Thursday, December 17, 2015

Student and Parent Evaluations of Me

We began offering an Intro to Computer Science class this fall for the first time in a long time, and I had the, ahem, "opportunity" to teach it. (We are hopefully going to be hiring a teacher for the next school year who is a bit more qualified, but just didn't have the FTE to do that this year as we got it off the ground.)

As when I taught Algebra, I asked both the students and parents for feedback via a google form at the end of the semester. I think it's always good to ask for this feedback, even though sometimes you're not sure how honest and accurate it is. Even so, I learn something from it each time.

I also think it's important to be transparent, so here are the links to their responses. These responses are verbatim, except for some slight editing where personal information was included. Both students and parents could choose to leave their name if they wished (totally optional), and some of the parent comments including their student's name - I edited all of that out.

Student Feedback (36 out of 45 completed the survey)

Parent Feedback (12 responses to the survey)

4 comments:

  1. Opps! I can still see the student names in Column M on the Student Evaluation document you shared :D

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  2. Karl,
    I appreciate the fact that you are so open in showing the honest responses from both student and teachers. I have found it so helpful in my own career to be open and receptive to feedback from both parents and students. It has helped me learn and grow as a professional and in my communication skills.

    From the comments I read by your students, it seems as though many of them enjoyed the opportunity you provided them with learning about the different aspects of Computer Science. Technology. I loved to read how many students were asking for advanced classes and harder challenges to work on in your class. Incorporating Computer Science is something that we are working on as a school to develop further. I am wondering what ways you prepared in teaching this class? I saw that you took several of the students on field trips so that they could apply the knowledge they learned within your class to real world application situations.

    Also, did the majority of your students have access to computers at home? It sounded like many of the parents were familiar with Computer Science and if they weren't, they were willing to work with their child in order to figure out how to accomplish the assignment. I am trying to figure out how to get my students to the level of competence and understanding of Computer Science without necessarily having all of the resources your students may have (computer access at home, strong parent support, etc). Let me know if you have any thoughts! Thanks again for sharing.

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    Replies
    1. I teach in a school that is mostly middle to upper-middle class. All of our students 9-11 (and next year 9-12) have a laptop, either one they bring themselves (about 70%) or a Chromebook we provide them.

      I'm not sure exactly what you're asking in terms of "what I prepared in teaching this class"? If you could elaborate on that, I'd be happy to try to answer.

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