On a scale of 1 to 10...

Okay, actually, it was a scale of 1 to 7, but I got one set of my student evaluations back today. While I'm not really comfortable with the fact that they rated myself and one of the other instructors (the one who took over after me) on the same sheet, thereby ensuring that I have now read all of her evals and she mine, I have to admit that it is more informative that way. Someone rating you "adequate" on a particular question may actually be raving about you (if they rated your colleague "very poor"), flaming you (if they rated said colleague "outstanding"), or genuinely never noticed whether it was you delivering that lecture or merely a surprisingly articulate hedgehog. And yeah, I'm taking a little bit of petty comfort in the fact that a healthy number of them rated me a notch higher, sometimes more, on most of the questions (although there were definitely some that went the other way, but I seem to have won the popularity contest). Even if that notch is just a matter of "poor" instead of "very poor," a little perspective helps soften the blow.

However, It's the blank area on the back where they are allowed to write anonymous comments that is always the most informative. The current standings, keeping in mind that I have only received the forms from the morning section, are as follows:

Some variation of "M. is hot/soo hot/I love you M.! Hot!": 3 1/2 (see below)
People who appreciate my enthusiasm/sense of humor: 6
People who are not amused, or at least not at 9AM: 4
I talk too fast: 5 (am expecting this number to be lower in the afternoon section, as I tend to talk faster when people are not amused, and nobody warns you about the adverse effects of immediate post-morning coffee exposure when registering for morning classes)
People who think I am a cat lover (???): 1
Uses of the word "incompetent": 1
Stick figure drawings depicting me using what appears to be a 3-foot twig penis (or possibly lightsaber - it's longer than my leg, yet juts straight out from my stick crotch) to cut my colleague in half: 1
Number of whiny little bastards that complained about the tests/grading/labs being too hard: oh, lost count and don't really care
"Raise the roof, nigga!!!": 1

And my favorite:
"M. was fun and quirky. She was a good lecturer who reminded a few of us of Tina Fey."

I enjoy that comment for a few reasons, aside from the obvious:
a) I do love me some Tina Fey - I happen to think this qualifies as the extra 1/2 in the "hot" tally - and kind of wish we could be best friends. I mean seriously, how awesome would my wedding be if my bridesmaids were #1, Em, and TinamotherfuckingFey? Wahoowa!!! FYP RULES!!!
2) The use of the phrase "a few of us." That implies that an actual conversation has been had to this effect, and a consensus has been reached.
iii) The word "fun." I believe I've said this in a previous post, but my ambition as a teacher is not to make chemists of these kids. Some of them love chemistry, some of them are only taking it because their parents still believe they're going to get into med school someday. I'm not idealistic enough to think that, in a class of 750, I'm going to help every last one of them see the light and discover a hidden passion for quantum mechanics and colligative properties. But I can feel pretty good about myself if I can manage to make the process a little more fun.

So I'll update this after I've seen the other section (I've seen the numerical report and indeed, it does appear that they liked me better than the morning section...I just haven't seen the actual comments yet) but to sum up at halftime: they think I'm hot but at least as of my latest Facebook search they are not yet stalking me, the amuseds outnumber the not amuseds, me = Tina Fey, and I apparently wield a mean penis/lightsaber. I think I'm going to go ahead and call that a successful semester.

Raise the roof, indeed.