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[snowbound]

I had low evals in my first semester too.  As I adjusted to the students (and as word got out that this "easy-A" class was no longer "easy-A"), things quickly improved.  I now have good evals--and tenure.  I strongly urge you to do mid-semester feedback questionnaires.  If you PM me, I will send you a fairly long and detailed post I wrote a while ago that describes my questionnaires and how they impact the end-of-semester eval scores.

ALso check out the various threads on this topic, esp Jedi Mind Tricks

[docsavage]

OP, I hear you about the discouragement, and especially the ruminating on particular student comments. I want to echo what others have said here about noting if the nasty comments are from a few grumpy outliers who smelled blood and jumped, and especially about the learning curve as you get used to and learn to navigate a new student culture. I'm speaking from the perspective of a junior faculty member who's been through this, so take what I say below with a grain of salt:

If you're at a teaching-focused institution, then it might be that you're at a place where the students know their feedback plays a particularly important role. This can be a blessing and a curse. On one hand you might have students who think carefully about what feedback they give and offer constructive and helpful suggestions for how to improve the course. But on the other hand you probably have some students who approach evals with an entitled attitude, who think their "feedback" (read: attacks) constitute useful feedback and who enjoy the sense of power that comes from a culture where eval scores are considered so important. (I've had several of the latter. Not fun.)

Regarding the senior class: I'd go through the evaluations once more and see if there's any consistent pattern in the comments (especially comments from non-grumpy students) that gives you some sense of areas where you might improve. Perhaps make some adjustments based on those, after consulting with a trusted senior colleague. Then stick those suckers in a folder at the back of your filing cabinet and forget about 'em. Find some other trusted junior faculty with whom you can b!tch. If it's your style, do comforting some self-care. Above all, read this article, which is funny because it's kind of true:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/professor-deeply-hurt-by-students-evaluation,20130/

[polly_mer]

Then stick those suckers in a folder at the back of your filing cabinet and forget about 'em.

A tip I picked up here is to make copies of fairly glowing evals and put them in a special folder near the front of my cabinet.  That way, when I feel a need to revisit evals, I can read that lovely folder.  Other things that go in the folder are thank you notes and examples of student work that shows a student got it in their own words, even if the example isn't the shiny A with perfect grammar.

OP, don't dwell on the negative.  Use the feedback to improve and have the tape that runs in your head be the positive bits.

[snowbound]

Then stick those suckers in a folder at the back of your filing cabinet and forget about 'em.

A tip I picked up here is to make copies of fairly glowing evals and put them in a special folder near the front of my cabinet.  That way, when I feel a need to revisit evals, I can read that lovely folder. 

Yes!  And printouts of the lovely emails that one gets from time to time.  I included a selection of these in my tenure file. 

[icicles]

I find that freshmen love me (75% of my teaching), while upper-level students like me less. The trick at my school is to give all the folks in the upper-level classes final grades of A or B unless they plagiarize or skip a major assignment (those folks get Cs), and do lots of hand-holding. Tell them how great they are doing, and how impressed you are by their work. Scaffold everything so they can't fail even if they try. Smile all the time. Say how much you love teaching the course. Now that I do these things, the upper-level students like me more than they used to. I save my content-based exams and tough love for the freshmen, who are science majors, etc., and used to such things. For my History majors, we are on a journey of self-exploration, student engagement, and fluffy bunnies.

I am guessing that I will need to do some of this until tenure. One student seemed outraged that he/she had to take exams, even though that's a norm everywhere else I've taught, so, yeah...looks like it's time for take-home short essay exams! I think, however, that I'll need to do the "your research ideas are highly impressive" spiel rather than the journey and the fluffy bunnies, but really that's the same thing. "You have interesting thoughts about the theme of death in literature."

I've just learned that I do have to respond directly to negative feedback (incl written) in my annual report, so I will need to revisit them several times as that report will follow me around. But if I focus on improvement rather than let myself dwell on them, I'll be much happier. And I'm definitely doing mid-semester evals this time...

I also agree with docsavage that some students may take their evaluative power so seriously that they delight in harsh criticism.

In general, I'm blown away by how helpful these comments have been. I waited until my panic had settled down before revisiting this thread, and I'm so glad that I'm feeling better and that this will remain bookmarked for me as I progress through the semester. Thanks!

Icicles