Friday, June 18, 2010

I Wonder Why...

I wonder why when I hear or read something mean about myself, it echoes in my mind. Yet, when I get a compliment I immediately brush it off as though I don't deserve it.

Today I read through the course evaluations from the three classes I taught last semester (done by the students). Many of them had good things to say like, "Without this class I would have failed" and "She is an excellent teacher and really knows her stuff". And that's typically how I feel about myself as a stats teacher as well. But then there were those few disgruntled students who hated coming to class and didn't like me much who said things like "SHE IS THE WORST TEACHER EVER" and "SHE HAS NO IDEA WHAT SHE'S TALKING ABOUT AND SEEMS COMPLETELY UNPREPARED". Obviously, there is no real need to take these things personally. But then I question myself and think "Are they right? Am I just a fake teacher who is only half-trying and just hoping for a paycheck?"

And again I ask myself why I can't just let the bad things go and dwell on the nice things that people say?

5 comments:

Rose said...

If you understand that there are a percentage of dorks in every class, you throw away the bottom 5% of the comments. If the rest are mostly good, then you're doing what you're suppose to. If they are mostly bad, then you need to make some adjustments. It's all in the stats! :) Sorry, but anyone who can make a statistics class interesting is pretty amazing!
Love you!

Kellie said...

It's the same thing in a writing critique group. You throw away the comments at the very top, the comments like, "This was the best, nothing to improve!" and throw away comments at the bottom like, "You suck."

I'm sorry about the jerks. Copy some of the best comments and tape them to your bathroom mirror:)

AngieDoodle said...

Dear Jess.

I think your great.
And we all know that my opinion is the only one that matters, right?

Love you, man.

Ganimobile said...

haha I believe that AngieDoodle is correct.
I know what you mean though about not being able to dwell on the good if 1 bad thing has been said about you. I think that you are a pretty great person, and my sister likes your class. So don't listen to those punks.

Carl and Pat said...

Yep--we quickly learn in life that there will ALWAYS be someone who just has to criticize. Often it is because they feel inadequate and aren't putting forth the effort they should, so lashing out at someone else is done as an excuse. Keep up the great work, Jessica. We have always been so impressed with you, your knowledge, and your willingness to work hard to achieve lofty goals!