Reminder: You can control the narrative of your teaching evals (and that's a good thing)

Tl;dr: If sharing cookies on eval day is allowed, then asking students to genuinely reflect on what they got from your course better be.

Your path to better (as in: more meaningful, more positive, more relevant) evals starts with how you ask students for feedback and reflection on their own goals and performance throughout the course. (Image credit: mey caner from Pixabay)

Hi all!

If you noticed, it’s been quiet around here for a few weeks. I figured you were busy with year-end/new year’s stuff and didn’t need anything more in your inbox. But, my semester starts soon, and I don’t want you to miss out on what might be the most important tool I’ve ever developed. So, I’m kicking off School of Good Trouble, 2025 edition, with a throwback to that tool. See the two links below!

https://www.commnatural.com/post/how-to-know-youre-an-effective-teacher

https://www.commnatural.com/post/you-decide-what-is-good-teaching

It’s really straightforward, I promise. You just:

1. Take a little time this week to review the tool (aka, approach; see the second link, “If evals suck…”)

2. Take a half-hour or so to tweak how you handle your first two weeks

3. Keep in mind you’ll want to make a slight adjustment to your mid-term week and last week of class.

4. Be in so much better shape to look forward to! your end-of-term evals.

Find me on social media (Bluesky or LinkedIn) and lemme know what you think and how it’s working for you!

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