Teaching Feedback

I am told the feedback from last week's class wasn't wonderful. To be fair, the feedback was only from three folks. But (at least one review) it was pointedly personal at Beth and me. It had nothing to do with the materials and content of the six hour class.

Beth is more upset about it than I am, which stands to reason because it is her school. The average age in that class was about 28 and I'm just gonna say this: there is a specific generation who get their feathers ruffled when they aren't treated as super-special. They were all in this generation.

Now then, the class was tough. It was a virtual class--not my favorite. We started very late, with lots of administrative hiccups and Beth began instruction of my part with me sitting there, so when I finally got in front of the students, my timing off. So there were hiccups from the get-go.

In addition, these students weren't terribly interactive. Honestly, I thought more than half were playing on Facebook the entire time. I couldn't get them to talk much and only when I drug something out of them--but I didn't have a ton of time--so I couldn't do a lot of dragging-the-answers-out-of-them kind of thing. When someone did ask a question or make a point, I made sure to comment with something along the lines of, "I think Mary has brought up an interesting observation..." types of replies. So, hearing I wasn't "personal" enough with the class is bunk. When I brought these personal examples up to Beth, she agreed--but I don't trust her enough to believe she will agree long-term, especially given how upset she was.

There are a few takeaways for me. First, I need to find ways to make my portion of the class more engaging and personal--so that my reviews don't ever reflect these types of comments again. Second, because I don't run the school I teach for and Beth has some serious ownership issues with how things are managed, I will have to work around any future Beth-starting-very-late-and-taking-over-when-she-shouldn't situations. At least I know I will need to manage that on my own in the future.

And third, if Beth is super-concerned about the three reviews, she may not want me to continue teaching for her. I didn't consider the feedback a big deal, but she does. And I am an easy scapegoat, given she can teach the class herself. As it stands right now, the next class is set for a date when I have a schedule conflict. Nothing is scheduled after that. So, who knows if I will be teaching for Beth again in the near future.