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I'm going to relate the lessons I've learned from my students in my health classroom through stories I have from our class discussions, assignments, and interactions. Feel free to share some of your own "lessons learned" through the lessons you've taught your students. If you're not in education, perhaps you can relate lessons you have learned from children at some point in your life. Look forward to sharing stories!

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Course Evaluations

Every semester my students evaluate their experience in Health Education. I give them a small questionnaire to fill out on one of the last few days of school. I have kids write a variety of comments from,"Don't change a thing," to "Less homework and projects," to "My favorite unit was learning First Aid, CPR, and AED." Obviously some of them I can change for the next semester and some I cannot because assessments are a must. I tell my students that their feedback is valuable to me so that I can make the course better and I can improve my own teaching.

Lessons Learned:


A few things that I have learned from reading the evaluations.
1) Try not to take what students wrote about the course personally. (Hard)
2) Consider giving evaluations throughout the semester or school year so that students can give you feedback earlier. This allows the teacher to fix problems early and meet the needs of the learners who are having issues--instead of when the students are leaving the course.
3) Consider having the surveys completed electronically to save time and keep it more anonymous. Most teachers have a special knack for spotting students' handwriting so electronically keeps it more anonymous if you so desire.
4) Make small changes over time. It is hard to implement a lot of changes to a course so allow time to add new things.
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 23, 2013 at 3:12 PM

    That is a great and scary idea! I love how it allows the students to have a say in classroom changes and to inform you of topics that are too challenging. It must be really, really hard to not take the comments personal. I don't know how you do it! How do you decide what changes to make and which ones you should put aside?

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  2. Ms. StreyJuly 25, 2013 at 2:30 PM

    Kim, It is not easy to welcome criticism of what you have worked hard on for a year, but teenagers are critical! I base my changes of of a few things like what type of change is it and it is educationally beneficial. I find myself asking what more people should ask about their course requirements, "What is the purpose of this?" If I find that their is value and purpose in something, then it stays. I can tweak it. Perhaps the reason a student dislikes it is that they didn't understand it well or thought it was really hard because they didn't get enough practice at it. So I consider those things. You have to consider your role as a teacher. Did you fulfill your role to the best you could? Did students fulfill their job? If they didn't, you don't have to change it. Everyone has different styles of learning as well. So some people are not favorable to everything you do, but variety is important to hit all types of learners.

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  3. UnknownJuly 28, 2013 at 1:59 PM

    I know that it is difficult for me to feel out evaluations at the end of a course/presentation/etc. because I will never get to reap the benefits of the changes. It is a great idea to have students evaluate throughout the year instead of just at the very end!

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