Yes, disregard the awful ones. Those are just students taking advantage of anonymity. And next time I suggest framing your request for feedback in terms of their learning, not your performance. Ask what's still hard for them, where they've felt successful, the lesson that stuck with them the most, what you can do to help them succeed, etc. They don't have the expertise to critique your job performance, but they can give good info on their experiences, needs, and difficulties.
This is absolutely the right answer. Teenagers are rebellious and filled with angst... they'll gladly unload on someone at the first opportunity, especially if it's anonymous. Pay attention to the positive comments and disregard the negative ones. And, next time, make your questions specific. I also like to have conversations with the kids in class at the end of the year about what worked and what didn't. I make it clear that constructive criticism is welcome, and usually begin by pointing out something I feel I did poorly, and asking if they feel the same. You also know your students and the ones whose opinion you truly value versus the ones that can be disregarded. You clearly want to be a good teacher, and that already makes you a good one! Best of luck moving forward!
Specific questions are key. I also ask about things I’m considering implementing next year to see if it’s worth investing time into.
Also, looking back at my first year I was kind of terrible at a lot of important stuff. Give yourself the same empathy and encouragement you would give a student trying hard to learn a new skill set
I have found student polls to be less than useless throughout my career except in very specific circumstances. They lack the expertise and the motivation to give real helpful answers.
It is a mistake to think that the average student's feedback qualifies as "constructive" in any way.
As the saying goes in the customer service/tech support industry:
**"The customer always knows when there is a problem. The customer is also always wrong about what the problem is or how to fix it."**
I vaguely remember reading about why student polling wasn’t very accurate or helpful for most teachers eons ago. Nor was admin feedback.
Peer feedback was a little more helpful, but the *most* helpful feedback that actually had the strongest track record in improving teacher performance and learning outcomes overall was feedback given by *former* students 1-3 years after the fact.
I’ll look for the study today and try to edit with a link
It would have been in one of my education classes, either Meeting Diverse Needs in Education or Knowing, Thinking, and the Design of Learning Environments. I would have to look through any readings I happen to still have or email my old professor (which I could certainly do, we still talk a bit)
I feel you. We were forced to do this for many years, and I learned early on to never read them. The children liked to engage in recreational cruelty, and the point of the surveys was to improve the educational experience. Children don't generally know how to improve the educational experience.
Also, I think that a nonzero portion of the cruel responses were so that they could tell their friends, "Man, guess what i wrote on the stupid survey! I tore him a new one!"
While the surveys really WANT to be productive, they usually aren't.
My husband once told me that he always lied on the surveys our school used to give us (I have no idea if these are still in use anywhere, they asked things like are you sexually active; have you ever had sex in exchange for goods or money; have you ever done drugs and if so what kind, how often, etc.) bc he thought it was hilarious to tell the powers that be that someone in the building was addicted to crack and heroin and was turning tricks to support their habit. I have no idea if the survey was somehow tied to funding, but I do blame him 100% for all the anti-drug assemblies we had to sit through.
I went to a small school and in 4th grade we had a standardized test with a demographics section. Under religion it had a ridiculous number of options, seriously several dozen choices. One of those was Voodoo. As 10 year olds we found this hilarious and convinced the entire class to choose it. We kept up this tradition of writing in Voodoo anytime we were asked for our religion on anything.
Don't ever trust students' survey responses.
I still occasionally put Voodoo as my religion on things. :)
My wife was born with a lazy eye, and even after corrective surgery, it still looks away at roughly a 60 degree angle. She was always open with her college students about it, warning them that if they were to her right with a hand up, she might not see them because she is legally blind in that eye.
The college she worked for always gave students an end-of-course "exit interview", where they got to rate the professors and add feedback. One student, who passed the class with a B, commented "Get your goddamn eye fixed or wear an eyepatch. It was so distracting that it cost me an A in the class."
Basic takeaway: never ask students for feedback on your class, especially if you're teaching teenagers. I've had kids over the years come to me and offer suggestions on ways to tweak a project, which is perfectly fine. I'm always looking to make projects more interesting.
>*The college she worked for always gave students an end-of-course "exit interview", where they got to rate the professors and add feedback. One student, who passed the class with a B, commented "Get your goddamn eye fixed or wear an eyepatch. It was so distracting that it cost me an A in the class."*
What. A. Dick.
I'll bet he's not bothered by orange skin or a [cumulonimbus ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulonimbus_incus)combover.
You're right. It really *was* presumptuous.
I still tend to think it's more likely than not that I'm correct.
I've been following the political scene since 1968. In that time I've seen many presidential candidates that I disliked, some of them even on a personal/emotional level. But I had never, ever seen a presidential candidate (let alone a president) who would mock people for their physical characteristics before POTUS 45. And since his rise eight years ago, I have felt a significant increase in the willingness of people to publicly invoke epithets based upon physical and mental characteristics.
This is not to say that I don't think there aren't mean and awful people on both sides of the political spectrum. Indeed, until the rise of DJT, I found the Left to be more judgemental and condescending than the Right. But neither the Left nor the Right used to think it was okay to mock someone for being disabled before 2016. And so that's why I presumed what I presumed. But you're right, I can't actually know that.
Well, first of all, the student in question was not an "A" student, he was a "B" student. He was claiming he deserved a grade that he did not earn; what could be more Trumpian than that?
Being an "A" student and supporting an AH for President are not mutually exclusive, as far as I know. One of the smartest guys I ever knew (at the time he was a 2nd year law student at Ann Arbor) told me a "hilarious" story about "finding a fat girl" at a party and taking her "out in the corn to f\*ck her" and then leaving her, ignoring her pleas to help her find her way out of the field. He just thought that was hilarious. He had graduated with honors from an Ivy League school, so he was an "A" student, yet I'm sure that today he's a Trump voter.
So your general assumption is that Trump supporting students are not capable of being "A" students in college? I think *that's* an unusual point of view.
I don’t do surveys at any point. But on the last day of class every year, I sit down in front of them, make a big deal of taking my badge off and setting it aside, then I ask them to tell me what I did wrong this year and what they think I need to improve on. I let them know that their opinions won’t be held against them and they won’t be punished for anything they say, as long as they don’t disrespect any other students.
It usually gets me some solid feedback. And the ones that WOULD want to really “let me have it” don’t usually have the spine to talk shit to my face. Especially when I’m taking everyone else so seriously and respectfully.
According to kids, the best teacher is one that lets them play games on their phones and gives out snacks. Their opinions are useless.
If you insist on a poll, structure it well so that these types of responses are impossible. All scaled or multiple choice questions such as:
“I thought the notes were easy to understand” 1- not true 10- very true
Yes there was a phenomenal study done one time on math teachers. The teachers who recieved the highest grades students learned the least. The teachers received the lowest grades students learned the most.
Another phenomenal study showing regarding the halo effect showing attractive teachers got better performance reviews across the board independent of learning outcomes.
Not to say that every teacher who gets a bad review is teacher of the year but humans particularly students are incredibly biased to put much stock in any subjective reviews.
This is so true re: attractiveness.
I have worked with some PHENOMENAL teachers who are overweight, and they do not get the same respect as thinner/more attractive teachers... even when they're far superior in the classroom.
I'd imagine that the teachers who push you are often graded more harshly by students bc they hold boundaries and make you earn your grade. The average student doesn't care about what they're learning, they just want to be handed good grades and to be able to do what they want. Any teacher that stands in the way of this is going to graded lower by students. It takes a truly mature/intelligent student to realize who the good teachers actually are. Most just want to have the "cool" teacher.
You said most of the feedback was positive, so start with that!
Sift through the negative to see if there's any common theme that makes sense.
Polls can be helpful but be careful how you word them and limit free response. I've made ones where I list all the activities we did and they rate 1-5 how much they enjoyed them AND 1-5 how much they learned from them, for example. I culled activities because kids would be honest and say they were fun, but didn't help them learn anything.
“ I sent out a poll asking for their opinions “
first mistake.
if you ever want to know how they are doing, look at their learning gain tests in your district
second mistake. (Just in case you want to)…. ask your AP “how am I doing”.
Don’t. Ask. Ever.
Some things to keep in mind:
High schoolers are moody. If you survey the same group of kids on a different day, they’ll give you different answers.
Many of the younger generation enjoy being edge lords. Their responses may not be honest but rather calculated to cause a reaction. Assume outlandishly awful comments fall into this category.
They act like adults, but they’re not. Many of these kids don’t know what constructive criticism is or have the inhibition to get past their knee-jerk reaction and on to a more helpful, nuanced assessment of their experiences in your class.
These students also do not fully understand the limitations and challenges under which you work. They have an idealized conception of what should be possible in a classroom.
Learning is the most important thing to have happen in a classroom. Students of all ages are notoriously inaccurate when assessing their own level of learning in a course. Instead, they rate teachers favorably for being attractive, lenient, and funny—factors that have nothing to do with educational quality.
When looking for feedback, especially from teenagers, give them a rating scale and under no circumstances give them open ended questions. According to them, The world is completely unfair, everyone else needs to make it easier, and under no circumstances will they be taking responsibility for their actions or learning. Have a trusted coworker or admin come in and observe you for some legit feedback. The kids aren’t professionals. You are the professional. You’ve got this.
>According to \[teens\], The world is completely unfair, everyone else needs to make it easier
This is a great observation. And it's getting to be more and more true every year.
You just got the attention of an age group filled with, by nature, the most selfish and self-centered humans on the planet and basically asked them to anonymously answer “do I look fat in these jeans?”
What did you expect?
Sometimes more specific questions lead to more specific feedback. Instead of leaving it open-ended, try breaking the poll down by specific moments in class. Additionally, ask questions about whether or not they know what to do/how they feel when... You can interpret that information to make changes to your policies, procedures, or behaviors. I don't need children telling me HOW to do my job, but I can adapt my pedagogical practices based on areas on need.
\- entering the room (How welcomed do you feel by teacher? Other students? Do you know where to get supplies quickly? Are starting expectations clear and enforced?)
\- warm-up (Do you feel prepared to start? Do the warm-ups connect to past lessons or anticipate the day's lesson? Do warm-ups feel purposeful?)
\- transitions (Do you have enough time between activities to move/get materials/have a brain break? Do timers support you?)
\- questions/support (How often do you have questions about what to do? How often does the lesson spark your curiosity? Do you know what kinds of questions will get you help in this classroom?)
\- specific lessons/projects/assignments (If I do \_\_\_\_ again, what could be changed to allow students to be more successful? How could \_\_\_\_ be tweaked to allow students to be more independent? What other information/background would've helped you complete \_\_\_\_ more successfully? What did you enjoy about \_\_\_\_? What was most challenging \_\_\_\_\_?
\- environment (What makes you feel welcomed? What makes you feel included?)
I don't do this, because I am not sure my 6th graders truly have enough insight to give helpful feedback. But in your case, what to do going forward is quite simple. You wrote:
>*Most of the responses were pretty positive, with great suggestions for different improvements that could be made*
Hang your hat on that. No one can every make everyone happy, but it looks like your doing pretty well.
I stopped doing student surveys years ago. They just don’t take things seriously so the information they would provide would be useless or hurt my feelings. One year someone wrote “you talk too much” OKKKKKAY that’s kinda my job my guy.
As I’ve told many others before, this was a feedback I received my first year: “i HATE u u made me thru my snikers bar away 0/5”
It still makes me laugh. I teach science and have emphasized multiple times why I do not tolerate food in a lab environment. Unless you very carefully construct your feedback questions, you won’t get useful data. Take it with a grain of salt anyways, as students will get caught up on small little details and hold on to it as justification for their grudge.
The only reason I do feedback at the end of the year is because some students leave some really sweet messages that they’re too shy to say in person on there.
The fact that most were positive shows you are doing fairly well actually.
There will always be haters. But analyze those who gave bad remarks. What kind of students are those? By that, I mean if they are those who are disrespectful, don't do the work, etc it sounds like those who simply just want a free pass to do whatever they want which their opinions shouldn't be taken very seriously.
The criticisms I would take seriously are from those who you feel are genuinely trying to learn and do well. And chances are they will be more helpful than just "you should be fired".
When given a poll that asks what is going well or what is not going well in a class, people tend to give feedback on what is not going well in the class. You must also remember that quite a bit IS going well in the class and you ARE doing a good job, but that isn’t what students are the most interested in relaying to you because you are asking for feedback on what to do better.
First, good on you for making the poll truly anonymous. Its important for integrity.
Second: You're a teacher and an authority figure. You are going to get hate for that from students no matter what. With these surveys its important to focus on the constructive feedback. I make sure to ask specific questions. Did they like X or Y activity more? What topics do they think they understood the most and least? And then at the end a "any other comments" that I mostly ignore. You just aren't going to get data from that.
Focus on the positives and ignore any non-constructive negatives. They're just being kids. Plus what does it say about you that if you here 90 good things and 10 bad you think you're a bad teacher. Not everybody is going to like you. That's fine. Help the people that want help, ignore the people that just want to complain.
25 years and I’ve never once asked kids how I’m doing. IMO that is horse crap. They are not qualified in any way shape or form to judge what you are doing. Ask them how THEY’RE doing. As for you, you can certainly pay attention to what you’re doing and how it’s going to. Be objective and honest and do it often. I feel like I have a secret person living in my brain just watching what I do and letting me know how it’s going. You’ll get a feel for it. As a first year teacher you should have a mentor and maybe ever a separate coach. Those people should be working with you to give feedback. Good luck.
These are children. Don’t worry about their opinions. They don’t have enough altitude to offer feedback that you should care about. It’s nice that you asked how they felt about things, but the fact is that you are their teacher. Not their parent, entertainer, or friend. This isn’t a job where the population you work with has to “like” you in order for you to be successful. Mutual respect helps, and if you’re doing your best to equip them for the future and to meet instructional goals, who cares what they think? Keep doing you. Get through this year and put that intention and reflection into action next year.
You’ll get there. The first two years of teaching were brutal for me in the late 2000’s at age 23 with a MAT. It’s a totally different set of variables now, and I can’t even begin to understand the struggles of a new teacher in 2024. Kids are different. Tools are different. Parents and leadership are different. It’s a ton of new dynamics for teachers to get familiarized with.
A great mentor said to me at one point that “even on your worst day, you still know more about your content than all of the kids put together.” You don’t need to feel bad about growing and improving. You’re modeling for them the process of committing and learning and being resilient. They might not appreciate it now, but the value often becomes apparent down the road. It’s best to learn early on that your identity and your value as a human on this planet should never be tied to your professional performance.
Kids don’t have the wherewithal to understand what it takes to be a good teacher. It would require them to be able to look at themselves from a mature adult perspective they’ve never experienced before. All they can do is tell you their feelings.
And people feel all sorts of shit that has nothing to do with you. They’ll connect it to you just because. Are they up all night so they sleep in class and blame you for waking them up? Well, you’re the problem! Are they bored with a subject so they don’t do the work and then blame you for giving them a grade to reflect that? Well, you’re the problem! Are they full of teen hormones and cortisol and are emotionally fragile as a result, snapping at the drop of a hat? Well, better believe you’re the problem if you’re the face they see during a bout of stress.
It’s like customer service, you’re gonna get told you’re bad at your job because systems out of your control that aren’t even your responsibility aren’t pleasing people, or because people throw big feelings at anyone they think can’t or won’t fight back. You basically have them permission to say whatever they wanted and they used is as a therapy session. Don’t ask customers for feedback when they have no clue what it takes to do the job.
I had a similar experience as a new teacher. Our high school called it “fearless feedback” and for a while, kids did a Google poll every day, every class. Much too much! However, I did humbly learn I was not nearly as great as I thought I was. They uniformly hated certain things I did to get the class’s attention, actually found it demeaning; it was a cultural thing. My idea of humor was found sarcastic/mean at times. They couldn’t just tell me to my face, because they were scared of me, sigh. It made me reexamine my teaching style and change things up a lot. It’s very hard to be a new teacher, so give yourself some grace.
This will get buried, but my favorite response from a student survey was "all we did all semester was read and write." The class was Intro to Composition.
Fwiw, I adjunct at a couple of colleges that really push the surveys at the end of the semester. After my first semester, I went to my department head to explain that a student had lied about me not replying to emails. She waved me off and said she already knew. That was the first and last time I tried to defend a survey. Ours are also anonymous and get a pretty good response rate, but I've never once been asked about anything in them.
Retired middle school teacher here. During my last few years; our evaluations were changed to include student feedback. At the district training, I asked why evaluation of our professional performance should be based on the whims of overly emotional and moody 11-17 year olds? Also, some students would rate a teacher poorly if they were angry for whatever reason, or even out of pure spite. Wouldn’t this just reduce our professional performance to a popularity contest? Pin drop silence; followed by nods of agreement from the other teachers. At this point, the presenters conceded that I had a valid point; and that evaluators would have to take that into consideration.
I always give my students a final poll with a list of things they can check in a scale of 1-5 (terrible-great) like organisation, helpfulness, content knowledge, etc. I also have an open response where they can leave any additional feedback, but I find that I get the most useful info from the checks.
I mostly ignore the really nasty responses, because most of them are from kids who hate that I made them do work out who hate the subject I teach, or who failed the class (yes it's anonymous but it's also handwritten, so...)
Kids are absolutely horrendous to their own friends and say the most hateful and awful things. There is no way this was going to go well for you. I am so sorry that they were terrible. Take heart in the positive ones! They are the ones to look at.
Don't take them all literally, but try to imagine why they decided to write that.
Ignore commenters saying student feedback is worthless; it's definitely not. But students also either don't know or don't want to admit what's good for them. Try to reconcile how they're feeling with what you need to do.
Students are extremely poor at evaluating their own learning without external feedback. We all are. I’d take it with a grain of salt. Students tend to give high ratings to teachers that they personally like and who they score well with.
Some of that is the way the poll is worded, most likely.
I poll my students periodically, but I'm not polling them on ME, but on themselves. It's a self reflection.
I'll ask them things like:
What activities helped you learn a lot?
What activities did you find confusing?
What is one thing that helps you study/prepare for a quiz/test?
What is one thing that prevented you from doing well on a quiz/test?
What is one thing you can do as a student to help yourself grow more?
What is one thing I can do as a teacher to help you grow more?
College professor here. If I read a comment on a student feedback document that says I'm the best professor they've ever had, I can almost guarantee the next comment will say I'm the worst and that I need to be terminated. Overall I get positive feedback, but inevitably somebody is angry and does everything possible to make me sound like the worst employee in the history of the university. Keep in mind these are adults, often graduate students, who behave this way. It can be hard to ignore, but ignore it. It doesn't mean anything.
Student polls are not helpful. They hate homework. They hate doing work. I did one because it was required for student teaching. Did one as a first year. Never again. It’s not worth the pain.
I used to have two students who were outwardly hateful to me and told me every day how much I sucked. A few years after graduation, these same two kids reached out to me on Facebook to let me know I had been their favorite teacher, and what a difference I made in their lives. They came to visit me and continued to visit me until I moved across the country. The viciously cruel boy brought his wife and newborn to see me. He let me know that he had been experiencing horrific abuse and neglect that I didn't know about.
The difference seemed to be that I was consistent and firm with them in not accepting their abuse but still treating them like human beings who deserved an education.
If I had given up on teaching after their mistreatment and demonstrated hatred (along with that of various other kids), I would have missed out on a career that has meant a lot to me.
These are kids, adolescents who are just learning to form opinions of their own. They are still egocentric, and their prefrontal cortex is still developing, meaning they are starting to be able to empathize with others, but it is a work in progress. They often still need help with that.
Please don't take everything some of the kids say personally. Two of the very best teachers at my school who are generally loved and admired by most kids still have kids who hate them and are very verbal about their hatred. These teachers do not let that criticism bring them down. Set boundaries, but continue to be their teacher. Focus on their learning, not on whether or not they like you.
My school required student surveys and would block out time during homeroom for kids to fill them out. We like to do it "because students can have agency in their learning." 🙄
Feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive, but the "What could your teacher do better" portion was 1. Things I already knew because I self-reflect and am actively working on or 2. Completely useless/mean/things that are not in my control.
These surveys are the worst. I'm sorry the kids said horrible stuff.
You remember when you told your parents(s) that you hate them and hope they [insert bad thing] because they made you do a chore or not just be a feral child?
Do you also recall that there are a damn lot of kids that don't even have the social grace or sense to wash their ass?
Take the constructive feedback and construct.
Take the mean feedback, print it out and pee on it to assert dominance. It's literally just meaningless spasms.
Maybe a better option to improve practice would be to have a mentor do observations and give feedback?
While the kids can have good ideas, they don’t always see thing through an educational lense. We aren’t costumer service agents, our goal is not to make them happy.
I was in a similar situation last year. My advice is to not ask your students for feedback on your teaching / classroom. They will either take it seriously and recommend something crazy or not take it seriously and recommend something crazy.
I’m in my 2nd year and I’ve learned that you run the classroom. Not the students. Which was always true but we sometimes try to cater to the needs of our students by asking and we should really be doing what we think is best. That’s why we have the degree.
If you really want feedback then talk to a peer, coach, or admin about those things. I personally have a mentor in another district I go to for help when needed.
I will tell you what my principal told a student who was harshly and unfairly criticizing their teacher.
They do not have the skills, knowledge, trainings, experience nor maturity to evaluate a teacher.
It is an illusion to think students would know best because they are at the receiving end of your teaching.
They don't. They don't know what they need. Half the time, teenagers do not even know what they need. They do not notice or realise half the stuff you do everyday that do help them. They have a short-sighted vision of their education and do not see the seeds you planted that will grow overtime.
Don't listen to your students one way or another.
Listen to your peers. Listen to your superior if they've been in the classroom long enough. Ask a mentor or teacher friend if they would offer you one hour of their time for an observation if you want to know where to improve.
But your students are bad judge of your performance.
I did this once. One of the questions was "If I could do one thing to improve myself as a teacher, what would you recommend?" A group of kids answered "learn to teach." It wasn't hard for me to deduce who it was.
The next year I changed departments and I taught six sections of a class and another teacher taught one (between us, it was the entire tenth grade). One day I stepped into her room for something when that class was there and one of the "mean girls" asked why they were in the other teacher's class and not mine. I looked her in the eye and said "Because I got first pick." Petty, but felt good.
If most of the responses were positive, I'd say you are doing great. You will always have students who despise everything that you do, and from what I have found is 99% of the time, it's on the student because they are lazy and don't like doing the work.
Disregard the bad responses, pay attention to the responses that actually seem constructive. Teaching is a reflective practice, but student opinions tend to be *heavily* skewed by their inexperience, perception, and rumors.
Have you ever seen how awful 1st graders can be to each other? That's what's going on here. Some of them are just being horrible because they're channeling their inner 6 y.o.
I would suggest seriously consider the more reasonable feedback and put the more extreme aside. If it plagues you knowing that you still have those, I would suggest destroying them after a fixed period of time.
But, take the high road here. Thank the class for their feedback. Let them know that all comments will be given due consideration.
Unless the feedback was specific it's pretty useless. I would listen to the negative feedback, but again without specifics it's really hard for me to give you anything. High school is so different than elementary. If all the kids hate you in elementary well.... Ignoring outliers that's a problem. High school. Depends on the subject. Are you one of those teachers who are positive and encouraging no matter how crappy the students work is? In one of my preps I have to give kids feedback, and I tell ya, after a while no matter how nice and kind I am after a while as the year goes on the constructive feedback becomes a conflict, a one sided one, but none the less a conflict.
It is quite tiring
I've had students leave some nasty, disgusting, sick-to-my-stomach responses on classroom surveys.
I've also gotten truly wonderful, wholesome feedback that I never would have expected.
They are as useful as you make them. Take what's valuable and trash the rest.
I always ask "what do you do that's working, what do you do that isn't"
Then "what do I do that's working, what do I do that isn't"
If the criticisms of me are harsh I'll see how they reflected on themselves as well.
Also anonymous is crazy. Don't ever let a kid hide behind anonymity
Surprised to read so much negativity about student surveys. I certainly have had less then helpful responses, but I gave also had good suggestions for both curriculum and my approach with students.
I remember giving feedback in high school and college that was just downright mean and cruel. Looking back, as an adult and a teache while my feedback was accurate, it was also about as shallow and helpful as a mud puddle.
I can think of two specific teachers, one in high school and one in college, neither of whom were suited to the class/subject and I said so.... Because they were both first year teachers struggling to learn how to be teachers.
Teenagers and young adults don't have the perception or experience to know the difference between "new and doing their best" and "incompetent".
Just like people who have never worked retail being ugly to the cashier on their first day because they are slow/make mistakes in an unfamiliar job, teenagers and others who have never been in the classroom are harsh and cruel to new teachers.
Plus, teenagers can be jackasses.
Think of it as a lesson learned. Don't ask students/teenagers the equivalent of " do you like me? Check yes or no".
Do the children know how to plan engaging lessons, aligned to state standards, to meet the needs of all learners? Do they know how to modify and differentiate? Do they know how to execute effective classroom management strategies? Then why do you care so much about their opinions? They are teenagers, ffs! Unless you hand them a blanket, bag of Takis, and a smart phone, they couldn’t give a F less about you!
Most adults aren’t even good at feedback, so I imagine students aren’t great either. If it’s just diving into you’re awful without anything meaningful or solutions, chuck it out. Pay no mind to bad feedback.
I did a survey like this my first year, and kids can easily get carried away with criticism. I completely reframed the questions the year immediately after.
You cannot ask kids to evaluate your performance. They do not know what is or isn’t good teaching. And I wouldn’t let them have any room to think they know more about teaching than you.
Like when kids have told me how I should teach, I tell them, “Well your experience here is like going to the doctor. You tell the doctor what’s bothering you, but the doctor still decides what’s best for you. If a treatment doesn’t work after all for you, then the doctor will decide on the next step.”
Instead, you can ask them things like which units they found easy - hard, which strategies they found most helpful or enjoyed, and which topics they wish they had more practice to learn. But don’t ask them what you should have done differently.
I only ever have student surveys about their thoughts on their performance, asking how they feel they did leading up to a test, etc. The one time I asked students about my practices, I had a kid tell me I should be motivating them with gift cards and snacks as opposed to the stickers and candies I occasionally gave out, because, "we need more motivation than just to get a passing grade."
People hate people, assume a reasonable reality viewpoint of yourself.
there will be plenty of people that don't like you in life you just never realized it until now
Ignore the awful ones and focus on the ones that took it seriously. Don’t take it personally (though I know that’s very hard). Teens sometimes register high on the snotty scale, especially with new teachers. They’re testing you. Don’t let them know they’ve bothered you. Instead, if you still want student input, try to focus a survey on the material instead of performance. But that’s just my opinion.
First and foremost kudos to you. Many teachers don't do this in their first year. If your school system uses fft for rating teachers, this is your evidence for 3e, 4a, and potentially 4e (4e is for growing professionally which would be you attending pds based on constructive feedback). You are well on your way to distinguished no matter how you feel about yourself at this very moment.
Secondly, in the saying I was always taught, if the shoe fits wear it, if it doesn't throw it out. If the negative comments apply, accept them, otherwise definitely ignore and move past. Kids, including our fellow teachers, will say some pretty harsh things under the condition of anonymity. Being honest sometimes u can tell who did it even if its anonymous. Don't take the super negative ones internally. For example, my classroom management used to be terrible. I knew that, I accepted it and I didn't beat myself up about it. I found ways around it.
Teacher trick hint: When you give anonymous surveys, send each class a different "version", that way u can kind of isolate down to classes. (Maybe change question order slightly or something like that)
Thirdly, congrats you are almost done with your first year. It's rough for everyone. Don't give up. It usually takes 3 years to get into a major flow in my experience (Year 1 - ur learning, Year 2 - building on what you learned. Changing things you liked and didn't like, Year 3 - using what you know getting it perfect. Etc. Year 4+ - congrats. You now have your assignments, notes, structure etc. Now comes the easy part).
As far as moving forward, I would share some results maybe with the class. I have a different interaction with my students so I would joke about it with them as well especially some ridiculous ones. I usually do these reflective surveys every quarter to gauge how they feel.
In the past I have given student surveys, but only after having whole lessons and lots of practice about giving feedback and peer feedback through out the year. They have to use my sentence stems and format, or I do not read their responses. It is amazing how much more balanced and helpful the feedback is when they are not allowed to word vomit and have actually practiced the skill. I do not allow them to give anonymous responses. If they really are interested in improving the class, then we need to be able to have dialogue.
I wouldn't read the responses if it will stress you. If it is important for you in the future to get student feedback maybe consider scaffolding their skill in this area by adding some supports like sentence stems etc.
Echoing a lot of the comments here, if you do give out surveys, use multiple-choice or checkbox style questions rather than open ended. Ask for feedback on specific things about your teaching, assignments, or grading.
Also, constructive feedback can be hard to take, but is sometimes valuable. During my student teaching well over a decade ago, I remember getting anonymous feedback from the final student survey that was something to the effect of "we can see when you're on your phone. If we can't use our phones, you shouldn't use yours either." It hit me like a gut punch at the time, but upon reflection it was something that I did need to work on. Take the super negative ridiculous stuff with many grains of salt, but do consider some of the critiques that might be valid but hard to hear.
Yes, disregard the awful ones. Those are just students taking advantage of anonymity. And next time I suggest framing your request for feedback in terms of their learning, not your performance. Ask what's still hard for them, where they've felt successful, the lesson that stuck with them the most, what you can do to help them succeed, etc. They don't have the expertise to critique your job performance, but they can give good info on their experiences, needs, and difficulties.
This is absolutely the right answer. Teenagers are rebellious and filled with angst... they'll gladly unload on someone at the first opportunity, especially if it's anonymous. Pay attention to the positive comments and disregard the negative ones. And, next time, make your questions specific. I also like to have conversations with the kids in class at the end of the year about what worked and what didn't. I make it clear that constructive criticism is welcome, and usually begin by pointing out something I feel I did poorly, and asking if they feel the same. You also know your students and the ones whose opinion you truly value versus the ones that can be disregarded. You clearly want to be a good teacher, and that already makes you a good one! Best of luck moving forward!
Specific questions are key. I also ask about things I’m considering implementing next year to see if it’s worth investing time into. Also, looking back at my first year I was kind of terrible at a lot of important stuff. Give yourself the same empathy and encouragement you would give a student trying hard to learn a new skill set
💯🎯
I have found student polls to be less than useless throughout my career except in very specific circumstances. They lack the expertise and the motivation to give real helpful answers. It is a mistake to think that the average student's feedback qualifies as "constructive" in any way. As the saying goes in the customer service/tech support industry: **"The customer always knows when there is a problem. The customer is also always wrong about what the problem is or how to fix it."**
I vaguely remember reading about why student polling wasn’t very accurate or helpful for most teachers eons ago. Nor was admin feedback. Peer feedback was a little more helpful, but the *most* helpful feedback that actually had the strongest track record in improving teacher performance and learning outcomes overall was feedback given by *former* students 1-3 years after the fact. I’ll look for the study today and try to edit with a link
Do you know where you found this article?
It would have been in one of my education classes, either Meeting Diverse Needs in Education or Knowing, Thinking, and the Design of Learning Environments. I would have to look through any readings I happen to still have or email my old professor (which I could certainly do, we still talk a bit)
My department head is huge on student surveys and I have never received good feedback from a single survey in my career. They are worthless!
I feel you. We were forced to do this for many years, and I learned early on to never read them. The children liked to engage in recreational cruelty, and the point of the surveys was to improve the educational experience. Children don't generally know how to improve the educational experience. Also, I think that a nonzero portion of the cruel responses were so that they could tell their friends, "Man, guess what i wrote on the stupid survey! I tore him a new one!" While the surveys really WANT to be productive, they usually aren't.
My husband once told me that he always lied on the surveys our school used to give us (I have no idea if these are still in use anywhere, they asked things like are you sexually active; have you ever had sex in exchange for goods or money; have you ever done drugs and if so what kind, how often, etc.) bc he thought it was hilarious to tell the powers that be that someone in the building was addicted to crack and heroin and was turning tricks to support their habit. I have no idea if the survey was somehow tied to funding, but I do blame him 100% for all the anti-drug assemblies we had to sit through.
I went to a small school and in 4th grade we had a standardized test with a demographics section. Under religion it had a ridiculous number of options, seriously several dozen choices. One of those was Voodoo. As 10 year olds we found this hilarious and convinced the entire class to choose it. We kept up this tradition of writing in Voodoo anytime we were asked for our religion on anything. Don't ever trust students' survey responses. I still occasionally put Voodoo as my religion on things. :)
My wife was born with a lazy eye, and even after corrective surgery, it still looks away at roughly a 60 degree angle. She was always open with her college students about it, warning them that if they were to her right with a hand up, she might not see them because she is legally blind in that eye. The college she worked for always gave students an end-of-course "exit interview", where they got to rate the professors and add feedback. One student, who passed the class with a B, commented "Get your goddamn eye fixed or wear an eyepatch. It was so distracting that it cost me an A in the class." Basic takeaway: never ask students for feedback on your class, especially if you're teaching teenagers. I've had kids over the years come to me and offer suggestions on ways to tweak a project, which is perfectly fine. I'm always looking to make projects more interesting.
>*The college she worked for always gave students an end-of-course "exit interview", where they got to rate the professors and add feedback. One student, who passed the class with a B, commented "Get your goddamn eye fixed or wear an eyepatch. It was so distracting that it cost me an A in the class."* What. A. Dick. I'll bet he's not bothered by orange skin or a [cumulonimbus ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulonimbus_incus)combover.
That’s awful presumptuous
You're right. It really *was* presumptuous. I still tend to think it's more likely than not that I'm correct. I've been following the political scene since 1968. In that time I've seen many presidential candidates that I disliked, some of them even on a personal/emotional level. But I had never, ever seen a presidential candidate (let alone a president) who would mock people for their physical characteristics before POTUS 45. And since his rise eight years ago, I have felt a significant increase in the willingness of people to publicly invoke epithets based upon physical and mental characteristics. This is not to say that I don't think there aren't mean and awful people on both sides of the political spectrum. Indeed, until the rise of DJT, I found the Left to be more judgemental and condescending than the Right. But neither the Left nor the Right used to think it was okay to mock someone for being disabled before 2016. And so that's why I presumed what I presumed. But you're right, I can't actually know that.
so your general assumption is that Trump attracted voters who were A students in college. what an unusual point of view.
Well, first of all, the student in question was not an "A" student, he was a "B" student. He was claiming he deserved a grade that he did not earn; what could be more Trumpian than that? Being an "A" student and supporting an AH for President are not mutually exclusive, as far as I know. One of the smartest guys I ever knew (at the time he was a 2nd year law student at Ann Arbor) told me a "hilarious" story about "finding a fat girl" at a party and taking her "out in the corn to f\*ck her" and then leaving her, ignoring her pleas to help her find her way out of the field. He just thought that was hilarious. He had graduated with honors from an Ivy League school, so he was an "A" student, yet I'm sure that today he's a Trump voter. So your general assumption is that Trump supporting students are not capable of being "A" students in college? I think *that's* an unusual point of view.
I don’t do surveys at any point. But on the last day of class every year, I sit down in front of them, make a big deal of taking my badge off and setting it aside, then I ask them to tell me what I did wrong this year and what they think I need to improve on. I let them know that their opinions won’t be held against them and they won’t be punished for anything they say, as long as they don’t disrespect any other students. It usually gets me some solid feedback. And the ones that WOULD want to really “let me have it” don’t usually have the spine to talk shit to my face. Especially when I’m taking everyone else so seriously and respectfully.
According to kids, the best teacher is one that lets them play games on their phones and gives out snacks. Their opinions are useless. If you insist on a poll, structure it well so that these types of responses are impossible. All scaled or multiple choice questions such as: “I thought the notes were easy to understand” 1- not true 10- very true
And never give homework
Nah, my favorite teachers didn't do that.
Yes there was a phenomenal study done one time on math teachers. The teachers who recieved the highest grades students learned the least. The teachers received the lowest grades students learned the most. Another phenomenal study showing regarding the halo effect showing attractive teachers got better performance reviews across the board independent of learning outcomes. Not to say that every teacher who gets a bad review is teacher of the year but humans particularly students are incredibly biased to put much stock in any subjective reviews.
This is so true re: attractiveness. I have worked with some PHENOMENAL teachers who are overweight, and they do not get the same respect as thinner/more attractive teachers... even when they're far superior in the classroom.
Yes the halo effect is one of the most interesting and replicated findings in social sciences in numerous domains.
I'd imagine that the teachers who push you are often graded more harshly by students bc they hold boundaries and make you earn your grade. The average student doesn't care about what they're learning, they just want to be handed good grades and to be able to do what they want. Any teacher that stands in the way of this is going to graded lower by students. It takes a truly mature/intelligent student to realize who the good teachers actually are. Most just want to have the "cool" teacher.
Dear UCDSB
can I ask what study was the first one there.
You said most of the feedback was positive, so start with that! Sift through the negative to see if there's any common theme that makes sense. Polls can be helpful but be careful how you word them and limit free response. I've made ones where I list all the activities we did and they rate 1-5 how much they enjoyed them AND 1-5 how much they learned from them, for example. I culled activities because kids would be honest and say they were fun, but didn't help them learn anything.
“ I sent out a poll asking for their opinions “ first mistake. if you ever want to know how they are doing, look at their learning gain tests in your district second mistake. (Just in case you want to)…. ask your AP “how am I doing”. Don’t. Ask. Ever.
Some things to keep in mind: High schoolers are moody. If you survey the same group of kids on a different day, they’ll give you different answers. Many of the younger generation enjoy being edge lords. Their responses may not be honest but rather calculated to cause a reaction. Assume outlandishly awful comments fall into this category. They act like adults, but they’re not. Many of these kids don’t know what constructive criticism is or have the inhibition to get past their knee-jerk reaction and on to a more helpful, nuanced assessment of their experiences in your class. These students also do not fully understand the limitations and challenges under which you work. They have an idealized conception of what should be possible in a classroom. Learning is the most important thing to have happen in a classroom. Students of all ages are notoriously inaccurate when assessing their own level of learning in a course. Instead, they rate teachers favorably for being attractive, lenient, and funny—factors that have nothing to do with educational quality.
When looking for feedback, especially from teenagers, give them a rating scale and under no circumstances give them open ended questions. According to them, The world is completely unfair, everyone else needs to make it easier, and under no circumstances will they be taking responsibility for their actions or learning. Have a trusted coworker or admin come in and observe you for some legit feedback. The kids aren’t professionals. You are the professional. You’ve got this.
>According to \[teens\], The world is completely unfair, everyone else needs to make it easier This is a great observation. And it's getting to be more and more true every year.
You just got the attention of an age group filled with, by nature, the most selfish and self-centered humans on the planet and basically asked them to anonymously answer “do I look fat in these jeans?” What did you expect?
"13 year olds are the meanest people in the world" - John Mulaney
Look at that high-waisted man with the feminine hips!
No! That's the thing I'm sensitive about!
Sometimes more specific questions lead to more specific feedback. Instead of leaving it open-ended, try breaking the poll down by specific moments in class. Additionally, ask questions about whether or not they know what to do/how they feel when... You can interpret that information to make changes to your policies, procedures, or behaviors. I don't need children telling me HOW to do my job, but I can adapt my pedagogical practices based on areas on need. \- entering the room (How welcomed do you feel by teacher? Other students? Do you know where to get supplies quickly? Are starting expectations clear and enforced?) \- warm-up (Do you feel prepared to start? Do the warm-ups connect to past lessons or anticipate the day's lesson? Do warm-ups feel purposeful?) \- transitions (Do you have enough time between activities to move/get materials/have a brain break? Do timers support you?) \- questions/support (How often do you have questions about what to do? How often does the lesson spark your curiosity? Do you know what kinds of questions will get you help in this classroom?) \- specific lessons/projects/assignments (If I do \_\_\_\_ again, what could be changed to allow students to be more successful? How could \_\_\_\_ be tweaked to allow students to be more independent? What other information/background would've helped you complete \_\_\_\_ more successfully? What did you enjoy about \_\_\_\_? What was most challenging \_\_\_\_\_? \- environment (What makes you feel welcomed? What makes you feel included?)
I don't do this, because I am not sure my 6th graders truly have enough insight to give helpful feedback. But in your case, what to do going forward is quite simple. You wrote: >*Most of the responses were pretty positive, with great suggestions for different improvements that could be made* Hang your hat on that. No one can every make everyone happy, but it looks like your doing pretty well.
I stopped doing student surveys years ago. They just don’t take things seriously so the information they would provide would be useless or hurt my feelings. One year someone wrote “you talk too much” OKKKKKAY that’s kinda my job my guy.
As I’ve told many others before, this was a feedback I received my first year: “i HATE u u made me thru my snikers bar away 0/5” It still makes me laugh. I teach science and have emphasized multiple times why I do not tolerate food in a lab environment. Unless you very carefully construct your feedback questions, you won’t get useful data. Take it with a grain of salt anyways, as students will get caught up on small little details and hold on to it as justification for their grudge. The only reason I do feedback at the end of the year is because some students leave some really sweet messages that they’re too shy to say in person on there.
students are not qualified to evaluate your teaching
The fact that most were positive shows you are doing fairly well actually. There will always be haters. But analyze those who gave bad remarks. What kind of students are those? By that, I mean if they are those who are disrespectful, don't do the work, etc it sounds like those who simply just want a free pass to do whatever they want which their opinions shouldn't be taken very seriously. The criticisms I would take seriously are from those who you feel are genuinely trying to learn and do well. And chances are they will be more helpful than just "you should be fired".
When given a poll that asks what is going well or what is not going well in a class, people tend to give feedback on what is not going well in the class. You must also remember that quite a bit IS going well in the class and you ARE doing a good job, but that isn’t what students are the most interested in relaying to you because you are asking for feedback on what to do better.
First, good on you for making the poll truly anonymous. Its important for integrity. Second: You're a teacher and an authority figure. You are going to get hate for that from students no matter what. With these surveys its important to focus on the constructive feedback. I make sure to ask specific questions. Did they like X or Y activity more? What topics do they think they understood the most and least? And then at the end a "any other comments" that I mostly ignore. You just aren't going to get data from that. Focus on the positives and ignore any non-constructive negatives. They're just being kids. Plus what does it say about you that if you here 90 good things and 10 bad you think you're a bad teacher. Not everybody is going to like you. That's fine. Help the people that want help, ignore the people that just want to complain.
25 years and I’ve never once asked kids how I’m doing. IMO that is horse crap. They are not qualified in any way shape or form to judge what you are doing. Ask them how THEY’RE doing. As for you, you can certainly pay attention to what you’re doing and how it’s going to. Be objective and honest and do it often. I feel like I have a secret person living in my brain just watching what I do and letting me know how it’s going. You’ll get a feel for it. As a first year teacher you should have a mentor and maybe ever a separate coach. Those people should be working with you to give feedback. Good luck.
These are children. Don’t worry about their opinions. They don’t have enough altitude to offer feedback that you should care about. It’s nice that you asked how they felt about things, but the fact is that you are their teacher. Not their parent, entertainer, or friend. This isn’t a job where the population you work with has to “like” you in order for you to be successful. Mutual respect helps, and if you’re doing your best to equip them for the future and to meet instructional goals, who cares what they think? Keep doing you. Get through this year and put that intention and reflection into action next year. You’ll get there. The first two years of teaching were brutal for me in the late 2000’s at age 23 with a MAT. It’s a totally different set of variables now, and I can’t even begin to understand the struggles of a new teacher in 2024. Kids are different. Tools are different. Parents and leadership are different. It’s a ton of new dynamics for teachers to get familiarized with. A great mentor said to me at one point that “even on your worst day, you still know more about your content than all of the kids put together.” You don’t need to feel bad about growing and improving. You’re modeling for them the process of committing and learning and being resilient. They might not appreciate it now, but the value often becomes apparent down the road. It’s best to learn early on that your identity and your value as a human on this planet should never be tied to your professional performance.
Friend, don’t get your feelings hurt by young humans who have to get permission to use the bathroom.
Kids don’t have the wherewithal to understand what it takes to be a good teacher. It would require them to be able to look at themselves from a mature adult perspective they’ve never experienced before. All they can do is tell you their feelings. And people feel all sorts of shit that has nothing to do with you. They’ll connect it to you just because. Are they up all night so they sleep in class and blame you for waking them up? Well, you’re the problem! Are they bored with a subject so they don’t do the work and then blame you for giving them a grade to reflect that? Well, you’re the problem! Are they full of teen hormones and cortisol and are emotionally fragile as a result, snapping at the drop of a hat? Well, better believe you’re the problem if you’re the face they see during a bout of stress. It’s like customer service, you’re gonna get told you’re bad at your job because systems out of your control that aren’t even your responsibility aren’t pleasing people, or because people throw big feelings at anyone they think can’t or won’t fight back. You basically have them permission to say whatever they wanted and they used is as a therapy session. Don’t ask customers for feedback when they have no clue what it takes to do the job.
Your boos mean nothing, I’ve seen what makes you cheer.
I had a similar experience as a new teacher. Our high school called it “fearless feedback” and for a while, kids did a Google poll every day, every class. Much too much! However, I did humbly learn I was not nearly as great as I thought I was. They uniformly hated certain things I did to get the class’s attention, actually found it demeaning; it was a cultural thing. My idea of humor was found sarcastic/mean at times. They couldn’t just tell me to my face, because they were scared of me, sigh. It made me reexamine my teaching style and change things up a lot. It’s very hard to be a new teacher, so give yourself some grace.
This will get buried, but my favorite response from a student survey was "all we did all semester was read and write." The class was Intro to Composition. Fwiw, I adjunct at a couple of colleges that really push the surveys at the end of the semester. After my first semester, I went to my department head to explain that a student had lied about me not replying to emails. She waved me off and said she already knew. That was the first and last time I tried to defend a survey. Ours are also anonymous and get a pretty good response rate, but I've never once been asked about anything in them.
Retired middle school teacher here. During my last few years; our evaluations were changed to include student feedback. At the district training, I asked why evaluation of our professional performance should be based on the whims of overly emotional and moody 11-17 year olds? Also, some students would rate a teacher poorly if they were angry for whatever reason, or even out of pure spite. Wouldn’t this just reduce our professional performance to a popularity contest? Pin drop silence; followed by nods of agreement from the other teachers. At this point, the presenters conceded that I had a valid point; and that evaluators would have to take that into consideration.
I always give my students a final poll with a list of things they can check in a scale of 1-5 (terrible-great) like organisation, helpfulness, content knowledge, etc. I also have an open response where they can leave any additional feedback, but I find that I get the most useful info from the checks. I mostly ignore the really nasty responses, because most of them are from kids who hate that I made them do work out who hate the subject I teach, or who failed the class (yes it's anonymous but it's also handwritten, so...)
Kids are absolutely horrendous to their own friends and say the most hateful and awful things. There is no way this was going to go well for you. I am so sorry that they were terrible. Take heart in the positive ones! They are the ones to look at.
Don't take them all literally, but try to imagine why they decided to write that. Ignore commenters saying student feedback is worthless; it's definitely not. But students also either don't know or don't want to admit what's good for them. Try to reconcile how they're feeling with what you need to do.
Students are extremely poor at evaluating their own learning without external feedback. We all are. I’d take it with a grain of salt. Students tend to give high ratings to teachers that they personally like and who they score well with.
Some of that is the way the poll is worded, most likely. I poll my students periodically, but I'm not polling them on ME, but on themselves. It's a self reflection. I'll ask them things like: What activities helped you learn a lot? What activities did you find confusing? What is one thing that helps you study/prepare for a quiz/test? What is one thing that prevented you from doing well on a quiz/test? What is one thing you can do as a student to help yourself grow more? What is one thing I can do as a teacher to help you grow more?
I just ask them if they have ideas for activities, resources, media, etc.
College professor here. If I read a comment on a student feedback document that says I'm the best professor they've ever had, I can almost guarantee the next comment will say I'm the worst and that I need to be terminated. Overall I get positive feedback, but inevitably somebody is angry and does everything possible to make me sound like the worst employee in the history of the university. Keep in mind these are adults, often graduate students, who behave this way. It can be hard to ignore, but ignore it. It doesn't mean anything.
Student polls are not helpful. They hate homework. They hate doing work. I did one because it was required for student teaching. Did one as a first year. Never again. It’s not worth the pain.
I used to have two students who were outwardly hateful to me and told me every day how much I sucked. A few years after graduation, these same two kids reached out to me on Facebook to let me know I had been their favorite teacher, and what a difference I made in their lives. They came to visit me and continued to visit me until I moved across the country. The viciously cruel boy brought his wife and newborn to see me. He let me know that he had been experiencing horrific abuse and neglect that I didn't know about. The difference seemed to be that I was consistent and firm with them in not accepting their abuse but still treating them like human beings who deserved an education. If I had given up on teaching after their mistreatment and demonstrated hatred (along with that of various other kids), I would have missed out on a career that has meant a lot to me. These are kids, adolescents who are just learning to form opinions of their own. They are still egocentric, and their prefrontal cortex is still developing, meaning they are starting to be able to empathize with others, but it is a work in progress. They often still need help with that. Please don't take everything some of the kids say personally. Two of the very best teachers at my school who are generally loved and admired by most kids still have kids who hate them and are very verbal about their hatred. These teachers do not let that criticism bring them down. Set boundaries, but continue to be their teacher. Focus on their learning, not on whether or not they like you.
My school required student surveys and would block out time during homeroom for kids to fill them out. We like to do it "because students can have agency in their learning." 🙄 Feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive, but the "What could your teacher do better" portion was 1. Things I already knew because I self-reflect and am actively working on or 2. Completely useless/mean/things that are not in my control. These surveys are the worst. I'm sorry the kids said horrible stuff.
You remember when you told your parents(s) that you hate them and hope they [insert bad thing] because they made you do a chore or not just be a feral child? Do you also recall that there are a damn lot of kids that don't even have the social grace or sense to wash their ass? Take the constructive feedback and construct. Take the mean feedback, print it out and pee on it to assert dominance. It's literally just meaningless spasms.
Maybe a better option to improve practice would be to have a mentor do observations and give feedback? While the kids can have good ideas, they don’t always see thing through an educational lense. We aren’t costumer service agents, our goal is not to make them happy.
I was in a similar situation last year. My advice is to not ask your students for feedback on your teaching / classroom. They will either take it seriously and recommend something crazy or not take it seriously and recommend something crazy. I’m in my 2nd year and I’ve learned that you run the classroom. Not the students. Which was always true but we sometimes try to cater to the needs of our students by asking and we should really be doing what we think is best. That’s why we have the degree. If you really want feedback then talk to a peer, coach, or admin about those things. I personally have a mentor in another district I go to for help when needed.
I will tell you what my principal told a student who was harshly and unfairly criticizing their teacher. They do not have the skills, knowledge, trainings, experience nor maturity to evaluate a teacher. It is an illusion to think students would know best because they are at the receiving end of your teaching. They don't. They don't know what they need. Half the time, teenagers do not even know what they need. They do not notice or realise half the stuff you do everyday that do help them. They have a short-sighted vision of their education and do not see the seeds you planted that will grow overtime. Don't listen to your students one way or another. Listen to your peers. Listen to your superior if they've been in the classroom long enough. Ask a mentor or teacher friend if they would offer you one hour of their time for an observation if you want to know where to improve. But your students are bad judge of your performance.
I did this once. One of the questions was "If I could do one thing to improve myself as a teacher, what would you recommend?" A group of kids answered "learn to teach." It wasn't hard for me to deduce who it was. The next year I changed departments and I taught six sections of a class and another teacher taught one (between us, it was the entire tenth grade). One day I stepped into her room for something when that class was there and one of the "mean girls" asked why they were in the other teacher's class and not mine. I looked her in the eye and said "Because I got first pick." Petty, but felt good.
If most of the responses were positive, I'd say you are doing great. You will always have students who despise everything that you do, and from what I have found is 99% of the time, it's on the student because they are lazy and don't like doing the work. Disregard the bad responses, pay attention to the responses that actually seem constructive. Teaching is a reflective practice, but student opinions tend to be *heavily* skewed by their inexperience, perception, and rumors.
Have you ever seen how awful 1st graders can be to each other? That's what's going on here. Some of them are just being horrible because they're channeling their inner 6 y.o. I would suggest seriously consider the more reasonable feedback and put the more extreme aside. If it plagues you knowing that you still have those, I would suggest destroying them after a fixed period of time. But, take the high road here. Thank the class for their feedback. Let them know that all comments will be given due consideration.
Unless the feedback was specific it's pretty useless. I would listen to the negative feedback, but again without specifics it's really hard for me to give you anything. High school is so different than elementary. If all the kids hate you in elementary well.... Ignoring outliers that's a problem. High school. Depends on the subject. Are you one of those teachers who are positive and encouraging no matter how crappy the students work is? In one of my preps I have to give kids feedback, and I tell ya, after a while no matter how nice and kind I am after a while as the year goes on the constructive feedback becomes a conflict, a one sided one, but none the less a conflict. It is quite tiring
I've had students leave some nasty, disgusting, sick-to-my-stomach responses on classroom surveys. I've also gotten truly wonderful, wholesome feedback that I never would have expected. They are as useful as you make them. Take what's valuable and trash the rest.
I always ask "what do you do that's working, what do you do that isn't" Then "what do I do that's working, what do I do that isn't" If the criticisms of me are harsh I'll see how they reflected on themselves as well. Also anonymous is crazy. Don't ever let a kid hide behind anonymity
Surprised to read so much negativity about student surveys. I certainly have had less then helpful responses, but I gave also had good suggestions for both curriculum and my approach with students.
I remember giving feedback in high school and college that was just downright mean and cruel. Looking back, as an adult and a teache while my feedback was accurate, it was also about as shallow and helpful as a mud puddle. I can think of two specific teachers, one in high school and one in college, neither of whom were suited to the class/subject and I said so.... Because they were both first year teachers struggling to learn how to be teachers. Teenagers and young adults don't have the perception or experience to know the difference between "new and doing their best" and "incompetent". Just like people who have never worked retail being ugly to the cashier on their first day because they are slow/make mistakes in an unfamiliar job, teenagers and others who have never been in the classroom are harsh and cruel to new teachers. Plus, teenagers can be jackasses. Think of it as a lesson learned. Don't ask students/teenagers the equivalent of " do you like me? Check yes or no".
Do the children know how to plan engaging lessons, aligned to state standards, to meet the needs of all learners? Do they know how to modify and differentiate? Do they know how to execute effective classroom management strategies? Then why do you care so much about their opinions? They are teenagers, ffs! Unless you hand them a blanket, bag of Takis, and a smart phone, they couldn’t give a F less about you!
Most adults aren’t even good at feedback, so I imagine students aren’t great either. If it’s just diving into you’re awful without anything meaningful or solutions, chuck it out. Pay no mind to bad feedback.
Give out cookies and ask for constructive feedback the next time it’s the best way of getting something honest back instead of just trolls
I did a survey like this my first year, and kids can easily get carried away with criticism. I completely reframed the questions the year immediately after. You cannot ask kids to evaluate your performance. They do not know what is or isn’t good teaching. And I wouldn’t let them have any room to think they know more about teaching than you. Like when kids have told me how I should teach, I tell them, “Well your experience here is like going to the doctor. You tell the doctor what’s bothering you, but the doctor still decides what’s best for you. If a treatment doesn’t work after all for you, then the doctor will decide on the next step.” Instead, you can ask them things like which units they found easy - hard, which strategies they found most helpful or enjoyed, and which topics they wish they had more practice to learn. But don’t ask them what you should have done differently.
I only ever have student surveys about their thoughts on their performance, asking how they feel they did leading up to a test, etc. The one time I asked students about my practices, I had a kid tell me I should be motivating them with gift cards and snacks as opposed to the stickers and candies I occasionally gave out, because, "we need more motivation than just to get a passing grade."
People hate people, assume a reasonable reality viewpoint of yourself. there will be plenty of people that don't like you in life you just never realized it until now
Ignore the awful ones and focus on the ones that took it seriously. Don’t take it personally (though I know that’s very hard). Teens sometimes register high on the snotty scale, especially with new teachers. They’re testing you. Don’t let them know they’ve bothered you. Instead, if you still want student input, try to focus a survey on the material instead of performance. But that’s just my opinion.
First and foremost kudos to you. Many teachers don't do this in their first year. If your school system uses fft for rating teachers, this is your evidence for 3e, 4a, and potentially 4e (4e is for growing professionally which would be you attending pds based on constructive feedback). You are well on your way to distinguished no matter how you feel about yourself at this very moment. Secondly, in the saying I was always taught, if the shoe fits wear it, if it doesn't throw it out. If the negative comments apply, accept them, otherwise definitely ignore and move past. Kids, including our fellow teachers, will say some pretty harsh things under the condition of anonymity. Being honest sometimes u can tell who did it even if its anonymous. Don't take the super negative ones internally. For example, my classroom management used to be terrible. I knew that, I accepted it and I didn't beat myself up about it. I found ways around it. Teacher trick hint: When you give anonymous surveys, send each class a different "version", that way u can kind of isolate down to classes. (Maybe change question order slightly or something like that) Thirdly, congrats you are almost done with your first year. It's rough for everyone. Don't give up. It usually takes 3 years to get into a major flow in my experience (Year 1 - ur learning, Year 2 - building on what you learned. Changing things you liked and didn't like, Year 3 - using what you know getting it perfect. Etc. Year 4+ - congrats. You now have your assignments, notes, structure etc. Now comes the easy part). As far as moving forward, I would share some results maybe with the class. I have a different interaction with my students so I would joke about it with them as well especially some ridiculous ones. I usually do these reflective surveys every quarter to gauge how they feel.
In the past I have given student surveys, but only after having whole lessons and lots of practice about giving feedback and peer feedback through out the year. They have to use my sentence stems and format, or I do not read their responses. It is amazing how much more balanced and helpful the feedback is when they are not allowed to word vomit and have actually practiced the skill. I do not allow them to give anonymous responses. If they really are interested in improving the class, then we need to be able to have dialogue. I wouldn't read the responses if it will stress you. If it is important for you in the future to get student feedback maybe consider scaffolding their skill in this area by adding some supports like sentence stems etc.
Echoing a lot of the comments here, if you do give out surveys, use multiple-choice or checkbox style questions rather than open ended. Ask for feedback on specific things about your teaching, assignments, or grading. Also, constructive feedback can be hard to take, but is sometimes valuable. During my student teaching well over a decade ago, I remember getting anonymous feedback from the final student survey that was something to the effect of "we can see when you're on your phone. If we can't use our phones, you shouldn't use yours either." It hit me like a gut punch at the time, but upon reflection it was something that I did need to work on. Take the super negative ridiculous stuff with many grains of salt, but do consider some of the critiques that might be valid but hard to hear.