...and the results are in

With 22 students reporting in, my average, depending on how you calculate it, is either 96.9% (Kevin's way) or 97.3% (Smoo's way).

Grade inflation, as per usual.

My French student, Jean-Pierre, saw that I had to go through the pain of being evaluated by students and rolled his eyes. "C'est ridicule," he told me. Apparently, as a teacher for the Cordon Bleu, he also gets evaluated by his students.

Comments this time around were rather sparse. Complaints included:

One hour is not enough time for conversation, especially conversation with the teacher.

Kevin's response: I agree that one hour isn't enough time. I disagree that students should fixate on talking with the teacher. I understand that students latch onto the teacher because the teacher's speech "models" correct English for them, but students need to learn to trust each other. Just making the effort to speak is a hurdle for many of my low-level students. They don't realize what long-term benefits they're getting, simply by overcoming their affective filter and flappin' their yaps.

Don't make us do skits!

Kevin's response: Ha ha ha! This one made me laugh. And I can guess who wrote that, too.

And... holy crap, that's it this time around! I normally see five or six wee complaints in the style and tone of the above, but this time around, two is it.

The compliments included:

Passionate teacher.

Fun, and kept us on task.

Taught in an easy-to-understand way.

Great & fun.

Kevin seems to make an effort for the students to understand him.

Explained things well. Taught with a variety of materials.

Kevin teaches in an exciting manner that reminds me of the movies.

Maintained an atmosphere in which it was easy to talk.

Was very kind and kept the class from being boring.

The teacher allowed us to form sentences without cutting us off before the end, which was nice. (I've never had a compliment like that before, especially when I know that one of my flaws as a teacher is that I occasionally do cut students off.)

Fun & comfortable ambiance made for good conversation.

Because the teacher has extensive knowledge in various fields, we were able to learn "deep English" (깊은 영어). (This comes from an intro-level student in my reading class. We studied Aesop's fables, bit by bit, but I also included Korean fairy tales and a healthy dose of Chuang Tzu, whose outlook often dovetails with Aesop's.)

Prepped well for classes. (Again, a reading student. For this class, every lesson included handouts made by yours truly. I'm not as much of a handout freak in my conversation classes, and I do prefer to generate my own material unless I find something way better online.)

Kevin is the best teacher I've ever met. (This was written in English, from a CNN English student of high-intermediate to low-advanced level. She's a sweetie.)

Not a bad way to finish off the semester, all in all. I'm still greedy for another 99%, as happened last year in the winter, but I seriously doubt I'll ever see its like again.


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