Evals are in ... mostly
Survey from hell -- the class where I had an average attendance of 3 at any given time: 4.03 on the usual 5 point scale. My faves -- what I should improve upon ...
- She doesn't give us the answers and makes us work them out for ourselves (I am soooo proud of that)
- Way too much work for a 5 credit class. Online BAD
- Since English 101 and 102 don't cover Chicago Style, but it's such a major part of doing well in the class, at least a day should be spent on it. Not bloody likely. Feh. 'Cause you know what? Not actually a major part of the class. They have one 15% paper where they are expected to cite, and I give them multiple resources, inform them that the reference librarians have help sheets and will show them how to do it, AND I got the Writing Center to offer three workshops per quarter on it.
Still -- not a bad eval. The other class, where three of the students had taken my classes before? That would be three of five in a survey class that really was just a seminar ... 4.97. Skewed and not scientific, but I'll take my woohoo!s anywhere. Don't know about the 19th c. class yet, and am starting to freeze on the job talk. I'm going to work on it in the morning and try to run it past a couple of colleagues in the afternoon. That is, if ADH will stop coming in to talk about this. It's not that I don't care, mind you. But it's not like it's happening to my team, and really? Although I love football, I don't love it as much as I love the idea of getting a damned job.
Tiruncula -- details as requested in comments below!
4 comments:
Woohoo on the evals, definitely! I love the kinds of criticisms students sometimes leave - saying things like "she made us think for OURSELVES!!!" like it's a searing indictment... ;-)
Good luck with the job talk prep. If you would find it at all helpful to talk about, feel free to e-mail me (not like you need my help or anything, but if you want another perspective).
I take it comment #1 was a complaint?
(Rolls eyes.)
Grrrr. The comments on Chicago style remind me of the bitching students do on my evals about APA format. Hello students! If you leanred it in the Intro class (a prepreq) then no, I will not spend hours going over it again and yes, you're required to know it! You're majors for doG's sake!
In any case, I feel your pain. Keep up the good fight.
Hello,
I recently had the good luck to discover your Blog in my search for perspectives from those in the academy. I'm a 3rd year history specialist at the University of Toronto, interested in graduate school and an academic career. While my interests are quite different (Modern Europe, 1800-2000), your thoughts on teaching, academic conferences and the never-ending-grind of the job search have certainly given me pause.
I've read several months worth of posts over the past few days and while I wish you would reveal details (e.g. "Rural U"), I understand you don't wish to be Googled by a search committee.
Please keep up the writing, aspiring undergraduates from abroad read your posts with interest.
- Bruce
Bruce DOT Harpham AT utoronto.ca
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