I had a work-related evaluation of my teaching performance which was. let’s be kind, less than stellar. Curiously one of my associates who is as good a teacher as I am got a much better evaluation (He shared it with me.)
Well! Did the negative evaluation ever put me into a tailspin. I had all sorts of stories going off in my head around whether or not I was a good teacher and whether or not I even wanted to work for these people anymore.
Wow.
The evaluation was done without warning (the evaluator just showed up at one of my classes) and the report was phrased in very discouraging language. While the information in it was gold, the method sucked.
That’s why as Toastmasters we use a standard formula for evaluation of starting by saying something positive, offering a personal observation for improvement and finishing with a positive statement.
Now that’s not to say we shouldn’t offer strong evaluations when needed. Some clubs do their members no service by giving them mandy-pandy evaluations. I’ve heard senior speakers who don’t have a clue about having a beginning, middle and end in their speech. This shouldn’t happen as these speakers aren’t getting the appropriate feedback.
Evaluations are meant to motivate not crush. They’re meant to offer suggestion and direction, not dictate a path.
