From my evalations, it seems there are three areas of my teaching that need improvement. I received lower scores than I would have liked on "selection of instructional materials," "communication of subject matter," and "demonstration of enthusiasm."

The materials thing is easily explained and easily remedied. I was using a bad textbook. Teaching to Change the World has good ideas and a unique perspective, but is structured poorly and tries to cram too much information in its pages. My students had a really hard time separating the wheat from the chaff in their reading, which carried over in their preparation for the exams. On the free response portion of the evaluations, many students indicated they wanted study guides. I am anti-study guide, especially when I put my Powerpoint presentations on line for my students to download. But, given a confusing text, I can understand the student need for help in figuring out what in the reading was important. I'm using a different textbook this semester, which I hope will fix this problem for my students.

The communication of subject matter is a bit more troubling. Some of it is related to the textbook. My students felt a disconnect between what I was talking about in class and what they were reading. I wasn't "going over" the reading, I was elaborating and expanding on it. I'm still figuring out how to navigate this road. I don't want to parrot the textbook, but I do want to make sure my students understand what they have read.
This communication part also, I'm guessing, refers to general classroom technique -- how I teach, lecture vs other activities, etc. I'm still working on this and believed I got better as last semester progressed. I was using powerpoints for the first time, incorporating more group activities, and trying new stuff out. Some of that is effective, others not so much, but I did learn from both. It's too bad some classes are my guinea pigs.
The final piece of the subject matter thing is just, well, the subject matter. I'm talking about history and philosophy of education from a critical perspective here, which is not something most of my students have encountered before. It's not easily put into a box they already have, so it's probably a little more difficult. Add to that they are mostly freshmen and are still learning how college classes are different from high school classes, and you have some disconnect between what I am trying to do as a teacher and what they expect as students. I can do more to help with that transition, I think. Maybe they do need study guides. . .

The enthusiasm issue is the most troubling to me because it seems like just a personality thing. I like my subject matter and am happy to be teaching it. I'm not, however, a jump around and wave "yipee" kinda guy. Some would say I'm "reserved" or "laid back" or whatever. This type of issue has come up before. I remember when I was pledging the fraternity, I got some serious flack from some brothers because they thought I "wasn't committed". Well, I was committed and serious about what I was doing. I just expressed that commitment in a different way. Those who knew me better knew I was committed and enthusiastic about the fraternity; I just didn't demonstrate those feelings in a patently obvious way. I know it's a two way street -- people need time to learn my mannerisms and personality and I can do more to convey my enthusiasm. I'm just not sure how to do that, exactly.

Wow, long post. Some of this will end up in my annual report for the university, I think. Comments are very welcome.