GerriSullivan

Hello - My name is Gerri Sullivan, and I an a doctoral student in the Higher Education Administration program at Kent State University. I currently work as the Director of the Office of Counseling and Career Services at Ursuline College, a small, private, liberal arts college in Pepper Pike, OH, about 12 miles east of Cleveland. I live in Youngstown with my husband Jim, my three children, Melissa, 24 a magna cum laude graduate of Ursuline College with a Bachelor's degree in English; my son Jim, 22, a Criminal Justice major and member of the ROTC at Youngstown State University and my daughter Kelly, a senior at Youngstown Chaney High School. We also have a beagle named Snoopy and two cats, Athena and Cash. I hope that all my course work will be completed by December of 2008, but I am starting to get concerned that there aren't any course offerings that will help during Spring Semester!

Journal Entry

An area in which I have struggled is in what Brookfield refers to as "Seeing Ourselves Through Our Students' Eyes" (p. 92). Since my teaching occurred in two five week sessions, it is sometimes difficult to do so in such a compressed period of time. I try from the first week to represent myself as a non-vindictive person who can only make the necessary adjustments in course delivery and approach if they are completely honest with me. Unfortunately, without their even sharing it with me, I soon discover that the students' general experience with other faculty (or facilitators) as we in the adult program are identified may be much different than that and that they don;t necessarily have any reason to trust me. During my most recent class I was fortunately to have two students who had been in previous courses in which I had taught, and they supported my statements. I too have had the experience of seeing students' smiling faces when I ask for feedback (p. 118), only to receive evaluations that surprised me in terms of concerns students had during the five week timeframe. This past semester, I began using a feedback form which the students completed during the last five minutes of each evening, but often the responses were short and didn't give me much information. For example, I would ask what they would recommend I change in delivering the material. Most of the time, they said I should change nothing but didn't say why. Finally, the last week, I gave them extra time, told them I wouldn't see my evaluations for awhile and asked them to be as honest as their comfort level allowed. It was only then that one of the students told me she didn't like my feedback and that while she admitted there were weeks she didn't put much work into the class, "it wouldn't have mattered what she did, it would never be good enough." I was crushed and realized that is an area of teaching in which I must improve. In my zeal to coach and fix errors, I was obviously harping too much on what was bad and didn't give her the positive feedback first. I am not sure I can correct that personality flaw, but it is a good thing for me to know and reflect upon. Perhaps I can never be a college faculty member.