Feedback for learning (from students)

I have learned more from my students about being a teacher, and how to be a better teacher, than I have ever learned from an administrator’s observation. Formal and informal feedback is as critical to me as a learner as it is to them.

I have started to go through some of the feedback students shared on the last day this year, now that I have a couple weeks distance.

The other day I jotted down a note to the effect that in teaching, we cultivate the tone of the class from the very first day. That’s why I gave up the first day standards of going over the course overview and covering the rules and regulations. The movie Dead Poets Society came out in the beginning of my teaching career (so maybe I should have realized this sooner). I remember being so taken with the scene of the students’ first day with Mr. Keating (Robin Williams). They walk away from that class thinking he is weird, and they’re not quite sure what to make of the class, but they are engaged. I try to achieve something of that on the first day, and to build on that a sense that we will learn some stuff about reading and writing, and we’ll get better at both. I tell them we will talk a lot, and I will put them on the spot a bit. I hope that they will learn a lot about themselves, and take some steps toward figuring out their place in the world. (I think that’s what the purpose of all education is.)

Because as teachers we are just one piece of a long process, we don’t always get to see the long term impact of what we do. But we do get to see the growth and change that happens in students from day to day. Sometimes it’s good to know that they see it happening too.   

I haven’t gone through all of the feedback yet. In truth, it takes me a while because I get filled to the point of emotional overload and have to stop to breathe and process.

I am going to spend more time processing goals and ends, but one thing I am finding is that there is way less gratitude about rhetoric and composition than there is about love and acceptance. I’m ok with that.

“I’m thankful for how open this class has made me.”

“We had serious conversations, but always added a good laugh.”

“I’ve learned a lot about rhetorical devices.”

“I appreciate learning so much about everyone.”

“The chiasmus activity we did was fun.”

“I appreciate the nonjudgmental environment.”

“I learned school should never come before my happiness and health.”

“I learned to be a better writer.”

“I got to feel the power of LEARNING!!!!”

“I learned to speak in front of peers.”

“This class taught me to appreciate the little things and focus on smaller details.”

“I have learned to love things for what they are.”

These are things that I am always learning too.