March 11, 2005

Students give teachers the grade

By Stephanie Foo
Times Columnist

No doubt every student has experienced it—the feeling of helplessness as they await their grade.

Whether it’s the grade on a test or a report card, the feeling is terrifying and nerve-wracking, and you know that from the moment you turn in your last assignment, that all you can do at this point is pray and wait. Then it’s in the hands of the supreme beings … that is, the teachers.

These powerful adults hold our lives in their hands and can control our fates by a flick of their pen. Will we be able to be on the team? Will our parents ground us tonight? Will we be able to make California Scholarship Federation? It’s all up to them. Impervious to spitballs, paper cuts and paper airplanes, teachers are all but omnipotent.

New Web site
Until now, there’s been no recourse. But a new Web site, www.ratemyteachers.com allows students to finally give their teachers the grade. They can rate the teacher on a scale from 1 to 5 in easiness, helpfulness and clarity, select either “cool” or “uncool” for popularity and leave short comments. The teachers gain a rating based on the submissions, determined by the emotions on a little face (happy for good, sad for bad).

But so much as mention it to a teacher and you can see how much they approve of it. They immediately wince, grimace or roll their eyes. Apparently they don’t like receiving report cards any more than we do.

Some teachers argue that popularity can hardly be considered a credible value, as well as the cool factor and easiness. But maybe they should do their research. Only helpfulness and clarity affect the teacher’s rating.

Easiness is probably not the best qualifier, but it generally means “difficulty” and since it does not affect the overall rating of a teacher, whether it is a positive or negative thing is left up to the student to decide. And popularity simply gains the teacher a cool pair of shades on his rating-face.

Popularity?
Yet popularity may have more credibility than it seems. Simply put, it is asking whether the teacher is well-liked or not. According to the comments, “well-liked” teachers are noted as kind, respectful and fun. Isn’t the ability to make learning enjoyable a quality of a good teacher?

I know from experience that if a teacher is easy to like and makes learning fun, students are much more likely to listen and absorb information than if students feel threatened or as if they are not being respected. And though a boring teacher may not necessarily be a bad one, I think it is safe to say that a teacher that can make that same subject matter pertinent and interesting for students is probably doing a better job.

I might not remember the words from every long lecture I’ve ever received, but I still remember freshman year biology with Mr. Towle scaring us half to death with his threats about germs and how he compared molecules to sexually charged teenagers to help us remember their properties.

Comments
As for ratemyteachers.com comments, it is true that not all of them make sense. Some of them are stupid, like “BLAR!” Some are silly, like “heka freshmen are like....omg..he was a weightlifter...*gasps for air*, and this guy is heeeekkkka cool! ” (Hmm, which teacher could that have been directed at?) …And some are downright cruel.

But surprisingly, a lot are really helpful—both to us as prospective students and to the teacher himself. Some may be kinder than others, but teachers might be able to learn what they’re doing wrong … and what they’re doing right by reading the comments.

Since it’s anonymous, it’s everything the kids ever thought about the teacher but were too afraid to say to them directly. Teachers should take the comments with a grain of salt and know which to ignore (“BLAR!”), which to be proud of and which to take into consideration.

Ratemyteachers.com brings teachers to our level, where—even if it is anonymously—we can finally communicate. It can be a useful tool or a painful battleground, depending on which way you want to use the information on it, but whatever your view, this report card is one we can all learn from.