Learning from Students

I am experimenting with the Journal feature of Blackboard in my regular face to face classes. The Journal is set up so only I the instructor can read them. I ask the students to log in once a week and write about the lectures. I tell them they can criticize or praise my teaching. Also they can ask questions that they were too embarrassed to ask in the class.

On the weekend I read these and the following week in class I try to adjust my teaching to fit that particular class. I have discovered that students like to complement more than they like to criticize and I have to encourage them to criticize.  I encourage them to challenge me with the following quote: WE find comfort in people who agree with us and growth among those that criticize and challenge us! (I do not remember where I got this from). 

I use the following Rubric to grade these postings and the students are aware of the Rubric used to grade them on this assignment. 

The following is a sample of complementary post:

And this is the harshest criticism I have received:

So what have I learned from these Journal entries:

1. The students like to be entertained
2. They fear or (more likely) lack the interest to question authority (in this case I am the authority which is very strange for me!)