Outside Confirmation

Last week, a professor at TCC popped unexpectedly into my public speaking class. She settled herself in and watched a student give a speech, listened while we gave that student some feedback, took a few notes and left.

I thought it was odd that she should do this - I didn't know she was coming and she never spoke to me about it either during or after the class. It then occurred to me that she may be the advisor for the student giving the speech - she showed up just as he began and left as soon as he was finished. Yes, I thought to myself, that must be it.

As it turns out, she was there looking at ME. This morning, I got this email:

Hi, Mrs. Chili. I very much enjoyed observing your Effective Communication class. You modeled respect and good listening skills for your students. Your concentration on their speeches was quite focused. I was also impressed with the quality of your constructive criticism and the positive reinforcement that you meted out. The notes on the board about constructive criticism were also especially useful, and of course, were good for visual learners. In addition, your students gave good, thoughtful feedback and appeared to welcome the classroom interaction. Finally, your positive, high energy delivery is obviously effective. Keep up the good work, and feel free to contact me for more feedback. Thanks also for sharing your class with me.

Of course, I feel pretty good about this review, though I'm curious to find out what "more feedback" she has to offer. When I email her back to thank her for her comments and invite her, anytime, into my class, I'll ask what else she noted that she didn't mention in the email.

Based on this, I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll be offered new classes to teach next term. I'm glad of it - I'm really enjoying this job.