogory states “excellent”. Under comments the principal rights, “always on time for work, works well with admin and staff”. So who is right?

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:53:19 +0000

I’d say not only ditch the neutral, but also put the ratings labels on top of the columns, rather than a sentence at the beginning. It just makes it easier to make sure that they are really answering in the right direction. (Maybe your negatives weren’t?!)

By: Marco Polo

Marco Polo — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:07:16 +0000

I agree with Jackie. The easiest way to "lose the neutral" is to only use Likert scales of 4 or 6.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 04:03:48 +0000

Tony,

If you are keeping a class blog, you can create a quick survey using SurveyMonkey or BlogFlux. The answers are logged for you anonymously. The surveys are stored for you at the site.

If not, I like Nancy’s idea of just a quick note-card. It solves the problem of having to really prepare something advanced.

We use something through our Website provider that lets us create surveys. It logs the results and provides us with the ability to download an excel sheet with all of the results.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 02:37:57 +0000

Tony–I heard about an assessment that might work to get the immediate feedback you mentioned. Ask the question–have kids write their response on a note card–turn it in. You have your feedback–if using as assessment they’d have to put their names on it.

By: Tony Lucchese

Tony Lucchese — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 21:35:09 +0000

Is there an effective way to get this kind of feedback all year long, so you can adapt and reflect as it happens, rather than having to wait until next year to make changes?

By: H.

H. — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 00:42:37 +0000

TMAO, that's funny. I guess having 7th graders appreciate your sense of humor just might be a dubious compliment in any case :)