Report Cards: Teacher Version

Sweating my way through what was possibly my final set of report cards ever (!!!), I suddenly remembered the "teacher" report card I often give students to complete on me at the end of the school year; I managed to dig it up from the depths of the digital abyss that comprises the files on my computer, and made a copy for my students to fill out last week.

Reading student feedback is always an interesting learning experience; while most of it tends to be predictable, and -- if you're a purposeful and passionate educator -- much of it provides a healthy ego stroke, sometimes things can be a little surprising and/or strike a raw chord!

A few of my favourites are pictured below (click to enlarge)...  Not many surprises this year, but a few funny bits, funnier, perhaps, when one has come to know the students and their individual quirks intimately over the course of a year!

I especially like the third one… You can probably guess what kind of kid wants me to stay "a little less in contact with parents", hehe!

Another good one is the one below… I'm pretty stellar at everything, according to this respondent, but somehow despite all that, my expectations are not clear, and I don't help kids learn, really. No specific feedback though, as you can see from the comments, I just need to generically "improve a little".

​There's something to be said for specificity.

Perhaps my most fulfilling comment this year is the one below, from the first student I (knowingly) had that came from an LGBTQ family.

Frequent and brutal previous bullying, along with a few other personal issues, had caused this dear child to shrivel up somewhat, academically, and produce very little written product this year.  But for this particular assignment, the student wrote even more than the minimum I begged for, continuing well beyond the five lines suggested, and giving voice to the internal hurdles faced by children growing up in a still somewhat unconventional (at least, in the suburbs where I teach) family.

I really felt quite vindicated reading this student's comment; I know that sometimes I feel as though I struggle to find the balance between the overt and covert curricula in my teaching practice, but it's students like this one, who can't get to the overt curriculum until they become comfortable with their own underlying learning roadblocks, that remind me of why it is so important to do what we do the way we do it.

If you've never asked students for end-of-year feedback, I encourage you to give it a try this week... you'd be amazed at what you can learn about yourself as a teacher!