A few months ago I read a dang interesting article, “Why Self-Care Hasn’t Cured Your Burnout,” by Heather Havrilesky—and I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately as I tackle my delusional summer to-do list: paint the shed, sort my file cabinet, learn how to do the breaststroke (I thought I was making great progress on this until the swim masters class coach sincerely asked me, “What stroke were you doing?”).

Anyway, I hope over the summer you’re diving into meaningful work outside of teaching—work that gives you the vim and vigor you need to get through the next semester(s).

Do you know about the “Request Comment Classification Help” button?

Reading comments made by students in the student rating system is not easy—but deciding which comments are helpful and how to use them to improve your class is harder. Much harder!

Fortunately, this week I learned that it doesn’t have to be so hard, thanks to my conversation with Julie Swallow, the College of Humanities’ Center for Teaching and Learning consultant. She told me about the Request Comment Classification Help button, a large green button that sits right above the bar-graph summaries of your students’ feedback.

Press this button to request a SCOT (a FERPA-trained Student Consultant on Teaching) to sort your student-rating comments into four categories: positive comments about the course; negative comments about the course; positive comments about the instructor; negative comments about the instructor.

You can also request they sort comments from previous semesters in addition to the most recent semester—and you can request that they remove any hurtful, inappropriate comments.

Once the report has been compiled, you can take it a step further and make an appointment with Julie to discuss the comments and ask for any suggestions that might help you. (Trust me, Julie will be able to help you—during our conversation, I wrote down several ideas and suggestions to explore over the summer!)

In other words, figuring out what comments matter, what comments don’t, and what to do in the future doesn’t have to be so painful and, more importantly, it doesn’t have to be a solo venture. Two heads, especially one that is not emotionally involved, are better than one—think of it as peer review for teaching!

Right now a SCOT is hard at work sorting student-rating comments from my Fall 2022 and Winter 2023 semesters (Julie said that asking for comments from all of the 20+ semesters I’ve taught at BYU might be too big of an ask).

Once the report has been compiled I plan to meet with Julie to discuss what I can do to make my course and my approach better fit students’ needs. Stay tuned for the next installment of my journey!

The button I never clicked in the eight years I’ve taught at BYU

It’s my job to help adjuncts!

Send me an email if you have any questions or concerns or need some help—it’s my job as adjunct liaison to help you! You can reach me at my new professional address [email protected] (or my address formerly known as semi-professional, [email protected])

Stuff for your calendar

Normally, stuff for your calendar includes stuff from the university, the English department, and me, the Adjunct-in-Chief, but as most of us have entered our favorite time of year, it’s not as robust as it usually is.

Also here’s a link to the department calendar if you care to see the future: The English Department Calendar. It’s looking quite empty right now.

^MAY

May: A Scheduling Survey. Watch your inbox for this survey—and fingers crossed that it arrives before May ends! We—the English Department, University Writing, and I—hope to use the information we collect to create a document that lays out the scheduling process and answers FAQs.

JUNE

Friday, June 2: BYU’s General Education Academy—take the opportunity to learn what changes are coming to GE while enjoying the beauty of the Maeser Building! Registration closes TODAY, May 19! Register! (Regrettably, I’m not able to attend this year; I’ll be enjoying the beauty of the Grand Canyon—yay for me!)

Monday, June 12 at 11 am in B112 JFSB: Work Smarter, Not Harder with Some Curriculum Design Knowledge. Learn from IP&T’s Jason McDonald about “design thinking” and ways to incorporate flexibility in your class so you can roll better with whatever the universe throws at you. RSVP TODAY or by Wednesday, June 7 for in-person with lunch or at work/home with Zoom link.

JULY

July: University Writing Training. More information to come!

AUGUST

August: The Great English Department Syllabi Workshop. Want to learn what the research says about syllabi? Want to create a more effective syllabus? Want your students to use your syllabus during and after the first week of the semester? Join us as syllabi expert Julie Swallow, our own College of Humanities’ Center of Teaching and Learning consultant, shows us ways to make our syllabi matter to our students. There will be a Zoom option!

August: Kick off the new academic year with a meeting! A fun and engaging meeting! And maybe some training! Stay tuned!