The Awards: 4

OK, so I got on the Department's Honour Roll with Distinction for all three courses I taught in Fall, 2010. Yada yada. Now--you know 'em, you love 'em--on to student comments. (Warning: As always, remember that snarkiness and sarcasm filters are now OFF.)

Perception:

"I really, really wanted to write something ridiculous just to be featured on WAYS, but I decided that might hurt your chances at getting honor roll again, which you truly deserve...[I] don't give "pity laughs" to profs trying to make jokes...with that in mind I can say I laughed a lot, which kept class interesting and made me want to be here."

(Aw, gee, thanks. And here you are on WAYS, even though you didn't write anything ridiculous. Others did, however. BTW, don't worry about your comments hurting my chances at getting on the honour roll--my abysmal teaching will take care of that.)

"Don't mock previous student evaluations at the beginning of the course under the guise of being fair. What are the important concepts? Emphasize these. What is the purpose of this class? I don't feel that I undertand perception any better than when I first began this class. Teach more. I'm not paying for you to distill notes from a textbook, I can do that myself. SPEAK LOUDER!!!"

(I will only mock evals here on my blog, 'K? "Teach more", eh? I'll have to look into that. In the meantime, learn more. AND DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE COURSE IS OVER TO TELL ME TO SPEAK LOUDER!!!)

"I found the instructor did not treat students with respect. He was arrogant and mocked students with legitimate comments/questions."

(WTF? Here's what treating students without respect would actually be like: "That's a stupid question. You're stupid. Don't waste my time with your stupidity." I don't do that; I've never done that. You must be confusing me with some asshole.)

"Notes are overly wordy."

"Lecture skimmed topics."

(I'll reduce the number of words, but at the same time go into more depth. Necessarily, polysyllabic entities will be employed. Antidisestablishmentarianism!)

"Notes were very disorganized & hard to follow. I am still unsure of what the purpose of this course is. Nothing memorable about information provided because it was delivered in a dull way. I strongly dislike perception because of you."

(Well, then, mission accomplished. I hope you dislike it even more after you finish taking my Advanced Perception course this term.)

"I am near the end of a 4 yr degree and this has been one of the most enjoyable classes I have taken so far...not so much for the content but for the excellent presentations & entertaining lectures."

(Well, then, mission accomplished. I hope you enjoy it even more after you finish taking my Advanced Perception course this term.)

"I really appreciate how Dr. Loepelmann knew beforehand that some topics were harder to grasp than others and took the time to explain it to us in different ways (approaches) so that we understood the material. He is an excellent prof; one of the best one I've ever had in university. I specifically chose this class because he's teaching it."

(Thanks--it's all part of my teaching philosophy: Teach more.)

More comments coming soon!

Why aren't you studying?

The Open Comments: 2

I really should do this more often than once every *cough*twoyears*cough*. This is an "open comments" post. I've got midterms on the brain (and I bet you do, too), so I'd like some mid-term evaluation from you.

This is an opportunity for me to ask "How am I doing?" and an opportunity for you to provide some formative evaluation--as opposed to the summative evaluation at the end of term.

Should I speak up? Should I slow down? Let me know.

Why aren't you commenting?

The Random Facts - 1

Why? Because I'm too lazy to set up a Twitter account.

• When you feel how cold your spouse's hands are, it's not a good idea to ask, "What, are you a dead person?" Actually, it's never a good idea to ask that.

• All that snow we got in January? That almost paralyzed the city? Yeah, it wasn't a record amount for January. That record was set in 1971, with 66 cm. Hmm, why don't I remember that? Oh, right--I was in my crib. (No, not my house, yo. Like, an actual crib.)

• A sump pump is an important thing to have in your house. It's even more important if it's actually working. Luckily, I have the ears of a hawk, and heard mine gurgling and buzzing its last. $600 later...

• Norovirus is not my favourite virus. When one person in my family gets it, we all get it, falling like dominoes. (How I managed to not miss teaching a single class, I dunno.) I'm not crazy about Coxsackievirus, either. Or influenza or rhinoviruses.

• There is no such thing as "one cookie left."

Do you have any random facts to share?

Why aren't you studying?