Sparky Gets Rated

The evaluation process between teacher and student is two way: The teacher, obviously, evaluates the students and in an equally important exercise, the students evaluate the teacher. To me, this is of prime value since it helps to establish a collegial, nonhierarchical, class environment.

I evaluate my students through their written work, classroom participation and creative final exams. This is nothing more than the traditional process. The students, similarly balanced, evaluate me at the midterm and at the final. This has proved to be extremely valuable to me as many of the student’s suggestions about the class have been implemented both in the current class and in future classes.
The University where I teach has a standardized rating procedure which students are required to fill out at the end of the term. These results are tabulated and I am provided with statistical comparisons on a variety of dimensions comparing my scores with those of the psychology faculty and the University at large. In addition student comments are anonymously reported back to me.

The results of these somewhat formal student evaluations are very predictable. I am always statistically significantly higher in my positive scores when compared to both my immediate colleagues and to the total population. As a result of these scores I am nominated term after term for teaching excellence awards. This has led to considerable awkwardness both on my part and the University. The plain and simple fact is that I refuse to attend faculty committee meetings to discuss minutia such as structural changes in the curriculum or textbook selection. In no less than two minutes in such an atmosphere I am out of the room and hiking, in my active imagination, on the Appalachian Trail. I consider the term “educational administration” to be a positively dreadful oxymoron. The educational people know little about administration and the administration people know even less about education. This artifact disqualifies me, of course, from being nominated for the awards.

There is, as a saving grace, one important exception. The Dean of the Department of psychology is a gem of a human being who combines his two roles with an impressive eye for detail and a twinkle in his eye suggesting to me that neither of us takes this “stuff” very seriously. Since I am the last of the “Cowboys” and am fiercely protective of my class environment, the last three deans of my department have given me public credit for encouraging them to take early retirement.
I am delighted to report that there is a new kid on the block. It is called Rate my Professor.com and I have been delighted in checking out my scores. They can be accessed by searching for my last name “Breeskin”. My important scores are extremely high but it is the student’s comments that are particularly rewarding. I must confess, however, that I am not “hot” and I think I have been awarded only one red chili pepper on my site from a person who obviously appreciated a “Sexy Senior Citizen. (Bless her heart)

Aside from puffing out my chest with pride, there is another extremely important dimension to the student ratings and I have learned about this in my talks with the students. The results of the Rate My Prof are used by the students to make decisions about what classes to take and from whom to take the classes. I think this is wonderful! There has always been a powerful student underground in terms of the reputations, both positive and negative of the faculty. This database is now upfront and I believe that everyone benefits from that fact.

As I have mentioned above, my final exams are very creative and allow extensive freedom of choice on the part of the students. One quiet young man, an African by birth, decided as a part of his final exam to write a sonnet about me. This has had such a powerful effect on me that, as difficult as it may be to believe, I am left without words. The sonnet follows:


Memoir of an Effective Counselor
By M----------

After a near death experience withers
Maturity, Empathy and Warmth will follow
A Man designed to make a difference in others
Grows love, happiness, humility and sorrow

Love of family and friends is therapeutic
No one understands better and can translate
Than a son and a brother who is shamanic
The emotions that others cannot communicate

If sexual identity is what you seek
He's got Nine Women and a Star
If the purpose of life is what you seek
Ask him how he found Sir Galahad