Work work work

[estepheia]

Drat!
I have to write an evaluation of my creative writing course. I've never written one before. I have no clue, what such evaluations look like. Apparently it's something that most hired teachers/lecturers are asked to do on a regular basis... I suppose I have to describe my goals and how the students coped with the assignments, but find it difficult to blow my own trumpet.
I always oscillate between feelings of competence and feelings of complete inadequacy. I know I did a good job. My students feel they learned a lot, and I could see progress in their work. Still, I feel as though I could have been even better, that I failed somehow... The more I learn about a given field, the more I feel a pressure to excel in it - and then I get scared and nervous, and unobtrusivly edge away from the project... Hence the growing number of stories that defy completion. I guess I need an active pep squad looking over my shoulder and spurring me on in spite of my nagging inner voice.

My therapist says I have to learn to ignore the nasty inner voice and concentrate on the positive voice. Wish I could.

I started to write the evaluation, but an annoying apologetic tone has crept into the text. Bah.

Comments

[eac.livejournal.com]

Do they tell you how long the thing needs to be? Because if you could disciplin yourself to devote 95% of the thing to the positive aspects, and save 1 paragraph (or 2 sentences, depending on length) to what you could improve next time, that might be the way to go...

(And you know, you're learning to do this; you will improve next time.)

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Your pep talk is greatly appreciated!

Apparently a page is enough, but they don't tell me what's supposed to be in it. I wrote a paragraph on who took the course, and now I'm trying to cobble something together about my three primary goals which are:

- kicking the students' butts so they brush up on their grammar and learn new words

- changing their perspective on literature in general by looking at it from the angle of someone producing it rather than just reading it

- making them look at the world like writers

Okay, so we also talked about characterisation, archetypes, theme, revision, concrete imagery, effective dialogues, and the reader's desire for order, oh, and we talked a lot about plot...

*sigh*

I just don't know how to whip all this into the kind of obfuscating red-tape German that's required... I used to be okay at that kind of language, but I'm out of practice...

I think I'll ask hubby for help. He's good at this sort of thing.

[tesla321.livejournal.com]

Tell them that you're a brilliant teacher, that your English is so good and colloquial that non-Germans don't believe at first that you're not English or Canadian or American; your students are quick and catch on nicely; that your only problem is that you screen BtVS and tell them to write fanfic for extra credit.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

LOL. Extra credit? You wish.

Thank you. You managed to make me laugh out loud, which is definitely a good thing. *hug*

And I loooove your icon. Hee.