Spring Class Evaluations

Class evaluations are basically how the University grades its part-time faculty. The Dean and the department Chair both see these evaluations before I do. Though student evaluations aren't reason enough to dismiss a faculty member, they do help the administration get a sense of how the students feel about them.

So, when students continually give an instructor praise and such, it helps the administration when they're making choices about what classes to teach and what instructors to use each year.

When I got my reviews back in Winter they were good, but I was reserved in my excitement because I thought that they were just a reaction to a new teaching style and a new face on campus. The students liked me but I didn't look too deeply into it.

However, with this past quarter's reviews - let's just say that I was all happy and fuzzy for about two days after I read my reviews.

When I read one comment from Psychology I actually had to do a double-take. I couldn't believe that someone had wrote this. Under, "What are the main strengths of this Instructor?"
one student wrote:

"Personality - always made the class engaging. Thanks Tom for brightening my bad days! You at least touched one student this quarter. "

Another student wrote, " He keeps everyone on their toes. He also keeps it interesting and doesn't want to see anyone fail like some professors here."

Comments like, "I don't zone out in his class... I really got my money's worth. I would love to have him again." just made me all warm and fuzzy inside.

I am in love with my job.

I don't think I was ever this happy when I was working for CAO. I just never felt appreciated for any level of effort that I was giving them. If I worked 12 hours a day for a week, they would still tend to bitch that someone wasn't putting enough time into their problems.

In academia, I actually have students appreciating the efforts I put forward to help them understand the material better. The decision to get out of Private / N on-Profit and Gov work wasn't easy, but damn is it ever worth it now.

I'm getting in better shape. If you ask anyone of my friends who've seen me lately I'm in a much better mood than I have been in years. Even when things aren't exactly working out financially, like this summer, I'm still in a better 'place' than I was when I was pulling down 30+ K a year and hating my life.

Sometimes the Universe is a nice place to live.

-Tom