The Only Thing to Fear is Fear Itself: How I Overcame My Anxiety About Student Evaluations of Teaching
I had never been speechless and embarrassed in my professional life until that Thursday evening. After class, one of my students said something to me that I never forgot: “Ms. Jean-Francois, I don’t mind reading about technology and all, but who wants to hear the same topic over and over again for three and a half months.” Translation—my class was boring. Yes, at some points, talking about the same thing repeatedly could become repetitive and mundane. His honest statement stung because he said it in front of other students. Some others probably felt the same way, too. With my wounded ego, I tried to defend myself. I told him that we were examining the topic from different angles. My explanation did not work. I went home wounded because I did a lot of leg work to prepare for the semester. I was five years deep teaching in higher education, so I thought I was on top of my game. Who wanted to be called “boring”? After stressing over it for a few days, I realized that my student’s constr