If You ask, They will tell you!

I got brave and created a form for students to evaluate me.  I promised the students that it was totally

anonymous and it was, although after reading the results I wish there was some way I could track who answered a few of the questions.  If you are faint of heart or thin skinned, I am not sure you are ready to ask your students to do this.  They are  bluntly honest but it does give them a voice and you something to think about.  I learned a lot from the results, some made me happy, 100% of students reported that they knew exactly why their grades is what it is.  There was other data that upset me, like the fact that one student feels I do not treat them with respect and five report that I am not fair to them.  These two pieces of data drive me to wish I could find out who reported this.  What would I do if I knew who answered in that way?  The students that do not feel I am fair, I would like them to explain why so I can do some evaluation and decide if their complaints are justified.  Next time I do this I think I will keep it totally anonymous but I will add a question for them to explain if they feel they are  being treated unfair or are not respected.

Another thought is that I should have them identify what class they are in.  A student complains that I move to fast and it would help a lot to know what class they are currently taking.  I would like to repeat this evaluation every year but next time I will open it up on a day I have a sub so they feel they have plenty of time to complete it without me in the room.

I found out that I wanted perfect scores in everything.  I was freaking out about one student response that most of the time I was fair regardless of race or religion and five saying I wasn't fair but my principal assured me that I should be very pleased with the numbers.

Ninety six percent of the students reported that they believed they would use what they learn in the class they will use in college or work and 43% reported they learned something new everyday in my class.  They also shared comments that are constructive criticism and others expressed their love for the class or the fact they felt at home in my classroom or they wanted to spend the day in my room.  That is good to know as well.

I am glad I did the evaluation.  I learned a lot and I will use it to make me a better teacher and improve my classes.  It also gave us a chance to discuss the fact that in college, they will be asked to evaluate all their teachers.  I will do it again and I encourage others to try it.