September 30, 2009
TEACHING UPDATE!
My students have completed their first paper, and are well on their way to the second. I’ve also graded my first paper, and been observed in class. How did I do?
Good!
Apparently!
On the grading scale, it doesn’t look like I used many C’s or D’s. I had a couple awful papers that ended up as F’s, and a handful of really good papers that got A’s. and then most of the class ended up in the high to low B range. I’m pretty okay with that. It does indicate that perhaps I had a lot of “freebie if you did the work” points in there, since those who got the really low grades were the ones who did not get those. I’m trying to be fairly nice with having those points about, seeing as this is an entry-level course. Seems like the right thing to do.
As far as being observed, that too went very well! My class didn’t, uh, do the assignment at all that day, so I’d probably put the class in the middle of the road as far as how successful the class was. We did get some discussion going, and that was good. I also got points for being very prepared and having a great sort of “classroom persona” and being able to ad-lib useful stuff from student feedback, which is awesome to hear.
(The best thing, though, was that there was no mention of my dress whatsoever. Take that, Mom! I win! Completely vindicated!)
So yeah, I guess I’m doing as well as I think I’m doing? Probably? It’s all going pretty well in my class. Of course, there are already things that I’m probably going to change or fix next semester. But it’s good to know I already have the hang of this stuff. Very good to know.