I had my faculty evaluation with my chair today. They were all good.
However, my teaching, which I have worked so hard to do well on did not receive an excellent. I am, believe it or not, devastated by that.
I read my student evaluations and I thought they were wonderful. In fact, after I read them I was like, “Wow! Wish I had read these earlier. They are incredible!”
The problems mentioned were lack of preparation and too many personal comments.
I couldn’t find what he was talking about in this year’s evaluations. BUT…
Maybe he looked at last spring’s evaluations as well. Since he hadn’t seen those last time we had evaluations, that is possible. In that case, yes, I probably did talk too much about my life.
And in that case, it’s not as devastating as it felt. I have improved that.
Update: I asked and, yes, the spring evaluations were part of the review. Okay. That makes sense.
Now I feel a bit ridiculous for having been so upset.
I’m sorry that happened. I teach freshman comp. and actually struggle with putting enough of myself into the course–it’s something I enjoyed about my own professors in school and something I’d like to do more of. Some students don’t value it, but most do (as evidenced by the fact that only 3 mentioned it and only 2 mentioned it as a negative). It helps students and it sounds like you’re a great teacher. It’s easier said than done, but don’t let the numbers get you down.