Sometimes, often, especially in the middle of the year, It’s hard to know if you’re having an impact.
I think I am, I try, I believe in my practices. But, day to day, making all the photo copies and dealing with all the things, it’s not always clear.
Even, when I do an eval, it’s hard to know. My students tend to be super grateful, and super kind, and not at all used to giving constructive feedback to teachers, so I take most evals with a grain of salt.
Often, I skip mid-year evaluations altogether. I have my exit tickets, and my end of year reflection, and that’s probably good enough.
This year, I’m doing them, though. Partly, I’m curious to see the results, but mostly I think the act of asking matters more than any answer. When I ask, I get to show I care about their opinions, and its another nudge towards metacognition, and that’s worth a few minutes and some photocopies at the end of each term.
And, I got a lot of evals that were about what I expected. Kind, grateful students writing sweet but general comments. I’m definitely schedule-sending some of those to myself for when I need a boost. But they’re better for my ego, than for guiding practice. And I know enough to know that they’re not the whole story.
And, then, sometimes, in between all the grain of salt taking, and the commitment to process, and the sweet, vague comments … they show me something is working.
For once, I said nothing about brains.
But they did.
Multiple students in one class (the class full of people I’ve had Iongest) talked about their brains. They told me they liked a challenge, liked to level up, liked to review… liked homework even (#adultlearnersarethebest)
And, I’m never sure if they care, or if it makes sense, or makes an impact. They’re tired working adults who carved out a few hours to learn the math they need to pass a high stakes test, not to geek out about neurons.
But, it turns out they’re listening, and absorbing, and getting it.
And showing me that means so much more than all of the praise they write.
And I wouldn’t have known, if I hadn’t given them an eval and asked.
<3
Simple Class Evaluation | Reflection & Metacognition Bundle
