spynotes ::
  April 09, 2007
The bars and temples but the girls ain't free

My teaching evaluations from fall term finally appeared today and they were much better than I anticipated. Excellent, even.

I felt like I taught the course so much better this time than I did last year, but the class seemed so much less engaged with the material -- the early hour, perhaps, but also, I think, a fundamental lack of interest -- that I expected my evaluations to be less stellar. But they were overall about on par with last time and statistically, maybe even better. And like last time, I pretty much agreed with the things they thought I needed to improve.

Teaching evaluations are among the scariest wild cards in the academic deck. They are necessary and they are taken seriously by hiring and tenure committees. And yet there is absolutely no oversight of the process, so that it is possible for a student or students to totally sabotage an evaluation and potentially a career either through malice or negligence by simply making stuff up. And they are frequently error plagued. My teaching assistant got a nice review from one student (I had no teaching assistant). It seems dangerous to put so much weight on teaching evaluations under these conditions, and yet the information that could be gleaned if all goes well is potentially invaluable. Consequently, some take them more to heart than others and everybody worries about them but pretends not to care. It's one more twisted aspect of academic culture.

* * * * *

So I realized today that there were two things on my vacation to-write-about-when-I-get-home list that I still haven't written about. The first was my kayak trip, which was lovely, but which is, sadly, a little too far in the past to write about meaningfully at this point. But it was still lovely to spend two hours paddling through the salt marshes. I love the physical action of kayaking and I love having my own boat. Yoga has done wonders for my kayaking skills. I felt like I could have kept going for several hours more. I didn't even have blisters. This was a notable improvement over the trip RS and I took last summer.

The second thing I haven't mentioned was a possible trip to Thailand. It seems that my brother and mother want to give me a trip to Thailand for a 40th birthday present, although I wouldn't be able to go before next winter. They also want to send me to a course at the Blue Elephant cooking school in Bangkok, to all of which I say, "Bring it on!"

Mr. Spy is not at all interested in going and I don't think he's so keen on AJ going either. So I may be going alone. A true adventure. I am in need of some adventure. I am in love with the idea of traveling alone again. It's something I associate with my youth especially, so it seems like a perfect thing for a birthday that's making me feel very old. On the other hand, I would love for AJ to have a chance to see where his cousins live, to experience another culture. I would have no qualms about yanking him out of school for a couple of weeks to take him overseas. I'm pretty sure he would be able to keep up. In any case, it's fueling my fantasy life. I've been reading things like this. We've also been cracking puerile jokes about Phuket. For example:

Are you going to Phuket?

Phuket? I just met it!

Yeah, we're pretty hilarious around here. No wonder my students love me. Strange. Not one of them mentioned my sense of humor.

[Second entry today; Click back for an inventory of our Easter fun]

5 people said it like they meant it

 
:: last :: next :: random :: newest :: archives ::
:: :: profile :: notes :: g-book :: email ::
::rings/links :: 100 things :: design :: host ::

(c) 2003-2007 harri3tspy

<< chicago blogs >>