In teaching this three-quarter general chemistry sequence (General Chemistry I/II/III) at the University of Chicago, I led the weekly discussion (recitation) and laboratory sections for one set of students. If their schedule allowed, students stuck with the same teaching assistant across multiple quarters, which meant that I had 6 students all three quarters, 10 students for two quarters each, and 14 students for just one quarter.
Above are anonymous, department-administered student evaluations for Chemistry 111/112/113 at the University of Chicago, a rigorous first-year general chemistry sequence spread over three quarters. For all questions, students were asked to rate from 1 (Disagree) to 5 (Agree). In Fall 2017, 18/18 students filled out evaluations. In Winter 2018, 18/18 students filled out evaluations. In Spring 2018, 15/16 students filled out evaluations.
Each week, students in this first-semester organic chemistry course at Harvard University were required to go to 3 hours of lecture (taught by Dr. Grace Ferris) in addition to a 90-minute discussion (recitation) section led by a Teaching Fellow (Section Leader). I taught two of these discussion sections that had a combined total of 31 students. There was also an optional Friday Review session, recorded and open to all 255 students in the course, that was led by me starting in the fourth week of the semester.
Above are anonymous, department-administered student evaluations for Chemistry 17 at Harvard University in Fall 2016, a rigorous, first-semester organic chemistry course. For all questions, students were asked to rate from 1 (Unsatisfactory) to 5 (Excellent). Students filled out handwritten, anonymous feedback forms at approximately the midpoint of the semester. 31/31 students in my sections and 246/255 students in the course overall filled out these forms. At the end of the semester, students filled out an online feedback form for the course overall and course staff individually. From the responses, I believe that 25/31 students in my sections and 230/255 students in the course overall filled out these evaluations. Additionally, some students who were not in my discussion section chose to evaluate my Friday Reviews, bringing the total number of individual evaluations that I received to 34.
My first formal teaching role was as a full-time physics teacher at Marblehead High School in Massachusetts. I taught four classes of the mandatory, standard-level, algebra-based physics course with approximately 22 students in each class. Each course met three times in a four-day cycle: twice for a regular 56-minute class and once for an extended 116-minute class to give time for lab experiments.
Anonymous student evaluations that I asked my high school students to fill out at the end of our yearlong course in algebra-based physics. All questions used a separate Likert scale, indicated below each question above. In the 2014-2015 school year, 77/89 of my students filled out evaluations. In the 2015-2016 school year, 52/90 of my students filled out evaluations.
Feedback on My Teaching:
Reported numbers are given as averages. Full, typed-out evaluations are available for professional contacts upon request.
