from the self-evals

Each new trimester I ask my students to stop and ponder, to answer three questions in the space of a page:

1. What have you learned?
2. What do you still need to learn?
3. What would you like to see / do (more of) in this class?

I leave the first two purposefully ambiguous, recognizing that most important learning takes place outside my classroom. These aren't necessarily the "best" evals, just the ones that stuck out to me, for whatever reason.

I would, of course, like to know everything, though this is out of the question.

I want to write fantasy stories. I don't like being tied down to facts like biography.

I'd like to learn to box the correct way because I've boxed a couple of my brother's friends and I have developed a passion for it.

Now this question is very simple. What I need to learn is to be more responsible.

Honestly, I don't need this class, because I can write well, and I can read at a college sophomore level.

I love your class. It challenges me as well as entertains me. You do a great job of tolerating me and my jokes and talking, even sometimes laughing yourself. I find it great that you have a sense of humor and don't treat me like a criminal because of what I have done in the past Thank YOU!

I need to learn to have confidence in myself. I'm very self-conscious, from my looks to my personality I worry a lot. I change for other people, not for me. I never believe in myself when I do something. I think that's why I struggle with school a lot.

Debates are another thing we need to do more often. They really got everyone into it. I haven't seen so many low-lifes actually get into a class activity before.

I have learned more on my own than I have from teachers. In school, I am taught about numbers, presidents, civil wars, and the economy. Alone, I am free to contemplate the ideas of fate, luck, and the meanings of life.

I think that you are teaching at a good pace and useful things. I really like it that we get to listen to songs and poems and try to figure out the meaning.

More people = more knowledge = more work accomplished.

I think that the far most important thing that I have learned is that knowledge is power. I already have a higher intelligence than most of my teachers (probably). I have learned that the only way to "unlock" the "hidden" power in knowledge is to be willing to accept new ideas or explanations in order to add to what it is you already know.

I would like you to read to the class more because it was nice not having other students talk but not have silence.

At the beginning of the year we would listen to music and respond. We really haven't done that in a while and I enjoyed that.

The responding to the poems and music is getting really boring and old.