I got back my teaching evaluations — by and large I scored pretty well, although I was hammered by many people for being underprepared for section or review. That’s to be expected though. I was often underprepared — for some reason it took me too long to get the knack of spending just the right amount of time. Of the few students who bothered to make comments, I got some kind words, some encouragement along the lines of “usually helpful… occasionally causes more confusion.” However, one person was very unhappy:
– he’s a sarcastic fuck –> it’s condescending
– he tries to go fast in discussion/review sessions, but screws up almost everytime, then wastes time trying to redeem himself
I have to admit, I’m a bit hurt by that. I’m pretty sure I know who wrote it, which is probably a bad thing, all in all. Even though you can’t please all the people all the time, you can still shoot for not displeasing all the people all the time, right?
An Ergodic Walk 
Sarcastic? You? I’m shocked, shocked to know that someone thinks that of you!
Now how to turn something like into a constructive critique? There really isn’t. But sometimes, even the most shy students will respond to sarcasm with extra snark – provided that the no-fault zones are padded.
I have such an inappropriate response in mind for the “he’s a sarcastic fuck” comment.
But I’m going to keep it to myself.
dude, you SAID to fill out the form and be truthfull…
i’m just kidding. People learn in different ways and you’re just going to run into people who learn different from how you present the material. Combine that with the “people are assholes” and you’re bound to his some stuff like this.
Plus, with your perpensity (sp?) for negative shit coming at you? Come on.
Teaching is tough though, it really is. My evals from classes at G’town, and even here in Karachi were fairly uneven in the beginning. I’d have you teach me over half my former teachers/professors any day.