some self-evaluation

I handed in my faculty development plan (these are assessment things, kind of like an annual evaluation - yes, even tenured faculty have to be evaluated and strive to improve, regardless of what some anti-academic types would tell you).

However, I forgot my vita and the summary of my teaching evals. (I ALWAYS forget the teaching evals. I'm sure it's a psychological thing because when I first started teaching, I had a bad year or two of evals).

I did them this morning. And discovered on the 44 things the students are asked about, like emphasizing important concepts and communicating well and being courteous and giving meaningful feedback on exams and stuff...I average a 4.7 on a five point scale, where 1 is terrible and 5 is excellent.

If I could translate that to a percentage (you can't, exactly, because the evals are a Likert scale and are ordinal data, and percentages are generally more for ratio or interval scale data), that would be a 94%. An A, even at the tougher schools where you have to have a 92 to get an A.

I don't often say this about myself but that's pretty darn good. Maybe I don't need to worry as much as I do about "Am I a good enough teacher, should I just give this up?" Maybe I am good enough after all.

(I suppose part of the reason for making us do this is not just so people can find out the areas in which they are "terrible" - it is perhaps to reassure the people who are doing a good job but tend to be a bit unsure).

It was also pretty sweet to realize I had to add a line to my vita - indicating that my job title has changed slightly: "2011-present: Professor of Biological Science." (Prior to this I was Associate, and before that, Assistant. I don't know of too many places where your title gets shorter as you move up the ladder, but that's true in academia.)