Saturday, May 06, 2006

And the affirmations keep rolling in

I finally got some feedback from ScaryLecturer about my lecture. Two pieces of feedback, in fact, although I think only one of them was intended to reach me.

First of all, he accosted me in the hallway yesterday afternoon. "About your lecture..."
"Yes?" (In my head at this point, a little tail started wagging hopefully: praise me! praise me! praise me!)
"You made a mistake in your German example."

Then he proceeded to explain German grammar to me in excruciating detail, while I nodded and smiled and tried to explain that I do speak German quite fluently and the mistake was just a typo.

The other piece of feedback was via someone else from the department, who was at a party I went to last night. She told me that ScaryLecturer had been talking to her yesterday and had commented that students these days are no longer interested in theory and only care about the practical applications of what you teach them. Then he said that "young people like StyleyGeek" have a "very modern lecturing style" which he supposes is "an attempt to pander to the way today's students think".

So I'm a panderer. But at least I'm a panderer who keeps students awake and makes them think. That's a good thing, right?


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5 Comments:

Anonymous said...

sounds like pretty good feedback - unfortunately the "tradition" (more the MO of senior people) sounds a lot like ScareyLecturer - we have an evaluation system on assignments - along did-not-meet/met/exceeded expectations lines - you can guess which one rarely gets dished out. The rationale being "well we started off with high expectations"

mila

StyleyGeek said...

If that's the only evaluation you get on assignments, it doesn't sound very helpful unless the lecturer spells out his/her expectations very clearly in the first place. And even then, you still need to know WHICH of the expectations you met or didn't meet.

Anonymous said...

ScaryLecturer sounds a...oh...wee bit bitter! Sometimes I think these traditional types would like to return to the time when all their students were (rich) males who hung on their every word, even if they had an incredibly boring or un-useful lecturing style. oh-oh, I think my bitterness is showing!

And the German grammar thing...well, if the ONLY thing "wrong" he found about your lecture was this, then I would interpret this as that your lecture was so kick-ass overall. And that he's the type that just can't give a compliment but has to have some sort criticism... so I'd say he thought you did well but couldn't.quite.admit.that to himself or you.

hmmm, this guy really seems to have struck a nerve in me. Interesting, I must have issues with ScaryLecturer types... :)

Unknown said...

oh jeez Styley - that's just sad. It takes a realy messed up persoon to not even be able to pretend to give positive feedback.

I love the image of your little tail wagging!

I think he is jellus of your skillz. :) Come exam time, see what the students (oh wait, what happened with the exam?) are able to understand and perform well on. Then you'll know that your "pandering" worked.

StyleyGeek said...

Jellus of my skillz. That's it :) I like Turtlebella and your interpretations a lot.

I don't think ScaryLecturer is sad and messed up so much as just has no idea of how what he says comes across to people. Or maybe doesn't care.

I tend to come across as quite a confident person, so he probably figured I knew what I had done right and just needed tips about what I had done wrong. Which is mostly true. But ego-boosts are always nice.

Which is why I appreciate my commentaters here more each day :)