Things I Could Be, But Am Not

Last night, I picked up the analysis of my teacher evaluations from the past two semesters at the community college where I teach English composition for pin money.  I have been eagerly awaiting them for some time - I've gone almost three semesters with really no feedback other than being asked back every semester. 

My average scores in general were lower than the college mean.  I was fleetingly upset about this until I realized a) I'm new to this gig and don't know what the hell I'm doing and b) the college mean dates back to 2002 and includes online and classroom courses.  That's a big average to be fighting against.  Personally, I think it's harder to be engaging and entertaining for three hours at night than it probably is for an hour and a half at 10 a.m.  Maybe I'm just rationalizing. 

There were a few areas in which I got a nice, fat, high score.  One was passion for the subject and the other was subject knowlege.  (toot, toot - sorry)  This pretty much made up for scoring below the mean in Knows the Macarena and Lets Me Make Up My Midterm So I Can Go To Vegas.

The criticisms ranged from fair (Too Much Lecturing) to churlish (The Class Is Too Long, Even Though I Knew It Was Three Hours at Night When I Signed Up For It).   I was starting to get a little disappointed with myself for all the "too much lecturing comments" and brainstorming how to get more productive group activities (they always seem to end up just talking about their BFFs if I let them stay in small groups for more than ten minutes) when I noticed my favorite criticism of all.

She could be taller.

Well, there you have it.