from everyone's favourite ScaryLecturer:
"StyleyGeek, quite a few of your students have done excellently in the exam."
"Great!"
"You were lucky to have so many little geniuses in your classes."
"Can we just pretend that instead of them being geniuses, it was due to my fantastic teaching?"
"If you must. But take a good look. Because it's not likely to happen again."
"Styley, I think the course went quite well, don't you?"
"Yes. And lots of the students told me they really enjoyed it."
"They weren't supposed to enjoy it. Damn it!"
And this final snippet is from about ten days ago, but I think it's a fitting end to the ScaryLecturer saga, so I'll post it here even though it's out of sequence.
"I meant to tell you, StyleyGeek, and I probably haven't expressed it enough, but, I've been really pleased with you as a tutor this semester. You and [other tutor] have done well."
[silence as I process the unexpected compliment]
ScaryLecturer goes to leave, then stops and turns around again. "I... I wasn't always like this, you know. I used to be a good teacher."
"And you don't think you are anymore?"
"No... well, you wouldn't understand. You didn't know me then. But... it used to be different."
Technorati tags: Teaching Carnival, academia, teaching
6 Comments:
Compliments are always good :)
The last one makes me sad.
I think it was due to your fantastic teaching. :)
i CANNOT believe you let students LIKE your course. what kind of excellent, caring lecturer ARE you?
Jesse -- the last one makes me sad too.
Luckybuzz -- that's what I'm telling myself.
Betty -- you're right. I should beat myself up about it. Or maybe I'll let the evaluations do it for me, because you know, evaluations from students who liked a course are going to be NASTY.
Oh, and Clair, I didn't mean to forget you. Compliments are so good, in fact, that my office mate and I have started a new ritual of giving each other a compliment first thing every morning. It's a great start to the day.
Talk to me! (You know you want to!)