I should have had some ice cream last night.........*

Wilbur's stomach was empty and his mind was full, and when your stomach is empty and your mind is full, It's hard to fall asleep. But eventually, sleep and Wilbur found each other.**

That was me last night. I was hungry because I kind of forgot to eat yesterday. I forgot to eat because I was stressed. I was stressed because I got the written comments from students from last semester.

In the light of day, the comments aren't that bad. However, when you live for positive reinforcement, like I do, it HURTS when you get negative feedback. I work hard to be told, "Good job." Every once in a while, I tell my supervisor, "I need to be patted on the head and told good job." Since we've worked together for 10 years, he knows when I need this and will sometimes signal me across the room, and tell me good job by making a patting motion with his hand. Heh.

So back to the comments...People comment when the LOVE something and when they HATE something. It's rare to write a comment if you're just sort of "eh, whatever, it was okay." I got a few very positive comments, a few very negative ones (equal number of good and bad ones) and several negative comments about the "innovation" I made to the class. The feedback they gave about the innovation was helpful, but I'd already made the changes I thought would help make it better. I knew some of the things I did in class didn't work. I've been thinking of how to make the innovation and all things related to it better since the bginning of last semester. Most of the comments were simply, "Less Innovation." The innovation required them to work, and they don't want to do that. Hopefully, I've made the innovation seem a little more meaningful.

A few of the comments were about the last half of the class being disorganized. I'm sure it was. You'll remember that my friend died last semester. I was a mess for a while. I'm not surprised the end of the course was less than organized. I am only a mere mortal after all. The best I can do now is learn from the experience and work to make it better. Wish me luck.



*I haven't had ice cream at night before bed ALL year. I think I had a small ice cream when we were out for N's birthday and a couple of bites one night after dinner. Very impressive, I'd say.
**Thanks to IMDB for the Charlotte's Web Quote