Posted by truetomyself on October 27, 2009, 8:47 am, in reply to "A positive note"
First, that is fantastic that you were picked up for next semester, and have a fuller coarse load. This tells me that the academics around you do not feel that what you did was wrong.
I hope she does not enroll in your class again either. However, maybe if she does it is because she is feeling a little more open.
--Previous Message--
: Some of you may remember from some of my past
: posts that I was somewhat raked over the
: coals for 'coming out' in class last year.
: For those who don't, the long and short of
: it was that in an attempt to illustrate the
: difference between visible stigma v.
: invisible stigma, I told my students about
: my experience on the job market and having
: to make the decision about whether or not to
: discuss my gf at the interview dinner (a
: common part of academic job interviews). One
: of my former students, in a not-so-anonymous
: end-of-the semester evaluation said that the
: class discussion made her so uncomfortable
: that she would have left except it would
: have been rude. The review itself was both
: hurtful and troubling. More troubling were
: the extended conversations that I had to
: have first with the academic dean and the
: dean (someone I have known for 10+ years),
: explaining what happened and defending my
: actions and asserting that I had not done
: anything inappropriate. That I had simply
: used an experience to help define something
: they were learning about. I thought for
: certain after all the conversations that
: this would be last semester teaching there.
: And have been pretty upset about it because
: a) I really love teaching and b) I really
: like the program I teach in.
:
: Well - not only am I teaching next
: semester... I am teaching THREE classes...
: more than a full-time course load! I am a
: little concerned because it is going to make
: it a VERY intense semester... but, also very
: relieved. I still sucks that this student's
: evaluation is a part of my permanent record,
: so to speak... but am glad it did not have a
: lasting impact on my ability to teach in
: this program.
:
: Now, I just hope for the student's sake -
: and my sake - that she does not enroll in
: one of my classes next semester.
:
Message Thread:
« Back to thread