After my last General Psychology class today, I finally had the opportunity to meet with the campus’ associate dean. We had previously scheduled a time to discuss the procedure for submitting final course grades, as well as to review my teaching performance.
I informed the associate dean that I had really enjoyed teaching General Psychology this spring semester. I said that it was a challenging task, given the very wide range of topics covered each week.
I also shared that the small class size was excellent for promiting interaction with students. I shared that these students were very motivated to do well in class.
She shared her evaluation of my teaching performance. She stated that I had an excellent command of the subject matter. Also, she said that I did a very good job of actively engaging my students in a discussion of the material being presented.
She asked if I might be interested in teaching General Psychology again. I told her that I very much would enjoy the opportunity to do so, but at a closer campus. She was completely unaware that I had moved during this semester.
She basically had only one area of constructive criticism to share with me. She said that she thought that I could have been more active while teaching class.
When she observed my class, I stood to go over their exam questions. During the second half of this class, I sat, while reviewing a series of PowerPoint slides. She commented that she wasn’t aware if this was how I typically taught my class.
Honestly, I rather froze at this point during the conversation. After all, I have never disclosed any of my medical challenges to this associate dean.
How could I tactfully discuss my medical problems with this woman, given that she had just asked if I was interested in the possibility of teaching this same class again? I skirted the issue, to be perfectly honest.
