Somewhere between my last post and today the semester ended. I'm working on my (now late) annual report. I struggle with this report every year because I have a hard time spinning things positively. Today I was looking at my fall teaching evaluations to get a better feel for what parts of my teaching were "effective". They weren't bad, but there were some definite criticisms of my organization, and some comments that some of the assignments just didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the course.
My first response was defensive. But then I realized that I'd been caught. I'd felt disorganized and frantic from the minute the nurse told me "Your Mom has broken her foot". It bled through into the classroom. I accept it. Now, I need to do two things. First, figure out how to I spin it for my report and my tenure file, but more importantly, what changes do I need to make to become more organized next year?
