It Ended

Fired From Chem 100

I haven't always been clear on which classes these comments come from, but most of these really negative typed ones were from the same section of the same class, Chem 100, the standard intro chemistry course for nonscience majors. Enrollment at Chem 100 at my former institution was quite large since it fulfilled a science requirement without a laboratory component. For one semester I taught one section with starting enrollment of around 200 students. It was my first time teaching the course and also my last, except for a summer course for 6 people. I always tell people half-jokingly that I was fired from Chem 100 which isn't entirely inaccurate. I stayed on, but Iw was reassigned to lab courses in physical chemistry and instrumental analysis, which are outside my area of speciality. I was deemed to be unfit to teach Chem 100 after this one semester, presumably due to student evaluations. I have listed below my raw numbers.




While these were my worst numbers I have ever received, they don't seem that bad to me, mostly around the middle of the scale. I mean, when I filled out evaluations I usually rated profs around the middle. So was I really "fired" because of these scores? Maybe it was the comments? I actually preferred my new assignment and I appreciate that I wasn't fired for real, but I am still annoyed that I didn't get the opportunity to redeem myself in this class. Perhaps though it was for the best. My department apparently had very high standards and I for one should appreciate that.

Most Boring Class Ever

Switch Sections

Why I Show Evaluations

As I have mentioned in other posts, I always show some of my evaluations on the first day of class in a powerpoint presentation. It usually draws some laughs and seems to encourage students to write even more entertaining and passionate comments when it's their turn to evaluate. A student once told me that he really enjoyed my little show, but questioned how much I actually valued student opinions because of the way I nonchalantly brushed off the the negative criticism. I'm sure it probably does seem that way. As I read through the evaluations, I rarely provide rebuttals no matter how harsh and nasty they are. I just move on to the next one, perhaps giving the appearance that I'm dismissing them with a "Yeah, whatever" kind of attitude.

The truth is I probably care too much what students think--almost to a pathological degree. For my first TA position, I received a rather ordinary set of evaluations, but there was one that especially stood out. It said something like "I know he is a first year graduate student, but there is no excuse for such a poor performance." Obviously I have gotten far worse dozens of times since then, but as a new teacher, this one really bothered me. I photocopied the page, cut out the comment and put it in my wallet. I literally carried this comment with me everywhere I went. Whenever I went to pull out some dollar bills (back when I regularly paid in cash), I got a reminder of what a terrible teacher I was. No matter how many times I looked at it, I still felt sick inside. The only thing that seemed to make me feel better about it was to show it to friends and share a little laugh.

Today I show evaluations to my students to give my them an idea of what to expect from the class and what is expected of them in a humorous way. But I also do it for selfish reasons as I find that reading the nastiest, most vile comments out loud while keeping a straight face to be remarkably therapeutic. When I act like I am unfazed by the nastiest criticisms I end up convincing myself that they really are no big deal even when someone wishes I get hit by a bus.

Now with another semester recently completed, friends are telling me they are looking forward to seeing my next set of evaluations and wondering when I'm going to post them on my Facebook page. They have been sitting in the department office for over a week, but I'm not in any rush to look at them. Even though I've read hundreds of student comments through the years, I know I'm going to obsess over the few negative ones from this new set and they're going to ruin my entire day. People seems to think I get a big kick out of reading my evaluations, but in fact I dread it. The only thing that makes it tolerable is showing them to people and laughing them off--or least pretending to.

Wonderful Experience?

Less Like Norm Macdonald

I'm not sure how I was being Norm-like in the first place, so I definitely have no idea how I was being less Norm-like, but clearly it was making me a less effective teacher.

Horror Stories

Horror stories? There were horror stories?

Received an A in High School

I actually showed much fewer evaluations in this course than in others. I'm not sure why this class complained about it the most. As I recall, I showed some on the 1st day, then a few more midway through the semester. Other times I have gotten a bit carried away.

Learned a Lot

As this student says, I am awesome.

No Concern

I may not care about you, but I still remember your name 10 years later.

Lab Is Boring

According to this student, the laboratory portion of the course is boring.

Voice

Uh, ok.

Aloof

I believe I was misquoted or taken out of context. Actually it's been so long ago I don't remember. Perhaps I said it and meant it.

Only Complaint

"The only complaint I have is that he does not teach the material very well."

What?

Plus Minus Grades

I never feel good about assigning grades. Every term I look at the top B student and the bottom B student and ask "Do these students deserve the same grade?" and the answer is always no. The same goes for the C students and even the A students. No matter where I set the cutoffs there always seems to be an obscene amount of unfairness, especially at my current institution where there are no plus and minus grades.

To help illustrate the problem, below I have assigned hypothetical grades to NBA teams from this past regular season based on my typical grade distribution based on mean and standard deviation. Here is what I came up with.

Chicago               50-16      A
San Antonio         50-16      A
Oklahoma City    47-19      A
Miami                   46-20      A
Indiana                 42-24      B
LA Lakers            41-25      B
Memphis              41-25      B
Atlanta                  40-26      B
LA Clippers          40-26      B
Boston                 39-27      B
Denver                 38-28      B
Orlando               37-29      B
New York             36-30      B
Dallas                  36-30      B
Utah                     36-30      B
Philadelphia         35-31      B
Houston               34-32      B
Phoenix                33-33     C
Milwaukee            31-35      C
Portland               28-38      C
Minnesota            26-40      C
Detroit                  25-41      C
Toronto                23-43      C
Golden State        23-43      C
New Jersey          22-44      C
Sacramento         22-44      C
Cleveland             21-45      D
New Orleans        21-45      D
Washington          20-46      D
Charlotte               7-59        F

I like to keep the A's at least somewhat exclusive to reward the best students, but I also don't give a lot of D's or F's. As a result the vast majority of the class gets B's and C's. That's about 75% of the class getting one of two grades. In the above example, we have 42-win Indiana getting the same grade as 34-win Houston. Meanwhile Phoenix gets a full letter grade lower than Houston with just one less win, while Cleveland and New Orleans get the shaft by finishing one-win below the C cutoff. Perhaps I push up Cleveland, New Orleans, and Washington since they are so close to a C, but then I get an average team Phoenix getting the same grade as the second worst team in the league, Washington. Anyone who followed the NBA this year knows those two teams were not close to being equals.

These same kind of issues arise when assigning real grades, as there's no remotely fair way to assign cutoffs. It seems to me that the best thing is not have cutoffs altogether, which was how things were done at my high school. Even though that place was an absolutely despicable wretched hellhole, I did like and appreciate its grading system. Grades for every course was given as a score between 0 and 100. Every point counted and the better students got better grades. We didn't have 27 valedictorians. We had one. There was no obsessing over the A/B border or lobbying to a teacher for a better grade. (Mr. Smith, you gave me an 86, but I really believe I deserve an 87!) Students didn't tank the end of the course because their grade was set. We knew every point counted and just did the best we could.

I'm not anticipating my current institution ever implementing any such system, but I would settle for plus/minus grading. I know students are generally against it because it will inevitably decrease the number of solid A's and probably overall GPA's. I don't believe GPA's would decrease significantly, and actually I don't care. Not having plus/minus grades sucks. My courses are typically out of around 1000 points with scores ranging from 300 to 1000. Grade ranges end up so wide that students can often miss an exam or a major assignment and get the same overall grade.  I have all this information on how each student performed, but I essentially have to throw most of it away and assign one of five (really three) grades. Perhaps I'm obsessing too much over this, but I don't like the idea of a student's future being determined by where I set an arbitrary cutoff. I guess that's just me.

Dull and Dead

Anyone else prefer powerpoint for chemistry classes? I don't care much for it.

Deranged

Carbon Bonds 4 Times

I'm glad this person learned something.

Smug