At the end of every semester I have my students fill out a TA evaluation sheet where they are able to rate both the lab and me as an instructor. I always read through them to see if there are areas where I can improve, but most of my students seem to really like me. The same can't be said for the lab itself, but I have no control over that.
I just got my evaluations back from last semester (I can't see them until grades come out so that the students will feel free to say how they really feel rather than trying to suck up to get a better grade, or hold back for fear of getting a worse one, not that I would let a comment affect someone's grade anyway, but it's supposed to give them peace of mind). Here are some of the answers that I thought were funny:
LABORATORY ACTIVITIES
What was your least favorite exercise? Why?
"The stinky grasshopper"
"The grasshopper, crawfish & earthworm dissections. I'm not a big fan of bugs. It's a good thing we didn't do spiders!"
"Looking at slides . . . very gay."
"Everything with plants. I hate plants, they are possibly the most boring thing on earth."
What was your favorite exercise? Why?
"Intervertebrates. It was a nice break from plants." (note: you may need to read this again to see why it's funny. You may even need to be a biologist, I'm not sure).
"Jumping jacks and the pig dissection"
LABORATORY INSTRUCTOR
How could he/she improve?
"Sometimes he gabs to other students about non-biology things."
What were his/her strong points?
"Good talker"
In general, how would you rate your lab instructor as a teacher?
"Very" (I don't know what that means either)
9 comments:
Ha! the plant inverterbrate thing... it's an evolution joke in a sense... right? I want to think that I get it!
Anyway these were pretty funny, and poignent because in a week or 2 I will get to read my first course evaluations. I can only aspire to being "very" like you.
"Very" what??
And you should post your FRIGGIN DEREK!! eval. Now THAT was pretty awesome.
Actually I think that Shootingstar was reading too much into it. The thing I thought was funny was that they said 'intervertebrate' instead of 'invertebrate.'
I don't know what an intervertebrate is. Something between a vertebrate and invertebrate perhaps?
Intervertebrate = a cross between an invertebrate and a vertebrate.
...Or an animal with half a spine.
BA-DUM-BING!
I was thinking an intervertebrate would be two creatures sharing a spine. You can buy a two-headed snake on eBay. That would be a way cooler disection than a grasshopper or crayfish. You mean tell me you don't get to move on to "college level" specimens, like an emu or sumthin?
Okay I didn't actually notice that it said INTERverterbrate--yes I was reading into it a bit too much. Alas my aspirations of being a biology geek are foiled again.
Well, at my old university they got to do more "college level" dissections than they do here. There the students do a dogfish shark, a salamander (much cooler than it sounds), a turtle and other cool things (along with some of the old standards: clam, worm, pig, etc.).
My first lab I got one complaint from a lot of people. They said I say "measure" wrong. "May-sure" instead of "me-zhur" or something. I've been working on that. Otherwise, the only complaint I get is "thinks he's funny but he's not."
I will have to track down some of my ratings...I had about 10% who thought I walked on Water, 10% who thought I was Lucifer Incarnate, and 80% who felt I was average. :)
Post a Comment