What kind of effort have you put into gathering feedback from your students about your classes? How do you tackle the issue, that students might tell what you want to hear, not what their honest opinion is? Have you used any method that allows students to stay anonymous? Do you have any experience with any online tools, like SayAt.Me or similar (that allows collecting anonymous feedback)? If yes, what were the outcomes? Please share your thoughts/experiences!
Part of our new evaluation system includes anonymous student surveys that the district gives out in June. Teachers and Admin get the results back over the summer. Last year, students filled them out for all of their teachers but the way the surveys were conducted was crazy and unfair (unethical) for some teachers. This is the only real survey/data collection effort I make.
I ask my kids for feedback frequently. Most often, I do this in the form of "thumbs" or individual chats. For thumbs, I'll ask every person to hold up one thumb between 0 and 180 degrees (up to down) to show their understanding or how well they liked an activity. If I have done a lesson and then given the kids an assignment, that's an opportunity to check in with students individually. I've gotten some of my most valuable feedback that way. Another tool I use is the parking lot, which is anonymous. Here's a description from the Maine DoE website: "The traditional parking lot is a four-box grid on poster paper. The top two boxes are for things the students like (positive) or their thoughts on changes needed in the classroom. The third box is for questions, and the final box is devoted to ideas for the classroom. If a student had feedback to share, he or she would use a sticky note to add the idea to the chart."
Honest_Teacher, that sounds intriguing . Can you specify in a greater detail, what you exactly do with the twitter? Myrisophilis, Cohort, thanks for the responses! Cohort, what was that unfair/unethical thing about the surveys that you'd do differently? I am curious about the applicability of the online means. What dou you think about the online tools like sayat.me (it's a web address of such a tool), that give the opportynity to gather anonymous feedback without any major effort (like messing with paper forms etc)? Does anybody has experience with any?
If they are rolling around on the carpet and visiting, I've lost them. If they are raising their hands, looking at me and involved in what's going on then they are engaged.
I periodically search my distinctive last name on Twitter for fun. I know what they're complaining about and what they're enjoying when they think I'm not around. For example, we watched an episode of Doctor Who entitled "Blink" as a capstone to a science fiction unit, and several students have commented on Twitter about how they're afraid to blink or go near stone statues now. Other times they'll complain about projects or whatnot. It's not really to give me feedback, but it's hilarious nonetheless.
I ask them personally whenever I have the opportunity--I think this works best. I also give feedback forms a few times a year.
