Teachers – What is the best complement you have ever received from a student?
Question by Merlyn: Teachers – What is the best complement you have ever received from a student?
I have always enjoyed teaching and when I was able to start doing so for a living it was one of the best moments in my life. Of course it is only made better when I hear from students they enjoyed the class. (To put some of this into context, I teach intro level courses in probability and statistics at the university level, both algebra and calculus based courses).
I think my three favorites are:
3) “I hated statistics before this course, now I’ve changed my major from pure math to statistics”
2) I over heard a student say “Too bad we didn’t take this class sooner, this guy has explained all the stuff we needed to know about the error calculations in Thermo.” – while not a direct question, it is nice to know that I was teaching something the students used out side of just my class
1) my favorite. After the semester was over, and the final exam had been given a student came by my office and asked me “Is the final graded?” I was thinking, great, here will be a pointless argument over a point missed here and there, just what I was looking forward too. I said “yes, hold on a second I’ll find yours.” The student stopped me and said, “No worries, if you know my score of the top your head that’s great but I’m not worried about the final grade.” Quite puzzled by this I thought to myself and recalled that this student had earned a B on the final, likely the same mark for the course. I gave him that information and then he asked if the grades had been posted online. My response “Yes, but the grades are not released until next week, that is the registrar’s policy, nothing I can do about that.” The student then told me “that okay, I’m not worried about the grade, I just wanted to know if the grades had been posted.”
At this point I was wondering what was going on. I was expecting an argument, as that is usually what comes through the door at that time of the year, but this student was very polite and just asking questions about logistics.
The last question the student asked was “So the course is complete, all wrapped up?” To which I simply replied “yes.” This is when I got, what I think was the best complement I have ever gotten from a student:
“Well, I was planning on heading down to [the local micro brewery] and I was wondering if you would like to share a pitcher of beer? I really enjoyed your class and wanted to say thank you.”
To me it wasn’t the beer or the thank you that meant the most, it was that the student made the effort to make sure the course was completed so that his offer could only be viewed as a thank you and not a bribe.
What is you favorite story/complement you have received from a student?
Best answer:
Answer by Margaret
I didn’t get it until YOU explained it like that.
You didn’t make me feel thick.
I can understand it when you do it in pictures.
Add your own answer in the comments!