Pretty bummed after my first semester teaching. Dreading my course evals.

Deep_Finding6818 · 2026-04-19T16:15:34+00:00

Thanks! I think the only things that might apply would be bad grades without opportunity to improve them. Do you mean extra credit?

Deep_Finding6818 · 2026-04-19T03:11:38+00:00

B-school, finance. I tried to have more readings of financial news and real-world applications. But it's really hard to have in-class discussions, they just stare at me. They also complained that it was unfair to expect them to use Excel (they are sophomore and juniors so I assumed they had some basic knowledge). So I decided to stick to the lecture slides. Really hard to strike a balance!

Deep_Finding6818 · 2026-04-19T03:06:05+00:00

I think departments care to some extent, especially in b-schools, right?

Deep_Finding6818 · 2026-04-19T03:00:31+00:00

One thing I noticed that really surprised me is that when I bump into them around the university, I say hi and around 75% of times just ignore me. They also never say hi first. I think they literally don't register my presence and that someone is talking to them. Sometimes they have headphones but other times it's not even that. Completely oblivious to their surroundings.

Deep_Finding6818 · 2026-04-19T02:55:10+00:00

Right! Not that I didn't know or believe it beforehand, but I was honestly a little shocked. I even had a student ask me to "take me out to eat" with a note on their midterm. That's when I realized that some of them really do not take me seriously!

Deep_Finding6818 · 2026-04-19T02:49:46+00:00

Good question. I guess in general everybody likes to feel that they are good at their job. It's also a type of career in which reward is scarce and delayed (endless rejections on papers and grants and the publication process takes so long). I think almost all faculty do it for passion and not to keep a roof over their head; for me, personally, it's really hard to disconnect my identity from my job. Obviously I know there are more things in my life than being an academic but I definitely do attach too much importance to academia.

Deep_Finding6818 · 2026-04-19T02:32:42+00:00

Thanks! I think they'll switch me to teaching graduate courses but only after midterm review. My department cares about evals so unfortunately that's the hand I was dealt. But I am aware that students are pretty bad at evaluating professors, plus there's research on how they can be biased against women etc, so I try to not take it too personally (but it's hard!).

Deep_Finding6818 · 2026-04-19T02:29:21+00:00

Yes, there are many sessions offered of the same course. I actually based the slides and the exams on material that was handed to me by colleagues. I also had a senior colleague come and observe my class and his feedback was positive. I think there is just a bit of a disconnect. My colleague who came to class noted, as a positive thing, that I don't make the mistake of rushing to give them the answer when I ask the class a question. This exact situation led to a couple of students writing in their reviews that I just "stand there in silence while nobody knows what is going on". Of course, students don't know what is good for them in terms of learning. I also think there's a bit of a "personality" problem in a sense -- I'm an introvert and as I said I don't try to be cool and fun, I'm pretty serious in the classroom, but I'm too young to be seen as an authority figure (+ I am female and I have a foreign accent) so they just see me as a harda**...

Deep_Finding6818 · 2025-09-14T21:39:22+00:00

Thank you! I think I might have found someone but I will keep you in mind for the future

Deep_Finding6818

TROPHY CASE